The first evidence about the Slavs:

*The first written evidence about the Slavs dates back to the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. Greek, Roman, Arab, and Byzantine sources report on the Slavs. Ancient authors mention the Slavs under the name of the Wends.

*During the era of the Great Migration of Peoples (III-VI centuries AD), the Slavs conquered the territory of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. They lived in the forest and forest-steppe zone, where, as a result of the spread of iron tools, it became possible to conduct a settled agricultural economy.

*The largest political formations of the 7th-8th centuries. in the southern Russian steppes there were the Bulgarian kingdom and the Khazar Khaganate, and in the Altai region there was the Turkic Khaganate.

Territory of the Eastern Slavs:

*The Eastern Slavs occupied the territory from the Carpathian Mountains in the west to the Middle Oka and the upper reaches of the Don in the east, from the Neva and Lake Ladoga in the north to the Middle Dnieper in the south.

*There was a process of assimilation (mixing) of peoples. In the VI-IX centuries. The Slavs united into communities that no longer had only a tribal, but also a territorial and political character. Tribal unions are a stage on the path to the formation of statehood of the Eastern Slavs.

*The great waterway “from the Varangians to the Greeks” arose at the end of the 9th century.

Economy of the Slavs:

*The main occupation of the Eastern Slavs was agriculture.

*Cattle breeding was closely related to agriculture. The Slavs raised pigs, cows, and small cattle. In the south, oxen were used as draft animals, and horses were used in the forest belt. Other occupations of the Slavs include fishing, hunting, and beekeeping.

Community:

*By the time of the formation of the state among the Eastern Slavs, the clan community was replaced by a territorial, or neighboring, community. The community members were now united primarily not by kinship, but by a common territory and economic life.

*Peasant farms and farms of feudal lords were of a subsistence nature. Both of them sought to provide for themselves from internal resources and were not yet working for the market.

*With the advent of surpluses, it became possible to exchange agricultural products for handicraft goods; Cities began to emerge as centers of craft, trade and exchange, and at the same time as strongholds of feudal power and defense against external enemies.

Social system:

*At the head of the East Slavic tribal unions were the princes of the tribal nobility and the former clan elite - “deliberate people”, “the best men”. The most important issues of life were decided at popular meetings and veche gatherings.

*A special military organization was the squad. The squad was divided into senior and junior.

Reasons for the formation of the Old Russian state:

*internal

*development of productive forces, which led to the emergence of a neighboring community and the emergence of classes

*increase in the number of cities as the first independent organizations of residents

*emergence of the military squad nobility

*the emergence of common cultural traditions associated with language, writing and some rituals

*external

*the need to create armed forces to protect cities and populations

*development of permanent targeted trade and economic relations between cities and states

Norman theory:

According to this theory, on the eve of the formation of Kievan Rus, the northern tribes of the Slavs and their neighbors paid tribute to the Varangians, and the southern tribes (the Glades and their neighbors) were dependent on the Khazars. In 859, the Novgorodians “expelled the Varangians overseas,” which led to civil strife. In these conditions The Novgorodians who gathered for the council sent for the Varangian princes and invited them to reign over them. Power over Novgorod and the surrounding Slavic lands passed into the hands of the Varangian princes, the eldest of the cats. Rurik marked the beginning of the princely dynasty (2 other brothers of Rurik - Truvor and Sineus). After the death of Rurik, another Varangian prince Oleg, who ruled in Novgorod, united. Novgorod and Kyiv in 882. This is how the state of Rus' (also called Kievan Rus by historians) came into being.

2 tickets. Socio-political system of Kievan Rus IX - early XII centuries. The historical significance of the adoption of Christianity for Ancient Rus'.

Unification of Novgorod and Kyiv:

*As a result of the joint activities of the leading cities and squads, 2 large East Slavic associations were created: Novgorod (north), Kyiv (south). 884-885 - formation of Kievan Rus. At the head of the state was the Grand Duke of Kiev, to whom the subject tribes, relatives and warriors of the prince were subordinate, they created and laid the first legal foundations - the court.

Oleg(879-912):

*organization of the first military campaigns against Byzantium

*first written contract

*882 - captured Kyiv, killed Askold and Dir

*subjugated the Drevlyans, Northerners, and Radimichi.

Prince Igor (912-945):

* 944 the agreement with Byzantium was confirmed

*Under Igor, the first popular indignation occurred - the uprising of the Drevlyans in 945.

*Killed by the Drevlyans while collecting tribute in 945.

Olga(945-969)

* brutally took revenge on the Drevlyans for the murder of her husband.

*Olga established a clear procedure for collecting tribute (“polyudya”) by introducing: “lessons”—determining the exact amount of tribute

"cemeteries" - establishment of places for collecting tribute

Svyatoslav (964-972):

*annexed the lands of the Vyatichi

*conquered the Mordovian tribes and subjugated them to Kyiv

*defeated and conquered the Khazars (robbers)

*repelled the onslaught of the Pechenegs

Vladimir I:

*Under Vladimir I (980-1015) all the lands of the Eastern Slavs united as part of Kievan Rus. The Vyatichi, the lands on both sides of the Carpathians, and the Chervlensk cities were finally annexed. The state apparatus was further strengthened, one of the most important tasks of that time was solved: ensuring the protection of Russian lands from the raids of numerous Pecheneg tribes.

Acceptance of Christianity:

*In 988, under Vladimir I, Christianity was adopted as the state religion.

*Vladimir, having been baptized himself, baptized his boyars, and then the whole people. The spread of Christianity often met resistance from the population, who revered their pagan gods.

*Reasons for accepting Christianity:

1) the need to strengthen the power of the Kyiv prince

2) the need for state unification on a new spiritual basis.

3) justification of social inequality

4) the need to introduce Rus' to pan-European political realities, spiritual and cultural values.

*The adoption of Christianity was of great importance for the further development of Rus':

*Christianity affirmed the idea of ​​equality of people before God

*The adoption of Christianity strengthened state power and territorial unity of Kievan Rus

*The adoption of Christianity played a big role in the development of Russian culture, which was influenced by Byzantine, and through it, ancient culture (stone structure, increased literacy)

*Ideological rule

*A metropolitan, appointed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, was installed at the head of the Russian Orthodox Church; Some regions of Rus' were headed by bishops, to whom priests in cities and villages were subordinate.

*The entire population of the country was obliged to pay a tax to the church "tithe"

*Vladimir was canonized by the church as a saint and for his services in the baptism of Rus' is called “equal to the apostles”

Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054):

* Kievan Rus reached its greatest power

*strengthened the position of the Baltic States

*built in Yuryev

*closed the border to the Pechenegs, strengthened the southern borders

*created the first state Schools

*built monasteries

* in the process of strengthening and creating a single centralized state, managing it, he divided Rus' between his sons, which led to feudal fragmentation

Vladimir Monomakh(113-1125):

*On the initiative of Vladimir Monomakh, the Lyubech Congress of Princes took place in 1097. It was decided to stop the strife and the principle “Let everyone keep his fatherland” was proclaimed.

*Vladimir Monomakh was forced to make certain concessions by issuing the so-called “Charter of Vladimir Monomakh,” which became another part of “Russian Pravda.” The Charter streamlined the collection of interest by moneylenders, improved the legal status of merchants, and regulated the transition to servitude. Monomakh devoted a lot of space in this legislation to the legal status of procurement, which indicates that procurement became a very widespread institution and the enslavement of smerds proceeded at a more decisive pace.

*Under Monomakh, the international authority of Rus' strengthened, and the initial Russian chronicle “The Tale of Bygone Years” was compiled. The prince himself was the grandson of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Monomakh. His wife was an English princess. Under Vladimir Monomakh

*The son of Vladimir Monomakh, Mstislav I the Great (1125-1132), managed to maintain the unity of the Russian lands for some time. After the death of Mstislav, Kievan Rus finally disintegrated into one and a half dozen principalities-states. A period has begun, which in history is called the period of fragmentation or the specific period.

This video lesson is devoted to the topic “The origin of the Slavs. Eastern Slavs in ancient times." During the lesson, the teacher introduces the culture of our ancestors, their activities, and talks about settlement in the country. The concept of “ethnogenesis” is woven into the outline of the lesson, and the main problematic of the question of the origin of the Slavs is outlined. The teacher will talk about where the Slavs came from, who their ancestors were, and introduce some scientific theories.

Topic: Ancient Rus'

Lesson: Origin of the Slavs. Eastern Slavs in ancient times

In this lesson we will talk about the ethnogenesis of the Slavs and find out the main versions of their origin. What sources do we have now and what are the prospects for further research in the field of the early history of the Slavs.

1. Classification of sources

When studying the problem of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs, several main types of sources are of paramount importance: 1) written, 2) archaeological, 3) linguistic and 4) anthropological.

2. The first mentions of the Slavs in written sources

The first reliable information about the Slavs, known to us under the name Sklavens, relates only to V1st century AD uh. It was then that this term was first encountered in the treatises of Procopius of Caesarea, Mauritius the Strategist, Jordan and other Byzantine and European chroniclers. However, during this period the Slavs were the largest people in Europe and inhabited a vast territory from the headwaters of the Volga and Don to the banks of the Oder and Danube. This means that they settled in Europe much earlier than the famous Hunnic invasion of 375 AD. e.

Rice. 1. Procopius of Caesarea ()

3. When did the Slavic ethnic group arise?

There are several different points of view on this matter: I. Rusanova argued that the Slavic ethnic group originated in the 4th century AD. e. ( Przeworskaya archaeological culture); V. Sedov attributed the origins of the Slavic ethnic group to the V-II centuries BC. e. ( Lusatian archaeological culture); P. Tretyakov believed that the Slavs as a distinctive ethnic group originated in the 3rd BC. e. ( Zarubinetskaya archaeological culture); A. Kuzmin and B. Rybakov believed that the origins of Slavic ethnogenesis should be sought in Trzyniec archaeological culture of the XIV-II centuries BC. e. etc.

Rice. 2. Battle of the Slavs with the Scythians ()

4. Where was the ancestral home of the Slavs

Most historians consider the Slavs to be autochthons of Eastern Europe. But many of them defined the historical ancestral home of the Slavs in different ways. I. Rusanova was a supporter of the Vistula-Oder theory; P. Safarik professed the Carpathian theory; L. Niederle was looking for the ancestral home of the Slavs in the area between the Vistula and Dnieper rivers; A. Kuzmin defended the Danube theory; V. Sedov - South Baltic, etc.

5. The collapse of a single Slavic ethnic group

At the turn of the 7th-8th centuries, the Slavic superethnos split into three large groups:

1) southern Slavs (modern Bulgarians, Slovenes, Serbs, Montenegrins and Croats);

2) Western Slavs (modern Czechs, Slovaks, Poles and Lusatians);

3) Eastern Slavs (modern Russians, Little Russians (Ukrainians) and Belarusians).

6. Social system and religious beliefs of the Eastern Slavs

Until the beginning of the 7th century, the Eastern Slavs lived tribal system. Then it is replaced by the period "military democracy", when, within the framework of several related tribes, a military elite (squad) headed by a prince is allocated and tribal nobility appears - governors and elders (“zemsky boyars”), who begin to govern the territory of the tribal union-principality. It was precisely these tribal unions (super-unions), where independent reigns were formed, that were mentioned in the “Tale of Bygone Years”: Polyans, Northerners, Drevlyans, Tivertsy, Ulichans, Krivichi, Polochans, Radimichi, Dregovichi, Vyatichi, Ilmen Slovenes, etc.

Rice. 3. Beliefs of the Slavs

The Eastern Slavs were pagans who deified the forces of nature and dead ancestors (ancestors). In its development, the paganism of the Slavs went through four stages:

1) fetishism;

2) totemism;

3) polydemonism;

4) polytheism.

At the final stage of this development, each tribal union had its own pantheon of gods, but the most revered deities of the Eastern Slavs were Rod, Khoros, Perun, Veles, Mokosh and Stribog.

7. Economic system of the Eastern Slavs

The basis of the economic life of the Eastern Slavs was slash-and-burn agriculture. According to natural and climatic conditions, their territory was divided into two zones: forest-steppe (in the south) and forest (in the north). In the forest-steppe, the dominant form of agriculture was fallow, or fallow land, and here they plowed with a plow. The forest zone was dominated by the slash-and-burn farming system, and the plow or ralo was used as the main tools.

The main field crops of the Eastern Slavs were wheat, barley, buckwheat and millet; Garden crops include turnips, cabbage, beets and carrots. In addition to agriculture, the Eastern Slavs developed cattle breeding (they raised pigs, horses, large and small cattle), and river and forestry industries, in particular beekeeping, fishing and hunting large and fur-bearing animals, played a significant role.

Rice. 4. Slavs on the Dnieper (Roerich) ()

According to most historians, the era of “military democracy” became the time of the second social division of labor, that is, the separation of crafts from other types of economic activity, primarily agriculture. Based on numerous archaeological sources, we can quite definitely state that blacksmithing, foundry, pottery and jewelry crafts were most developed among the Eastern Slavs.

1. Alekseeva T. I. Ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs according to anthropological data. M., 1973

2. Galkina E. S. Secrets of the Russian Kaganate. M., 2002

3. Gorsky A. A. Rus' from the Slavic settlement to the Moscow kingdom. M., 2004

4. Kobychev V.P. In search of the ancestral home of the Slavs. M., 1973

5. Kuzmin A. G. The beginning of Rus'. M., 2003

6. Perevezentsev S.V. The meaning of Russian history. M., 2004

7. Sedov V.V. Origin and early history of the Slavs. M., 1979

8. Tretyakov P. N. In the footsteps of ancient Slavic tribes. L., 1982

9. Trubachev O. N. Ethnogenesis and culture of the ancient Slavs. M., 1991

2. Theories of the origin of the Slavs ().

1. Introduction 2
2. Origin of the Eastern Slavs 3
3. East Slavic tribal unions5
4. Eastern Slavs and neighbors 7
5. Social order 7
6. Culture and religion of the Eastern Slavs 9
7. Conclusion 12
8. References 13

Introduction.

The uniqueness of Russian history lies in the nature of the connection of two centers of power, thanks to which there is a new unique unity called Russia. The question of the origin of the Slavs is one of the most complex and controversial issues facing historical science. Since ancient times, settling on the vast plains from the Danube to the Volga (and even earlier in Asia), the Indo-European ancestors of the Slavs constantly mixed with other peoples, adopted from them and passed on racial-genetic, linguistic and cultural traits to them. The history of the Eastern Slavs, like most other peoples, has its roots in ancient times. Already about two thousand years ago, Greek and Roman scientists knew that in the east of Europe, between the Carpathian Mountains and the Baltic Sea, numerous tribes of Wends lived

This work is devoted to the issue of the origin of the Eastern Slavs, the formation of the first ethno-territorial unions and proto-state associations, as well as their relations with neighboring peoples and tribes, the way of life, economy and beliefs of our ancestors.

Origin of the Eastern Slavs.

The starting position for a consistent consideration of the history of the Slavs should be considered the period of separation of the Slavic language family from the general Indo-European massif.

The Slavs belonged to the third largest group of peoples, the largest Indo-European language family on earth. In the V-IV millennium BC. e. inhabited the territories of Central Asia, the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor. The separation of the Proto-Slavic tribes and the formation of the Proto-Slavic language began approximately in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. or in the middle of the 1st millennium BC on the territory of the Upper Order to the Northern Dnieper. During the great migration of peoples

The historical fate of Eastern Europe (including the Black Sea region as part of it) was decided in the black soil steppes occupied by warlike nomads, whose lands were measured in months of horse travel, and in the forest-steppe and forest lands, from where the agricultural tribes of the Slavs launched an attack on the nomads and on the slave-holding Black Sea cities. The earliest information from written sources about the Slavic tribes dates back to the 1st-2nd centuries AD. (Tacitus, Pliny, Ptolemy). Roman writer Tacitus in the 1st century AD. describes in detail the Slavs, who at that time began to play a noticeable role in international events: “The Wends borrowed much from the customs of the Saramats, for they extend their warlike campaigns to all the forests and mountains that rise between the Pevkins and the Fennas,” that is, from the habitat of the northeastern peoples who did not yet know iron arrows (fennians), to the mouth of the Danube, where the Peucines lived at that time and where the border of the Roman Empire lay. Under the name of the Wends, the Slavs then inhabited the territories in the river basin. Vistula and the Baltic Sea coast. The first Eastern Slavs (Antes) in the 2nd-5th centuries began to settle on a vast territory from the Western Bug to the Dnieper. They lived in a communal tribal system, engaged mainly in agriculture, as well as raising livestock, hunting, and collecting wild honey, mushrooms and berries. By the way, the established opinion about the primitiveness of the economic and social life of our ancestors is largely refuted by the results of modern archaeological research. Archaeological materials indicate major changes that took place in Slavic society in the first centuries of our era. Of all the Slavic lands, the Middle Dnieper region, the future core of Kievan Rus, especially stood out. Trade developed here (in the lands of the Slavs, many treasures of Roman coins of the 2nd - 4th centuries AD were found, buried, probably during raids of enemy tribes). It is believed that some of the coins served the Slavs not only as treasure, but also as money. Herodotus, who visited the southern Russian steppe back in the 5th century BC, wrote about the northern regions where the so-called Scythian plowmen lived near “many huge rivers,” “who sow grain not for their own needs, but for sale.” Plow farming, cattle breeding, and crafts developed here. In addition to blacksmithing, which is always the first to be separated from agriculture, pottery production also appeared.

All this indicates a fairly high level of development in the 2nd - 4th centuries. n. E. Slavic society, fully prepared for the emergence of class relations and the state. Perhaps somewhere among the Slavs in these centuries slave relations developed, but for the most part the Slavs were at the stage of tribal life. The main unit of Slavic society was the clan community, which at that time grew in the south into a neighboring, territorial community. Numerous Slavic tribes that occupied in the 2nd-5th centuries. n. e. vast spaces in Central and Eastern Europe are beginning to play an increasingly significant role in pan-European events. By the 7th-8th centuries, Slavic tribes settled over a vast territory covered with dense forests and swamps along the Dnieper and its tributaries, reached the Western Dvina, Lake Peipsi, the Lovat River, Lake Ilmen, Volkhov and Neva, reached the White Lake and the Volga, Moscow and Okie. They built cities and villages along the waterways. In their centuries-long movement to the north and northeast, the Slavic tribes occupied large territories inhabited by Baltic and Finno-Ugric tribes. The Slavic newcomers settled mixed with the small local population and, as a result of long-term communication, assimilated it. The tribal unions of the Eastern Slavs were headed by princes. They had warriors, they were surrounded by nobles. There was also a general tribal militia. In the VI century - IX century. The Slavs united in a community that was no longer only tribal but also territorial and political in nature. The name of such communities came either from the name of the area (Polyane, Buryane). Or from legendary ancestors (Radimichi, Vyatichi). The Ilmen Slovenes - one of the East Slavic tribes - built the city of Slava on the Volkhov River (later Novgorod the Great arose near this place) and formed a third tribal union, which included some Finno-Ugric tribes.

East Slavic tribal unions.

The lands of the glades were the core of the ancient Russian state, and it was noted that at that time the glades were called Russia. The neighbors of the glades in the east were the northerners who lived along the Desna, Seim, Sula and Seversky Donets rivers. Down the Dnieper, south of the glades, lived the Ulichi, who moved in the middle of the 10th century. in the area between the Dniester and Bug rivers. In the west, the neighbors of the glades were the Drevlyans, who were often at enmity with the Kyiv princes. Even further to the west were the lands of the Volynians, Buzhans and Dulebs. The extreme East Slavic regions were the lands of the Tiverts on the Dniester (ancient Tiras) and on the Danube and the White Croats in Transcarpathia. To the north of the glades and Drevlyans were the lands of the Dregovichi (on the swampy left bank of the Pripyat), and to the east of them, along the Sozh River, were the Radimichi, and along the upper Oka, the Vyatichi. To the north of the Radimichi were the lands of another large “tribe” of the Krivichi, which were divided into eastern and western. The latter lived along the Polota River and were also called Polotsk residents. The Krivichi settlements to the east reached the present Moscow region, where they merged with the Vyatichi.

Early East Slavic associations either bore old tribal names (according to areas of settlement - Krivichi, Croats, Dulebs, Northerners), or received new names, most often associated with the nature of the territory they occupied (Dregovichi, Polyans, Drevlyans) or with the rivers along which they settled ( Buzhans, Polochans).

In the historical literature, the conventional term “tribes” (“tribe of the glades”, tribe of the Radimichi) has been assigned to these areas. Each region was an association of several small tribes. Each tribe probably held a council that decided the most important issues of public life; a military leader (prince) was elected; there was a permanent squad of young people and a tribal militia (regiment, a thousand, divided into hundreds). The tribe had its own city. There a general tribal council gathered, bargaining took place, and a trial took place.

The development of peaceful ties between tribes, or military victories of some tribes over others, or, finally, the need to combat a common external danger contributed to the creation of tribal alliances. Among the Eastern Slavs, the formation of fifteen large tribal unions can be attributed to approximately the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e.

Eastern Slavs and neighbors.

The early history of the Eastern Slavs is closely connected with the history of the Khazars, Normans and Byzantines. The Khazars were the closest neighbors of the glades in the east. The nomadic horde of the Khazars moved to Europe following the Huns, Avars and Bulgarians. Unlike other hordes that passed through the Volga steppes to the west, the Khazars, having displaced the Bulgarians, settled in the Volga region. Formation of the Khazar Khaganate in the middle of the 7th century. changed the face of Eastern Europe. The Kaganate stopped the movement of nomadic hordes from Asia to Europe for two centuries, which created favorable conditions for the Slavic colonization of Eastern Europe. In the 9th century. The Khazars subjugated some East Slavic lands. The Vyatichi, Northerners, Polyans and Radimichi, who lived in close proximity to the borders of Khazaria in the Middle Volga and Podnerovye, began to pay tribute to the Kaganate.

In the Baltic and in the upper Volga region, the closest neighbors of the Slavs were the tribes of the Finns and Balts. To the north of them in Scandinavia lived the Normans, who belonged to the Germanic tribes. From the 8th century The countries of Europe were attacked by the “nomads of the sea” - the Vikings. The Viking period ended the era of the "Great Migration". The Scandinavians entered Khazaria through the Upper Volga. The great path “from the Varangians to the Greeks” led from the Varangian Sea “to the Great Lake Nevo” (Ladoga), along the Volkhov and Lovat rivers through the portages to the Dnieper and to the Pont Euxine (Black Sea). Vikings rushed across the Black Sea to Constantinople. Passing through the lands of the Slavs, the Vikings captured prisoners and sold them into slavery.

Social system.

In the II-V centuries. Only a limited part of the East Slavic tribes of the forest-steppe zone had a high level of development of production forces for that time, which allows us to speak only about the beginning of the process of class formation in the territory, which later naturally became the core of the ancient Russian state. In the VI - IX centuries. Arable farming, known among the Ants, moves far into the forest zone. By the end of the period under review, crafts were developing everywhere. Specialists stood out - blacksmiths, foundry workers. Masters of gold and silversmiths, later - potters. Craft villages were created. Craft workshops were concentrated in settlements-cemeteries and in tribal “towns”, which became the embryos of feudal cities. The historical distinction between the southern and northern parts of Russian lands was gradually erased. The level of crafts and agriculture was such that it allowed the cultivation of the land by an individual family; the clan community became a neighbor's community.

During the VI -IX centuries. The intensive disintegration of tribal ties continued. The economic independence of individual families made the existence of tightly knit clan groups unnecessary. The plowing of new lands began with the efforts of individual families. Individual families, no longer united on the basis of kinship, but on the basis of a common economic life, formed a rural (neighboring) or territorial community. Members of this community, individually owning separate arable land plots, at the same time had the right to use land belonging to the community.

The institution of private property developed within the community. From the 6th century special systems of property signs were developed, which marked weapons, horses and other property. As a result of the campaigns against Byzantium, the Slavs, according to John of Ephesus, “became rich, acquired gold and silver and own herds of horses and weapons, having learned military affairs better than the Byzantines themselves,” the tribal nobility - princes and boyars - became especially rich. In some Byzantine sources of the IV - VI centuries. there was news about prisoners being taken to the country of the Slavs (Ants), and about ransom for them. Successful campaigns strengthened the position of the princes and boyars. Property differentiation grew both within clan communities and within tribes. There was a permanent tribal squad, whose members differed in economic and social status from their fellow tribesmen.

The development of agriculture, the separation of crafts from agriculture, the growth of property inequality, the development of private property, the complication of the apparatus of tribal principalities, as well as the strengthening of the boyars - all this prepared the emergence of a new, feudal mode of production and, consequently, the formation of an early feudal state.

Culture and religion of the Eastern Slavs.

The culture of the Slavic tribes on the eve of the formation of the Old Russian state is little known. The source of its study is the Russian language, which at that time was close to other Slavic languages. An inexhaustible treasury of folk wisdom is folklore. There are no surviving works of folk literature that could be reliably attributed specifically to the time in question. But an analysis of the archaic features of the folklore of the Eastern Slavs and its comparison with Western and South Slavic material allows us to consider a whole series of labor ritual songs, funeral laments, riddles, and fairy tales that reflected the complex system of relationships between man and the forces of nature to be very ancient. Many children's and youth games that developed strength, dexterity and courage go back to ancient times.

Epic poetry played a very important role in the education of patriotic feelings, but only fragments of it have reached us. The author of “The Lay of Igor’s Campaign” preserved it in a 12th-century recording. echoes of the Danube campaigns of the Antes, during which they “made a path for Trojan through the fields to the mountains.” He also recalls the songs composed on the occasion of the death of Bus (Boz), the Anta prince who died in the fight against the Goths in the 4th century. AD Byzantine chronicles preserved fragments of legends about the struggle of the Slavs with the Avars. Russian chronicles of the 11th - 12th centuries. contain a number of legends dating back to the 6th - 8th centuries. (about the founding of Kyiv, the violence of the Avars, etc.).

The examples of applied art that have reached us testify to the originality and independence of the creativity of artisans who emerged from the communities. An interesting treasure of Russian items from the 6th - 7th centuries was found in the Rosi River basin, among which stand out silver figurines of horses with golden manes and hooves and silver images of men in typical Slavic clothing, with patterned embroidery on their shirts. For many silver items from the 6th - 7th centuries. Southern Russian regions are characterized by complex compositions of human figures, animals, birds and snakes. Many subjects bring together Slavic art of the 6th - 8th centuries. with Russian folk art of the 18th - 19th centuries.

In the 7th - 8th centuries. the need for writing arose. Slavic princes in Byzantine service began to use letters of the Greek alphabet to convey Slavic words. In the middle of the 9th century. Byzantine missionary Konstantin the Philosopher (Kirill) saw in the city of Kherson in the Crimea a liturgical book written by “Russian writers”.

An essential feature of ancient Slavic culture was the religious-magical coloring of almost all its appearances. Slavic beliefs reflected not only the ideological ideas of that time, but also numerous layers of distant primitive times. The custom of burning the dead and erecting large earthen mounds - mounds - over funeral pyres spread everywhere. Belief in the afterlife was manifested in the fact that things, weapons, food were placed with the deceased, and funerals were held annually at the graves in honor of sacred ancestors. To protect against evil forces (ghouls, goblin, evil spirits), amulets made of wolf and bear teeth were used, verbal spells were used, and magical signs were introduced into the ornament. Birth, wedding, death - all these events in a person’s life were accompanied by spell rituals. There was an annual cycle of agricultural holidays in honor of the sun and various seasons. The purpose of all rituals was to ensure the harvest and health of people, as well as livestock. Among the forces of nature, the sun and fire occupied the main place. Dazhdbog personified the sun, Svarog was the god of fire, Stribog was the god of wind and storms. Veles was considered the patron of the herd - the “cattle god”; the god of thunderstorms was Perun. The Slavs erected wooden statues of their gods in open places in the middle of the “temples”. The “idols” could be appeased with sacrifices. Each clan honored the shchur, the mystical ancestor, the founder of the clan, hence the “ancestor” and “chur me,” the oldest known prayer-spell. Groves, lakes and rivers inhabited by goblins, water creatures and mermaids were considered sacred. In addition, each tribe had a common sanctuary, where members of the tribe gathered for especially solemn holidays and to resolve important matters.

The strengthening of squads and princely power also affected the pagan cult. Huge mounds, like hills, were built over the deceased prince, and one of his wives, or slaves, was burned along with the deceased. They celebrated a funeral feast, i.e. They organized war games and horse races in honor of the deceased military leader. They began to build magnificent pagan temples that amazed foreigners with their luxurious decoration.

There was a change in the pagan pantheon. The main deity of princes and warriors was the thunder god Perun, who turned into the god of war, the Slavic Mars. Ambassadors swore oaths in the name of Perun, and diplomatic treaties were sealed.

Conclusion.

“...A people cannot in any way be called barbaric if, even in the most unsatisfactory social condition, it is aware of this dissatisfaction and strives to achieve a better order; Moreover, the more obstacles he encounters on his path to order, the higher his feat; if he overcomes them, the greater is such a people before history. So, were our ancestors barbarians?

Thrown to the edge of Europe, cut off from the society of educated peoples, in constant struggle with the Asian barbarians, even falling under the yoke of the latter, the Russian people tirelessly accomplish their great work, conquering immeasurable spaces for European-Christian citizenship from the Bug to the Eastern Ocean, conquering not with military weapons, but mainly through peaceful labor; The Russian people had to create everything for themselves in this wild and deserted country. Finding themselves in the most unfavorable circumstances, left to their own devices, our ancestors never lost their European-Christian image. Not a single century of our history can be represented as a century of stagnation; strong movement and success are noticed in everyone.” With these words of the great worker of science Sergei Mikhailovich Solovyov, I would like to finish and summarize my work. In the history of the Slavic tribes, much remains to be discovered. Our archaeologists are exploring the remains of ancient settlements and villages, and historians continue to study ancient chronicles and other documents. Thanks to this, the history of our ancestors - the ancient Slavs - is replenished with new valuable information.

The decomposition of the primitive system among the Eastern Slavs was accompanied by a transition from a consanguineous community to a neighboring territorial one and an increase in the property differentiation of fellow tribesmen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. History of the USSR from ancient times to the end XVIII century: M. “Higher School”, 1983.
2. IN. Klyuchevsky “A Brief Guide to Russian History”: M. “Rassvet”, 1992.
3. B.A. Rybakov “The World of History: The Initial Centuries of Russian History”: M. “Young Guard”, 1987
4. A.A. Preobrazhensky, B.A. Rybakov “History of the Fatherland”: M. “Enlightenment”, 1997
5. E. Shmurlo “History of Russia ( IX - XX centuries)": M. "Agraf", 1997
6. Sedov V.V. "Origin and early history of the Slavs". M., 1979.
7. Soloviev S.M. About the history of ancient Russia. M.: Enlightenment. 1992 please let us know.

East Slavs

“In the same way, these Slavs came and sat along the Dnieper and were called Polyans, and others - Drevlyans, because they sat in the forests, and others sat between Pripyat and Dvina and were called Dregovichs, others sat along the Dvina and were called Polochans, after a river flowing into Dvina, called Polota, from which the Polotsk people took their name. The same Slavs who settled near Lake Ilmen were called by their own name - Slavs, and built a city and called it Novgorod. And others sat along the Desna, and the Seim, and the Sula, and called themselves northerners. And so the Slavic people dispersed, and after his name the letter was called Slavic,” reports “The Tale of Bygone Years.”

Map of Rus' X - XII centuries.

So, the Slavs were: the Polyans, the Drevlyans, the Dregovichs, the Polochans, the Novgorod Slovenes, the Northerners.

Other Russian chronicles list other Slavic tribes in Eastern Europe: Radimichi, Vyatichi, Rus.

About the Polyans, Drevlyans, Northerners, Vyatichi and other Slavs of Eastern Europe

On the given map, the following tribes are indicated on the site of Moscow land: Krivichi, Merya, Muroma and Golyad. To the south are the Vyatichi and Mordovians.

Golyad - Galinds, a Baltic-speaking tribe who became famous in the 14th–15th centuries. Krivichi are Slavicized or already Slavified Balts-Krievs. Merya is a Finnish-speaking tribe close to Karelians and Estonians. Muroma is a Finno-Ugric tribe that, like the Meshchera, spoke a language close to Hungarian. To the south of them, the Mordovians are a Finnish-speaking tribe close to the Meri. Vyatichi, glorified jars, mixed with minnows and Mordovians. It was these tribes that were “originally Russian” and lived in the very center of the future Russian state.

Were there Russians in Rus'?

V. A. Chudinov, in his review of my book about Kievan Rus, wrote with indignation: “The sum of partial errors reached a critical mass and exploded with the anecdotal conclusion that there were no Russians in Rus'.”

In this chapter we will try to figure out whether there have always been Russians in Rus'.

L.V. Alekseev in the book “Polotsk Land” (1966) wrote: “Modern data from archeology and toponymy show that in the Early Iron Age, Eastern Europe was inhabited by three large groups of tribes. The first, Iranian-speaking group occupied the Crimean Peninsula, Kuban, Lower Don, Lower Dnieper and reached in the north to the watershed of the Seim, Desna and Oka... The second, Finnish-speaking group covered the entire upper Volga region, the basin of the Middle and Lower Oka, in the west it reached Lake Ezel and left the so-called Dyakov culture. The third, Baltic-speaking, covered the entire upper Dnieper region, including Kyiv, the right bank of the Seim, the upper Oka and went west to the Baltic states.”

“How do the Slavs simultaneously appear on a vast territory and, moreover, without any signs of mass migration of a new people to these territories?” This is how M.I. Artamonov poses the question.

Academician V.V. Sedov will help us answer it.

“The vast expanses of the Northern Black Sea lands in the La Tène period were inhabited by the Scythians and the Sarmatians advancing from the east. The more northern regions of the East European Plain belonged to various tribes of the Baltic language group. In the last third of the 3rd century. BC e. in the area where the Baltic and Scythian areas came into contact, there was an invasion of tribes of the Pomeranian culture and the culture of under-klesh burials.

There was a synthesis of local Scythian and Milograd elements with components arriving from the west.

The Pripyat region, which includes the middle reaches of Pripyat with the lower reaches of the Goryn, before the settlement of the Pomeranian tribes, was very weakly populated by bearers of the Milograd culture. An analysis of early burials from the Zarubintsy burial grounds of this territory (Velemichi, Voronino, Otverzhichi, etc.) shows that the formation of the culture in question here was largely the result of the settlement of the newcomer population from the territory of the Pomor culture and the culture of under-klesh burials. In burials dating back to the finds of dismembered Middle La Tène brooches from the turn of the 3rd and 2nd centuries. BC e., clear traces of the Povislensk cultures are revealed. It is not possible to determine the ethnic group of the carriers of the Zarubintsy culture of the Pripyat region based on archaeological data.

It can be assumed that the local Scythian population became part of the carriers of the Zarubintsy culture of the Middle Dnieper region. Here there was a synthesis of local culture with the foreign one, which resulted in a change in rituals and the emergence of previously unknown elements of material culture. The migration of a new population to the Middle Dnieper region came from the west, from the indigenous territory of the distribution of Pomeranian-Kleshevo antiquities in the last decades of the 3rd century. BC e.

The impetus for the migration of part of the population from the Vistula region to the Dnieper region was the expansion of the Celts. Their appearance in the lands north of the Carpathians and the subsequent invasion into the area of ​​the culture of under-klesh burials led to the movement of more or less large groups of the population of Povislenye in an eastern direction. In parallel, separate, small groups of Celts spread in the lands of the Dniester-Dnieper interfluve. Here, not only individual finds of Celtic bronze jewelry were discovered, which could be interpreted as the result of cultural contacts, but also complexes that directly indicate the penetration of individual groups of the Celtic population far to the east.

There are some differences in the funeral rituals, in particular in the Middle Dnieper region there are burials according to the inhumation rite that are alien to the Zarubintsy culture, in which one should see the substrate heritage of the Scythian ritual.

The origins of the Kievan culture are in the Baltic lands of the Upper Dnieper, and the ethnicity of its bearers in this regard should be defined as Baltic.

At the beginning of the Middle Ages, the tribes of the Kyiv culture, on the one hand, took a direct part in the formation of the Kolochin antiquities of the Upper Dnieper region, which are defined as pre-Slavic, Baltic, and on the other hand, they became one of the components in the formation of the Penkovo ​​culture. The latter cannot in any way be the basis for the assumption of the Slavic origin of the tribes in question, since it is well known that the medieval Slavic world included many foreign ethnic entities.

In the left-bank part of the forest and forest-steppe Dnieper region, as well as in the Verkhneoksky basin, that is, throughout the entire territory of settlement of the post-Zarubinets tribes (areas of the Pochep, Moshin and Kiev cultures), among the dominant water names of the general Baltic and Eastern Baltic appearance there are hydronyms of Western Baltic types. The presence in this territory of a thick layer of Western Baltic (Prussian-Yat-Vyazhian-Galindian) origin, notes V.N. Toporov, is beyond doubt. Its appearance here can only be explained by the infiltration of the Zarubintsy population into the Eastern Baltic environment, whose distant ancestors came from the outskirts of the Western Baltic area.

The bearers of the Kyiv culture can presumably be identified with the Holtescythians of Jordan. They were related to the golyad of the Verkhneoksky region and retained its name in their ethnonym, but lived in the lands of Scythia (hence the ethnonym). It is possible that the bearers of Kyiv antiquities and Iranian-speaking descendants of the Scythians may have participated in the ethnogenesis. In any case, the Scythian ethnic component in the population of the Middle Dnieper region of the Zarubintsy culture seems undoubted.”

So, the Western Baltic, Germanic and Celtic settlers who came to the territory of Ukraine and Belarus mixed with the local Eastern Baltic and Iranian-speaking population and served as the basis of the Ukrainian and Belarusian nation. Moreover, the Belarusians in their ethnogenesis have more Baltic roots, while the Ukrainians, along with the Balts, include Iranians, Turks, and Circassians.

Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians belong to the group of Eastern Slavs. They will be discussed further.

Settlement of the Slavs in the northern lands of the East European Plain

The first four centuries AD in Central Europe were very favorable climatically for life and the development of agricultural activity, which was the basis of the economy of both the Baltic and Germanic populations of provincial Roman cultures. Thanks to the flourishing of handicraft production, agricultural tools and construction are being actively improved, and a whole range of new products are entering everyday life. The development of economic life led to significant demographic shifts. There is an increase in the number of settlements and a noticeable increase in the population.

At the end of the 4th century. A sharp cooling begins in Europe; the 5th century was especially cold. This was the period of maximum cooling not only for the 1st millennium AD. e., at this time the lowest temperatures occurred in the last 2000 years. Soil moisture increases sharply, which is associated with both increased precipitation and transgression of the Baltic Sea. The levels of rivers and lakes are rising, groundwater is rising, and swamps are expanding greatly. It is obvious that many settlements of the Roman era were flooded or flooded, and significant areas of arable land were unsuitable for agricultural activities. River floodplains, which previously produced abundant harvests, are covered with water or alluvial sediments and are excluded from economic land use.

It is known that unusually strong floods in Jutland and adjacent lands of Germany forced the Teutons to move entirely to other territories. The migration of the Saxons also dates back to this time.

Judging by archaeological evidence, the Middle Povislenie, characterized by the most low-lying terrain, was completely abandoned by the inhabitants.

It was at this time that these settlers appeared on the lands of the Krivichi.

In the 5th century The Wends, fleeing the floods, came to the Pskov land. Along the way, they were joined by part of the Yatvingians. Having mixed with the local population, they gave rise to a new tribe - the Krivichi. Izborsk became the main city of the Krivichi.

It was located in one of the regions where long mounds were concentrated, and in the 8th–9th centuries, as its excavations showed, it was the tribal center of one of the Krivichi groups.

From the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th centuries. In the eastern part of the range of the Pskov long mounds, the hill culture spreads. The construction of long barrows stops here, the population of the Pskov long barrow culture merges with the Ilmen Slovenes. At the same time, part of the population of the culture in question moved to more southern lands - to the Polotsk Podvinia and the Smolensk Dnieper region, where a special culture of the Smolensk-Polotsk long mounds was formed.

The direct development of the Pskov long barrow culture continued only in the Pskov land. Here, the rampart-shaped mounds are replaced by round mounds with one or two burials according to the rite of cremation. The evolutionary connection between these mounds is quite obvious; they are of the same type in all their features, including the details of the funeral rite. The bottom ash-coal layer, characteristic of long barrows of the Pskov type - traces of the cult cleansing by fire of the place chosen for the burial mound - is also common for round barrows with both remains of cremation and corpses of the 11th–12th centuries. The last mounds already characterize the Pskov Krivichi. They are poor in clothing equipment; the Pskov Krivichi did not have ethnographic features in women's clothing. Signet-shaped temple rings, necklaces made of single glass beads, metal bracelets and rings, sometimes found in burial mounds, belong to the common East Slavic types.

Slovenian Ilmenskie

The hill culture is associated with this tribal formation. Its main region is the Ilmen basin, where more than 70 percent of burial grounds with hills are concentrated. The rest of them are located in adjacent areas - the upper reaches of the Luga and Plyusse rivers and in the Mologa basin. Outside this territory, very few hills are known in the basins of the Western Dvina and the Velikaya River.

The Tale of Bygone Years reports about the Novgorod Slavs: “The same Slavs who settled near Lake Ilmen were called by their own name - Slavs, and built a city and called it Novgorod.”

Birch bark letters have been preserved - monuments of the writing of the Slavs who lived in Novgorod. Their language belongs to the clicking Polish dialect of the group of Slavic languages. Since almost all the original Novgorodians were destroyed by Ivan the Terrible, one could not talk about them at all, but we must remember that they lived, traveled and traded throughout the north of our Motherland, bringing to the masses the knowledge of their Slavic language. Thereby contributing, along with the Bulgarian priests, to the Slavicization of local Finnish-speaking, Baltic-speaking, Ossetian-speaking and Turkic-speaking tribes.

The Ilmen Slavs were baptized, most likely Nicolaitans, who more than all other saints revered Saint Nicholas, who, in their opinion, was supposed to replace God the Father (Saphaoth) after the death of the latter.

But among them there were many pagans, as evidenced by many legends about the worship of Perun, as well as the presence of pagan names in birch bark letters.

Another interesting fact is the discovery of a prayer to the pagan Dy in the manner of a Greek prayer.

Thus, archaeologist and historian V.L. Yanin, who was engaged in excavations in Novgorod, published an image of a lead lid with the inscription: “OAGIOS AGIOS KOURIOS DYYOS O PLIRIS OURANOS KAI GITIS DOXIS,” which means: “Holy, holy, holy Dy, the sky and the earth with your glory."

Perhaps the use of Greek was in use during a period of preponderance of forces in favor of Christianity, and the Magi felt that prayers in Greek would better reach the gods? Or maybe Greek was preserved by the Greek clergy who moved to the Slavic lands after Bulgaria adopted Christianity? Be that as it may, the fact of using the Greek language in prayers to the Slavic gods has been recorded more than once both in Russia and among the Western Slavs.

Polotsk residents

Belarusian archaeologists found more than 120 objects with runic inscriptions from the 13th or 14th centuries while working on a settlement in Maskovichi (Vitebsk-Polotsk border). Only one inscription had a Latin alphabet, and vowels were not written at all. The rest of the inscriptions are completely runic.

Judging by the surviving documents, in the 14th century. Polotsk residents knew the Slavic language, but what language did they speak in the 10th century? - it’s hard to say. It is possible that even then the Wends, having come to the lands of local tribes, spoke Slavic, like the Ilmen Slovenes.

Drevlyans

The Drevlyans, as The Tale of Bygone Years points out, are Slavs living in the forest zone. However, manuscript SB No. 793 (sheet 12 vol.) reports that “The Drevlyans are not Slavs.” Which of the chronicles contains reliable information?

Most likely, the Drevlyans were Balts, as evidenced by the toponymy of this area.

One expression “OUR GOD” in Drevlyanian has also been preserved: “NOS GLULGA”, which can, knowing Latvian, be translated as “Our clear one” - this is how the Balts called the sun god.

The Drevlyans called themselves Galinds (Golyad).

The Vyatichi who settled on the upper Oka did not occupy empty territory.

The territory of their settlement was originally inhabited by the Galind tribe, who spoke a dialect of the Lithuanian language.

The settlers came from the south, from the Don, where the so-called Mayak culture came down to us from their ancestors.

The population that left us the Mayak archaeological culture was Ossetian-speaking. In our history it is known as Alans, Yases, Rus'.

They called their country the Don region Steppe Ossetia, in their language - Rus Yasska. The Don Yas-Rus had their own written language - the Don runic.

Quite early, some of the Yases adopted Christianity (probably from the Armenians and Syrians, which will be discussed below.

Arriving from the Don to the upper reaches of the Oka, the Yases mixed with the golyad and took the name Vyatichi (from jetek - the leader’s people).

Inscriptions on the stones of the Mayak settlement:

Name: “BEN HA TYF” (“Son of the Merciful”, in Hebrew, for many accepted Judaism). And “ALANUI KAN” (“Alan prince in Ossetian)

The same Yases who came to the area between the Desna and Dnieper rivers, mixing with the local descendants of the Balts and Iranian-speaking Ants, were called Radimichi (from pratamas - the first). Those who settled in the forest part between the Dnieper and Don rivers were called northerners (from sawars, sawaors - shadow, forest aors).

The widespread use of arable farming had a decisive influence on the development of the entire economy of the Vyatichi region.

True, the development of arable farming in the middle zone did not completely replace cuttings, which remained in forest areas until a very late time as a means of developing new lands.

Tools for harvesting crops and herbs were used: sickles and pink salmon scythes of an elongated northern shape.

The coming progress in agriculture made it possible to reduce the labor force for cultivating the land to one strong family, which was a prerequisite for the disintegration of the previous clan groups, the exit from their composition of individual families running small-scale farming. Such families now settled, as a rule, in unfortified settlements located closer to the arable lands. In a new place, they lost contact with their clan group, but a neighboring or territorial community developed, which existed throughout the entire feudal system.

Cattle breeding played a major role in the Vyatichi economy, with cattle playing a leading role. Horse meat was almost never eaten; horses were widely used as draft animals, not only for transportation, but also for field work. This is evidenced by numerous finds of horse equipment - bits and cheekpieces. Numerous tools also testify to the developed hunting and fishing industry. In fishing, in addition to nets with clay weights, iron spears and fish hooks of various sizes were used. In winter, ice fishing was practiced, and ice holes were made with special iron picks. They hunted with iron harpoons and bows with iron arrow tips.

In the 10th century Molded vessels made on a potter's wheel became widespread in Rus'. They also appeared among the Vyatichi on the upper Oka at this time.

The main item exported to eastern countries was furs, which were highly valued outside of Rus'.

It is significant that in those places where the class of feudal lords was born, this was reflected in archeology in the form of the appearance of so-called squad mounds - burials of warriors (knights). Such mounds have been excavated in the lands of Kyiv, Smolensk, Chernigov and Vladimir-Suzdal. There are no military mounds on the territory of the Vyatichi. An undoubted indicator of the lag in the formation of a class society is the fact that the separation of crafts has not yet occurred here, as a result of which cities were completely absent.

As already mentioned, slash-and-burn agriculture continued to play an important role in the Vyatichi economy, requiring the efforts of a whole team to cut down, uproot the forest and clear the field for sowing. This explains the long-term preservation of tribal relationships. For the same reason, the Vyatichi preserved pagan beliefs for a very long time, closely associated with tribal cults. This can also explain the fact that the Vyatichi zealously guarded their independence, since submission meant a break in customary relationships and beliefs.

Describing the customs and way of life of the Vyatichi, the chronicler provides a lot of interesting data about them. Like their neighbors the Radimichs and northerners, the Vyatichi lived in the forests (like every animal), ate unclean things, and dishonored themselves, not being embarrassed by their fathers and daughters-in-law. “They didn’t have marriages, but they organized games between the villages, and they gathered at these games, dances and all sorts of demonic songs, and here they kidnapped their wives in agreement with them; they had two and three wives.

And if someone died, they held a funeral feast for him, and then they made a large log and laid the dead man on this log and burned him, and then, having collected the bones, they put them in a small vessel and placed them on poles along the roads, as the Vyatichi still do now.” .

In conclusion, the chronicler says that the Vyatichi do not know the law of God, “but they create a law for themselves,” that is, they are pagans.

Chronicle reports and the absence of any serious archaeological research into the antiquities of the Vyatichi led to the fact that before the October Revolution, historians had an idea of ​​these tribes as wild and rough, living mainly by hunting, not knowing agriculture and other cultural achievements. Archaeological research by Soviet scientists completely overturned this kind of idea.

In 1963, a small red slate whorl was discovered in the Ryazan Museum of History and Local Lore.

On both sides around the hole there were alphabetic signs carved into it, which had to be understood. The spindle whorl was found in 1945 by a local lover of archaeological antiquities, Zubkov, on the site of the crumbling Slavic village of Borki, which is located 2 km from Ryazan.

The width of the upper and lower planes, on which alphabetic signs are cut out in a circle, is 7 mm, the width of the hole is 8 mm, the diameter of the spindle whorl is 22 mm, its height is 14 mm. On the side of the whorl there are intricate patterns drawn, reminiscent of “magic” lpbyrinths...

The famous scientist Turchaninov began reading the inscription.

“For the upper plane of the spindle whorl, we conventionally took the one where, in a circle, from left to right, after a drawing like the profile of a horse, well-recognized square Hebrew letters are located? tsade and P heth, denoting the number 908, and after this number in the Syro-Nestorian script, in Alanian it is written: Anzi - "of the year". The word is written in the norm of the Digor dialect of the Ossetian language. The date is based on the Christian era, not the Seleucid era. The Alan who wrote the inscription was bilingual. This follows from the inscription on the other, lower plane of the spindle whorl, where also in a circle from left to right, starting from the word division in the form of a vertical line, as in the first case, well-readable square Hebrew letters are written: tsade, jod, heth, making up the number 918. After the number in Alan letters it is written in Slavic: “ summer" The inscription was made by Alan, because a Russian would have written “summer 918” and placed the word division after the date, and not before it.

As a further presentation of the facts will show, a spindle whorl with inscriptions in the letter of the Alan dukt was not a random phenomenon in the Ryazan region. We will find the same style and culture of writing in the inscription on a pot from the burial of S. Alekanov, located very close to the village of Borki.”

So, the inscription on the spindle whorl contains the oldest (unfortunately, very brief) dated Slavic text.

Here is what Turchaninov reports about the Vyatichi: “The population of the Alekanovsky village is recognized by V. A. Gorodtsov and other researchers as Vyatichi. Academician A. A. Shakhmatov at one time developed the theory that the Vyatichi originally lived on the Don and only later colonized the Oka. This point of view of A. A. Shakhmatov, as we will see below from the epigraphic material, was historically correct.”

All of the above proves that in migration from south to north, from the Don to the Oka and other places, the Alans brought their written culture.

V. A. Gorodtsov found a pot with an inscription near the village of Alekanovo (Ryazan region).

Turchaninov considers the letter beginning of the inscription to be a sign in the shape of an oblique cross after the dot and reads it from left to right.

The result of reading it is the phrase:

Slavontya t 1007 a(nzi).

Alas! This is still not a Slavic, but an Ossetian inscription. Although both Vyatichi inscriptions help to trace the paths of Slavicization of local tribes, no matter what their origin.

Pot from the village of Alekanovo

Most likely, the Vyatichi were Ossetian-speaking Christians, and among them Bulgarian priests lived and carried the word of God, of course, in their Old Bulgarian (i.e., Church Slavonic) language. Living among the Finnish-speaking inhabitants of the Ryazan land, and also communicating with the Turkic-speaking population of neighboring lands, the Vyatichi, like part of the Erzi, gradually switched to Church Slavonic, which over time turned into the Russian language.

The existence of their own writing among the Scythians, Sarmatians and Alans was mentioned in Greek, Latin and Syrian sources starting from the 5th–6th centuries. n. e.

We extracted this evidence from the anonymous Byzantine Paschalia of the 7th century, published by the German historian of antiquity Barthold Georg Niebuhr. Its text reads: “They know their own writings: the Cappadocians, Iberians, they are also tyrants, Tabarens, Latins, they are also used by the Romans, Sarmatians, Spaniards, Scythians, Greeks, Bastarnae, Medes, Armenians.”

“The Polyans, who lived on their own, as we have already said, were from a Slavic family and only later were called Polyans...” (PVL)

The main city of the glades is Kyiv.

Almost nothing is known about the glades and their culture. When the Pechenegs first came to Kyiv (under Princess Olga), one youth, climbing over the wall, passed through their ranks, asking if they had seen his horse. What language could he speak? Only in Turkic. Otherwise, he would have been identified as a spy and captured. And later, traveling around the south of our homeland, Abu Hamid al-Garnati, arriving in Kyiv, claims that the population of Kyiv is Cuman Turks. Moreover, they are Muslims.

If we add to this the discovery in Kiev of a shard with the inscription in Arabic letters: TURK (or, according to another reading “KABUS”, it all depends on how to consider the scratches, random or related to the text), then there is no doubt that the glades were Turkic- Polovtsy.

And according to the information of the Arab traveler Idrisi, Kyiv was founded by immigrants from Khorezm under the leadership of Kuya (Kiya), whose son, Ahmad ben Kuiya, was the vizier of the Khazar king (10th century).

On ancient maps, Kyiv, together with more southern regions, is part of Pechenegia.

On later maps, a new formation is located there - Circassia. From the Circassians, the ancestors of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, such toponyms as the Psiol (Psel) River, Cherkassy, ​​Novocherkassk have been preserved.

But there is no other information about the Slavs of the Kyiv land other than our chronicle. N.F. Kotlyar writes: “Everything here is unclear, everything is debatable: the names and years of the reign of the princes, their pedigree, the main milestones of political and economic history, even the year of the seizure of the Kyiv land by Lithuania...”

Kyiv was just a marginal trading post of the Khazar Kaganate. And that's all we can say about this area, whose population often changed its composition due to constant wars.

Belarusians and Ukrainians

The Belarusians, before the Russians and Ukrainians, united in a single Polish-Lithuanian state. As for the Ukrainians, the left bank, steppe part of their lands is closely connected with the Don Cossacks and now gravitates towards Russia, while the right bank has always been more independent, focused on its own characteristics, and only its population can be considered true Ukrainians.

So, were there Russians in Rus'? There can be only one answer to this question: it didn’t exist before Peter I. Nowhere. What happened? There were Lithuanian, Finnish, Iranian, Adyghe, Turkic tribes. Western Polish settlers arrived, bringing with them Christian ideas, and the unification of multilingual peoples into a single community began, the language of intertribal communication of which became Slavic - the language of the new faith.

At first, principalities were formed, some of which adopted the Slavic language, but did not at all consider themselves related peoples. Thus, the Novgorod ushkuiniki could attack other city-states and sell prisoners to the Volga Tatars. The Muscovites fought with the Tver and Ryazan people without any remorse, not at all considering them blood relatives. And only during the time of Peter I the peoples of the northern Russian principalities united into a single nation, where anyone who converted to Orthodoxy was considered Russian. At this time, a Russian is not necessarily a Slav, but definitely an Orthodox one. And only later the Don, Greben, etc. Cossacks, descendants of the Tatar-Mongols who mixed with the Turkic, Alan and Circassian inhabitants of the southern steppes, joined the Russian nation.

author Rybakov Boris Alexandrovich

Eastern Slavs Mid-1st millennium AD e. was a turning point for all Slavic tribes of Central and especially Eastern Europe. After the invasion of the Huns, after the departure of the Goths to the west, the time came for the great settlement of the Slavs. They also moved northwest towards

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Eastern Slavs Their settlement. The initial chronicle does not remember the time of the arrival of the Slavs from Asia to Europe; she finds them already on the Danube. From this Danube country, which the compiler of the Tale knew under the name of the Ugric and Bulgarian lands, the Slavs settled in different directions;

From the book The Rus' That Was-2. Alternative version of history author Maksimov Albert Vasilievich

EASTERN SLAVS If the Slavs were not so fragmented and if there were less disagreement between their individual tribes, then not a single people in the world would be able to

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Eastern Slavs The Slavs trace their origins to the autochthonous Indo-European population of Eastern Europe. According to most modern scientists, the ancestral home of the Slavs is the northern slopes of the Carpathians, the Vistula valley and the Pripyat basin. From these places the Slavs settled

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Eastern Slavs rarely Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians called themselves Slavs, deriving this word from “slava,” which meant the same as praise. They called themselves Slovenians, that is, those who understood the word, while others who did not understand their language were called Germans, from the word “dumb.”

From the book National History (before 1917) author Dvornichenko Andrey Yurievich

§ 3. Eastern Slavs and their neighbors The ancient Russian chronicle “The Tale of Bygone Years” can tell a lot about the settlement of the East Slavic tribes. She tells us about the Polyans who lived in the Middle Dnieper region in the Kyiv region, their neighbors - the Drevlyans, who settled in

From the book The Best Historians: Sergei Solovyov, Vasily Klyuchevsky. From the origins to the Mongol invasion (collection) author Klyuchevsky Vasily Osipovich

Eastern Slavs Their settlement. The initial chronicle does not remember the time of the arrival of the Slavs from Asia to Europe; she finds them already on the Danube. From this Danube country, which the compiler of the Tale knew under the name of the Ugric and Bulgarian lands, the Slavs settled in different

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From the book Origin of the Slavs author Bychkov Alexey Alexandrovich

Eastern Slavs “In the same way, these Slavs came and sat along the Dnieper and were called Polyans, and others - Drevlyans, because they sat in the forests, and others sat between Pripyat and Dvina and were called Dregovichs, others sat along the Dvina and were called Polochans, after the river, flowing into the Dvina,

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IV. EASTERN SLAVS "The widespread settlement of the Slavs in the territory of Eastern Europe occurs mainly in the 6th-8th centuries. This was still the Proto-Slavic period, and the settling Slavs were linguistically united. The migration took place not from one region, but from different dialects

From the book Slavs: from the Elbe to the Volga author Denisov Yuri Nikolaevich

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3. EASTERN SLAVS IN THE VI-IX CENTURIES Features of the development of Slavic society in the VI-IX centuries. In the history of Europe, the second half of the 1st millennium AD. e. was a period of great historical changes. The movements of the tribes and their struggle with the Roman Empire within its western borders ended.

The modern population of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus belongs to a large group of East Slavic peoples who have a common origin, cultural, religious and everyday traditions. Issues of social structure, culture and life of the East Slavic tribes are quite studied. But historians cannot give an unambiguous answer to the question of when they appeared and what the territory of their settlement was.

Tracing the history of the Slavic peoples is quite difficult, since reliable written sources date back to the 5th–6th centuries AD. e. To comprehensively study this issue, scientists resort to the results of research in the fields of archaeology, linguistics, and ethnography. Based on them, we can briefly talk about the origin of the Slavs. The most important idea about the appearance of the Slavs is obtained by comparing all types of data.

Based on data obtained by linguists, speakers of East Slavic languages ​​belong to the large community of Indo-European peoples. The time when the Slavic tribes separated from the Indo-European peoples is the 2nd millennium BC. e. At that time The Indo-Europeans split into three major branches:

1. Proto-Germanic peoples occupying the territories of Western and Southern Europe. These included the Celts, Germans, and Romans.
2. Balto-Slavic peoples who occupied vast lands of Central Europe between the Elbe, Vistula, Dnieper and Danube rivers.
3. Iranian and Indian peoples settled in the Asian expanses.

In the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. There was a division of the Balto-Slavic peoples into two independent branches: the Balts and the Slavs. By the 6th century AD in Central and Eastern Europe There were about 150 Proto-Slavic tribes, united in three groups:

• Wends inhabited the lands in the Vistula River basin;
• sklavins settled in the area between the Dniester, Danube and Vistula rivers;
• antes settled the lands between the Dniester and Dnieper rivers.

At the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, the ancient Byzantine historian wrote that these groups had a common language, religious and legal norms, cultural and everyday traditions. Modern historians believe that it is quite easy to name the ancestors of the modern peoples of Eastern Europe, since they were representatives of all three Proto-Slavic groups.

In the 6th–7th centuries. n. uh. the single pre-Slavic nation breaks up into several branches; this process was influenced by the events of the Great Migration of Peoples. The migration of Slavic tribes took place in three directions:

• southern direction (Balkan Peninsula);
• northwestern (downstream of the Vistula and Oder rivers);
• northeastern (to the north and east of the East European Plain).

As a result of these migration processes, modern groups of Slavic peoples were formed: Western Slavs (Poles, Slovaks, Czechs); South Slavs (Montenegrins, Serbs, Bulgarians, Bosnians, Croats, Slovenes); Eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians).

Settlement of the people

As a result of migration in a northeastern direction, the Eastern Slavs in ancient times populated the vast territory of the East European Plain. In the VIII-IX centuries. About 150 Slavic tribes moved to this territory, reaching Lake Ladoga in the north, the upper reaches of the Volga and Oka in the east, and the Black Sea steppes in the south.

By the 9th century. n. uh. In Eastern Europe, 14 large tribal unions were formed that united smaller tribes. The table and map in the history atlas for the 10th grade will help you remember the names and geographical locations of tribal unions.

Each tribal union had its own language, cultural and everyday traditions, and farming methods. The fragmentation of the East Slavic tribes was facilitated by differences in the natural and climatic conditions of the lands they occupied. Their list, going from north to south, is as follows:

The settlement of our ancestors was mostly peaceful. Coming to new territories, the Slavs either assimilated small local tribes, or peacefully coexisted and exchanged cultural and everyday traditions with the indigenous population. Such relations were maintained with our western neighbors:

• Baltic tribes: Estonians, Lithuanians, Lithuanians, Latgalians, Yatvingians;
• West Slavic tribes: Poles, Slovaks, Czechs.

In the northeast of the East Slavic tribes lived the indigenous Finno-Ugric population: Karelians, Ves, Chud, Merya, Muroma, Meshchera.

Quite tense relations developed between the East Slavic tribal unions and their eastern and southern neighbors, the Turkic-speaking tribes.

In the east, in the upper reaches of the Volga, there was Volga Bulgaria state, formed by part of a large tribe of Bulgarians. Part of this people migrated to the Balkan Peninsula, mixed with the local Slavic population and formed the Bulgarian kingdom.

On the lower Volga there was a powerful state of the Khazar Khaganate, whose tributaries for quite a long time were some Slavic tribes: the Polyans, Vyatichi, Radimichi and Northerners. They had to send tribute to the Kaganate in the form of skins of fur-bearing animals.

Oral sources mentioned raids on the Slavic tribe Buzhan Avars- a nomadic Turkic-speaking people who managed to create a state union, the Avar Kaganate, which lasted until the end of the 8th century.

Tribes living in the forest-steppe zone were periodically subjected to raids by nomadic peoples moving from east to west along the Black Sea steppes. These include: Ugrians (Hungarians), Pechenegs, Polovtsians.

Strengthening the position of East Slavic tribal unions led to the formation of large associations with signs of statehood. Arabic sources dating back to the 10th century mention three super-unions of the Eastern Slavs: Slavia, centered in Novgorod; Kuyabiya, the center of which was Kyiv. The location of the third super-union - the country of Artania - is not known for certain. Some researchers place it in the Rostov region. Also called lands in the Chernigov and Ryazan region.

According to the main written source on ancient Russian history - the Tale of Bygone Years - the state of the Eastern Slavs originated in the north in the lands of the Ilmen Slovenes in the middle of the 9th century. This event is associated with the calling of the Varangian Rurik to reign in Novgorod, who by the end of his reign subjugated most of the northeastern Slavic tribes and neighboring Finno-Ugric peoples. His successor, Prince Oleg, continued to expand the influence of the Varangian princely dynasty to the south, conquering Kyiv in 882. This date is considered the time of formation of the ancient Russian state - Kievan Rus.

The settlement of the Slavs in Eastern Europe occurred in two directions: to the north into an area of ​​dense forests, lakes and swamps; and east into the forest-steppe, where forests alternated with large open spaces of black soil. This difference in natural conditions left its mark on the life, economic activities and morals of the Slavs.

Economic activity

The main activity of the Slavic population of Eastern Europe was agriculture. In the north, due to natural conditions, the slash-and-burn type of land cultivation began to predominate. It was as follows: in the first year, farmers uprooted a forest area, burned the remaining stumps and roots, fertilizing the soil with ash, and the next year planted the area with agricultural crops. Such a plot was depleted in 2-3 years, and the peasants moved to new land.

In the south, the ancient Slavs were engaged in shifting agriculture, which consisted of burning grass in a certain area and then using it for 4-5 years. After this, the plot was left for 20-25 to restore its fertility.

An equally important occupation of the ancient population of Eastern Europe in ancient times was cattle breeding. Its specifics varied depending on the geographic location of the tribe. In the north, the population preferred raising cattle (oxen, cows), which were used as draft animals for agricultural work. East Slavic cattle breeders in the southern lands preferred breeding horses, among which there were draft breeds and riding varieties.

In addition to cattle, they raised pigs, goats, and poultry.

In the north of the ancient Slavic ecumene Beekeeping (collecting honey from wild bees), fishing and hunting were also common. It should be noted that honey and fur-bearing animal skins were the main goods in trade with neighbors and foreign merchants.

Crafts developed quite actively: blacksmithing, pottery, jewelry, leather. The East Slavic tribes and their neighbors conducted active trade with each other.

Social structure

Quite difficult living conditions and the need to work in a team contributed to preservation of the communal system in East Slavic society. Initially, it was of a tribal nature, but with the development of farming methods and tools, tribal relations were transformed into neighborly ones. The neighboring community existed on the territory of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus until the beginning of the 20th century.

With the development of social relations, polygamous relationships are being replaced by monogamous families, which have become an integral part of the neighboring community and the basis of the social structure of the East Slavic ethnic group.

Features of life

lived in semi-dugout type dwellings with a two or three pitched roof. Inside there was one room with a stove without a chimney (the smoke came out through the door and a hole in the roof of the building). Several courtyards were united into a village, which was located in the bends of the rivers, surrounded by an earthen rampart and surrounded by a palisade. This protected the inhabitants of the settlement from animals and enemies.

Household utensils were made of wood or clay. Iron was rarely used. Tools and weapons were mainly made from it.

Clothes were made from linen and cotton fabrics, which were spun by women in each family. Things were decorated with embroidery, by which one could determine in which territory its owner lived.

Religion and Beliefs

Our ancestors practiced paganism until the 10th century. They deified nature and believed in spirits and supernatural forces. Each tribe had its own pantheon of gods and a patron god. We can distinguish a number of gods common to all East Slavic tribes: Perun - the god of thunder and lightning; Genus - fertility; Yarilo (Dazhbog, Hore) - the sun; Makosh - household; Veles - cattle breeding and wealth; Svarog - god of the sky; Simargl - the underworld. There was no main god in the Slavic pantheon. Only with the strengthening of princely power does the cult of Perun rise and strengthen, who becomes the god of war and the patron of warriors.

Most often, gods were depicted in the form of stone or wooden idols installed in special places - temples. They were the venue for religious ceremonies, often accompanied by sacrifices. Human sacrifice has been common for quite a long time. Priests played an important role in the pagan cult.

By the 10th century, our ancestors settled in Eastern Europe. Their hard work, perseverance, and peacefulness allowed them to actively develop and contributed to the emergence of the ancient Slavic state - Kievan Rus.