Exist., number of synonyms: 1 Slavic (5) ASIS Synonym Dictionary. V.N. Trishin. 2013 ... Synonym dictionary

Slavic Taxon: branch Range: Slavic countries Number of speakers: 400 500 million Classification ... Wikipedia

C. languages ​​constitute one of the families of the Ario-European (Indo-European, Indo-Germanic) branch of languages ​​(see Indo-European languages). The names Slav, Slavic languages ​​not only cannot be considered etymologically related to the word man, but even impossible ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Slavic peoples Ethnopsychological dictionary

SLAVIC PEOPLES- representatives of the Slavic nations, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Poles, Slovaks, Czechs, Yugoslavs, who have their own specific culture and a kind of national psychology. In the dictionary, we consider only national psychological ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy

The German language belongs to the West Germanic subgroup of the Germanic languages ​​and is the official language. state language such states as the Federal Republic of Germany (about 76 77 million speakers), Austria (7.5 million people), ... ... Wikipedia

South Slavic countries in the XIII-XV centuries. Albania- Bulgaria after liberation from Byzantine rule feudal fragmentation. This… … The World History. Encyclopedia

This term has other meanings, see Slavs (meanings). Slavs ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Bulgaria (meanings). Republic of Bulgaria Republic of Bulgaria ... Wikipedia

West Slavic countries ... Wikipedia

Books

• Series "Millennium of Russian History" (set of 18 books), . How much do we know about the history of our own country? The country in which we live? The books in the Millenniums of Russian History series present the history of our country as a series of mysteries and mysteries, each volume…
• Educational and methodological complex on the history of the Middle Ages. In 5 books. Book 4. The author's program of the course. Seminar plans. Reader, Edited by V. A. Vedyushkin. The purpose of the program is to give teachers the opportunity to build work in such a way that students get the most complete picture of the subject being studied. The purpose of the reader is to provide…

Germanic peoples

Germans. The basis of the German ethnos was the ancient Germanic tribal associations of the Franks, Saxons, Bavarians, Alemanni, and others, mixed in the first centuries of our era with the Romanized Celtic population and with the Rhets. After the division of the Frankish Empire (843), the East Frankish kingdom stood out with a German-speaking population. The name (Deutsch) has been known since the middle of the 10th century, which indicates the formation of the German ethnos. The capture of the lands of the Slavs and Prussians3 in the X-XI centuries. led to the partial assimilation of the local population.

English. The ethnic basis of the English nation was made up of the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians, who conquered in the 5th-6th centuries. Celtic Britain. In the 7th-10th centuries an Anglo-Saxon people developed, which also absorbed Celtic elements. Later, the Anglo-Saxons, mixed with the Danes, Norwegians, and after the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by immigrants from France, laid the foundation for the English nation.

Norse. The ancestors of the Norsemen - Germanic tribes of pastoralists and farmers - came to Scandinavia at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. In Old English sources of the ninth century. for the first time the term "nordmann" - "northern man" (Norwegian) is encountered. Education in X-X! centuries the early feudal state and Christianization contributed to the formation of the Norwegian people around this time. In the Viking Age (IX-XI centuries), settlers from Norway created colonies on the islands of the North Atlantic and in Iceland (Faroese, Icelanders).

Slavic peoples

The Slavs are the largest group of related peoples in Europe. It consists of Slavs: eastern (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians), western (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatians) and southern (Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Muslims, Macedonians, Bosnians). The origin of the ethnonym "Slavs" is not clear enough. It can be assumed that it goes back to the common Indo-European root, the semantic content of which is the concepts of "man", "people". The ethnogenesis of the Slavs probably developed in stages (Proto-Slavs, Proto-Slavs and the early Slavic ethnolinguistic community). By the second half of the 1st millennium AD. e. formed separate Slavic ethnic communities (unions of tribes).

Slavic ethnic communities were originally formed in the area either between the Oder and the Vistula, or between the Oder and the Dnieper. Various ethnic groups took part in ethnogenetic processes - both Slavic and non-Slavic: Dacians, Thracians, Turks, Balts, Finno-Ugric peoples, etc. From here, the Slavs began to gradually move in the southwestern, western and northern directions, which coincided in mainly with the final phase of the Great Migration of Nations (U-UI centuries). As a result, in the K-X centuries. an extensive area of ​​Slavic settlement developed: from the modern Russian North and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean and from the Volga to the Elbe.

The emergence of statehood among the Slavs dates back to the UP-GH centuries. (First Bulgarian kingdom, Kievan Rus, the Great Moravian state, the Old Polish state, etc.). The nature, dynamics and pace of formation of the Slavic peoples were largely influenced by social and political factors. So, in the ninth century. the lands inhabited by the ancestors of the Slovenes were captured by the Germans and became part of the Holy Roman Empire, and at the beginning of the 10th century. the ancestors of the Slovaks after the fall of the Great Moravian state were included in the Hungarian state. The process of ethno-social development among the Bulgarians and Serbs was interrupted in the XIV century. Ottoman (Turkish) invasion, stretching for five hundred years. Croatia in view of the danger from the outside at the beginning of the XII century. recognized the power of the Hungarian kings. Czech lands at the beginning of the 17th century. were included in the Austrian monarchy, and Poland survived at the end of the XVIII century. several sections.

The development of the Slavs in Eastern Europe had specific features. The peculiarity of the process of formation of individual nations (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians) was that they equally survived the stage of the Old Russian nationality and were formed as a result of the differentiation of the Old Russian nationality into three independent closely related ethnic groups (XIV-XVI centuries). In the XVII-XIII centuries. Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians ended up in one state - the Russian Empire. The process of formation of nations proceeded among these ethnic groups at a different pace, which was determined by the peculiar historical, ethno-political and ethno-cultural situations experienced by each of the three peoples. Thus, for Belarusians and Ukrainians, an important role was played by the need to resist Polonization and Magyarization, the incompleteness of their ethno-social structure, formed as a result of the merger of their own upper social strata with the upper social strata of Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, etc. .

The process of formation of the Russian nation proceeded simultaneously with the formation of the Ukrainian and Belarusian nations. In the conditions of the liberation war against Tatar-Mongol yoke (mid-twelfth- the end of the XV century) there was an ethnic consolidation of the principalities of North-Eastern Rus', which formed in the XIU-XU centuries. Moscow Rus'. The Eastern Slavs of Rostov, Suzdal, Vladimir, Moscow, Tver and Novgorod lands became the ethnic core of the emerging Russian nation. One of the most important features of the ethnic history of Russians was the constant presence of sparsely populated areas adjacent to the main Russian ethnic territory, and the centuries-old migration activity of the Russian population. As a result, a vast ethnic territory of Russians gradually formed, surrounded by a zone of constant ethnic contacts with peoples of various origins, cultural traditions and language (Finno-Ugric, Turkic, Baltic, Mongolian, West and South Slavic, Caucasian, etc.).

The Ukrainian people was formed on the basis of a part of the East Slavic population, which was previously part of a single ancient Russian state(IX-

XII centuries). Ukrainian nation developed in the southwestern regions of this state (the territory of Kyiv, Pereyaslav, Chernigov-Seversky, Volyn and Galician principalities) mainly in the XIU-XU centuries. Despite the capture in the XV century. a large part of Ukrainian lands by Polish-Lithuanian feudal lords, in the 17th-17th centuries. in the course of the struggle against the Polish, Lithuanian, Hungarian conquerors and opposition to the Tatar khans, the consolidation of the Ukrainian people continued. In the XVI century. the Ukrainian (so-called Old Ukrainian) book language was formed.

In the 17th century Ukraine reunited with Russia (1654). In the 90s of the XVIII century. Russia included the Right-bank Ukraine and the southern Ukrainian lands, and in the first half of the 19th century. - Danubian. The name "Ukraine" was used to designate various southern and southwestern parts of the Old Russian lands as early as the 12th century.

13th century Subsequently (by the 18th century), this term in the meaning of "krajina", i.e. country, was fixed in official documents, became widespread and became the basis for the ethnonym of the Ukrainian people.

The oldest ethnic basis of the Belarusians were East Slavic tribes, partially assimilated Lithuanian Yotvingian tribes. In the IX-XI centuries. were part of Kievan Rus. After a period of feudal fragmentation from the middle of the XIII - during the XIV century. the lands of Belarus were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, then in the 16th century. - part of the Commonwealth. In the XIV-XVI centuries. the Belarusian people were formed, their culture developed. At the end of the XVIII century. Belarus reunited with Russia.

Other peoples of Europe

Celts (Gauls) - ancient Indo-European tribes that lived in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. on the territory of modern France, Belgium, Switzerland, southern Germany, Austria, northern Italy, northern and western parts of Spain, the British Isles, the Czech Republic, partly Hungary and Bulgaria. By the middle of the 1st c. BC e. were conquered by the Romans. The Celtic tribes included the Britons, Gauls, Helvetians, and others.

Greeks. Ethnic composition of the territory Ancient Greece in the III millennium BC. e. was motley: Pelasgians, Lelegs and other peoples who were pushed back and assimilated by the proto-Greek tribes - Achaeans, Ionians and Dorians. The ancient Greek people began to form in the II millennium BC. e., and in the era Greek colonization coast of the Mediterranean and Black Seas (VIII-VI centuries BC), a common Greek cultural unity was formed - Hellenes (from the name of the tribe that inhabited Hellas - a region in Thessaly). The ethnonym "Greeks" originally referred, apparently, to one of the tribes in northern Greece, then was borrowed by the Romans and extended to all Hellenes. The ancient Greeks created a highly developed ancient civilization that played big role in the development of European culture. In the Middle Ages, the Greeks were the main core Byzantine Empire and were officially called Romans (Romans). Gradually, they assimilated the groups of Thracians, Illyrians, Celts, Slavs, and Albanians that migrated from the north. Ottoman domination in the Balkans (XV - first half of the XIX century) was largely reflected in the material culture and language of the Greeks. As a result of the national liberation movement in the XIX century. the Greek state was formed.

Finns. The Finnish nationality was formed in the process of merging the tribes that lived on the territory of modern Finland. In the XII-XIII centuries. Finnish lands were conquered by the Swedes, who left a noticeable imprint on the culture of the Finns. In the XVI century. Finnish writing appeared. From the beginning of the XIX to the beginning of the XX century. Finland was part of the Russian Empire with the status of an autonomous grand duchy.

The ethnic composition of the population of Europe as a whole is given in Table. 4.3.

Table 4.3. ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION OF EUROPE (data are given as of mid-1985, including the former USSR)

Western Slavs — these are Croats, Czechs, Serbs, Obodrites, Lyutiches, Moravians, Slovenes, Slovaks, Slenzane, Pomeranians, Polyana, Kuyavy, Seradzyan, Lenchane, Duleby, Vislyane, Mazowshan, Prussians, Yatvyags, Volyanyans. The Slavs are a kind of community of different peoples.

The Slavs have never been a single entity in the full sense of the word. They, like every ethnic group, have always had somatological, cultural, linguistic and territorial differences. These initial differences for a long time were insignificant, then increased due to migration and interbreeding with other ethnic groups. After the initial impulses of resettlement, the Slavic united community broke up into a number of new formations that finally took shape over the following centuries. 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. The path to the north was blocked by the sea, as well as lakes and swamps. As a result of settlement, tribes of eastern, western and southern Slavs were formed, on the basis of which numerous Slavic peoples later arose. Their fate was different.
Part of the Slavs moved to the northeast, to the East European Plain, to the dense forest jungle, where there was no cultural heritage - this East Slavs. They left in two streams: one part of the Slavs went to Lake Ilmen, the other - to the middle and lower reaches of the Dnieper. Others stayed in Europe. Later they will be named southern Slavs . The southern Slavs, the ancestors of the Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, went south, to the Adriatic Sea and the Balkan Peninsula, fell into the sphere of influence of the Mediterranean civilization. And the third part of the Slavs - Western Slavs - these are Czechs, Poles, Slovaks moved further west to the Odra and Labe and even further this river - to the Saale, and in a south-westerly direction - to the middle Danube up to present-day Bavaria.

The process of isolating the West Slavic branch began even before our era and ended in in general terms in the first millennium AD. The place of settlement of the Western Slavs was the eastern half of a vast region, which from the 1st century BC. e. It was called Germany and the border, which in the west was the Rhine, in the south - first the Main River and the Sudeten Mountains, and later the Danube, was established along the Vistula in the east. Western Slavs, from ancient times subjected to other cultural influences than East Slavs, over time, found themselves in new, even more distinctive conditions and in a new environment. The delimitation of the Eastern and Western Slavs began in the 10th century, when two competing states arose - Kievan Rus and Poland. The alienation was deepened by the fact that in the countries there was Christianity of various rites (Catholicism and Orthodoxy). Communication with eastern branch The Slavs weakened also because between it and the western branch stretched on one side the endless and impenetrable Rokyten swamps, and on the other side the Lithuanian Prussians and Yotvingians wedged in. So the western branch of the Slavs, its language, culture and foreign policy destinies began to develop further independently and independently of the southern and eastern Slavs.

A large group of West Slavic tribes at the end of the 1st beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. e. inhabited the territory from the Laba River and its tributary Sala River in the west to the Odra River in the east, from the Ore Mountains in the south to the Baltic Sea in the north. To the west of all, starting from the Kiel Bay, the obodrites settled, to the south and east along the Baltic coast lived the Lutichi, on the island of Rügen, adjacent to the territory of the Lutichi, the Ruyans lived. The Pomeranians related to them lived along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, approximately from the mouth of the Odra to the mouth of the Vistula, in the south along the Notech River, bordered on Polish tribes. Those Slavs who in past centuries occupied vast areas on the coast of the Baltic are usually called the Baltic Slavs. The groups were independent of each other. Only danger forced them for some time to unite with each other or with other West Slavic tribes in tribal unions:

• bodrichi (military-tribal union), vagrs, clays, drevanes;
• lyutichi (military-tribal union), ratari, ruyans, slovintsy, smolintsy;
• Lusatian Lusatian Serbs (military-tribal union), Milchane;
• Pomeranians, the ancestors of the current Kashubians, Slenzhane, Bohemians and others.

All these tribes are still called Polabian Slavs . They lived along the Laba, hence their name, which was collective for a number of small tribes. Each of these groups consisted of smaller tribes, to which belonged the Vetnichi, or Betenchi, Pyzhichans, Volinians, Vyzhychans, and others, who settled along the banks of small rivers. As a result of the lack of a reliable relationship, small tribes were not connected into an independent state association. In the second half of the 6th century, at least a third of the lands of the modern German state in the north and northeast were covered by the Polabian Slavs. The Slavs replaced the "Germanic" tribes of the Lombards, Rugs, Lugis, Hezobrads, Varins, Velets and others who lived here in ancient times and headed south from the coast of the Baltic Sea. The eastern half of Germany (up to the Elbe), which had become considerably empty with the departure of most of the Germanic tribes living there, was gradually occupied by the Slavs. Confirmation that the Slavs lived on the territory of Germany from the very first centuries of our era, there is a coincidence of the tribal names of the Polabian, Pomeranian and other Western Slavs with the oldest ethnic names known in this territory, mentioned in Roman sources. In total, about fifteen such paired, coinciding ancient and medieval Slavic names of the tribes that lived in the area are known. This is evidenced by the multiple toponyms that they left behind. "German" Berlin is a distorted name ancient city Polabian Slavs, founded in the 1st millennium BC. e., and in translation meaning (burlin) "dam".
Since the 10th century, the German feudal lords began a systematic offensive against the Polabian Slavs, first for the sake of receiving tribute, and then with the aim of spreading their power on their lands by founding military regions (marks). The German feudal lords managed to subjugate the Polabian Slavs, but as a result of powerful uprisings (983, 1002), most of them, with the exception of the Lusatian Serbs, became free again. Scattered Slavic tribes could not provide proper resistance to the conquerors. The rallying of individual tribes under a single princely authority was necessary for their joint protection from the aggression of the Saxon and Danish feudal lords. In 623, Polabian Serbs, together with Czechs, Slovaks, Moravians, Black Croats, Dulebs and Horutans, united under the leadership of the merchant Samo to resist the Avars. In 789 and 791, together with the Czechs, the Polabian Serbs again participate in the campaigns of Charlemagne against the Avar Khaganate. Under the successors of Charlemagne, the Polabian tribes several times got out of Saxon power and again fell into dependence.

In the 9th century, part of the Polabian Slavs submitted to the Germans, the other part became part of the Great Moravian state that arose in 818. In 928, the Polabian Slavs united to successfully resist the Saxon king Heinrich the Fowler, who seized the territory of the Polabian-Serbian tribe of the Glomachs and imposed tribute on the Lyutichs. However, under Otto I, the Lusatian Serbs were again completely enslaved by the Germans, and their lands were given into fief possession to knights and monasteries. In the Polabian lands, German feudal lords were appointed as petty princes. In 983, the Polabian Slavs revolted. Their detachments destroyed the fortresses built by the Germans, devastated the border areas. The Slavs regained their freedom for another century and a half.
The Slavic world, both evolutionarily and under the pressure of the Roman Empire, has long passed the stage of tribal organization. It was, although not clearly organized, but a system of proto-states. Long wars with the German feudal lords had a detrimental effect on economic development Polabian Slavs, hindered the formation of relatively large early feudal states. Vendian power - the early feudal state of the Polabian Slavs: Bodrichi, Lutichi and Pomeranians, existed from the 1040s to 1129 on the coast of the Baltic Sea between the mouths of the Laba and Odra rivers. At the head was Gottschalk (1044-1066) - the prince of the Bodrichs. In an attempt to rally the emerging alliance of the Polabian Slavs in the struggle against the Billungs and their allies, Gottschalk chose Christianity as the dominant religion for the Obodrites and Luticians. As a result of his reign, churches and monasteries were again revived on the lands of the Obodrite tribes, the chairs were restored: in Stargard among the Vagrians, in Veligrad (Mecklenburg) among the Obodrites and in Ratibor among the Polabs. They began to translate into Vendian liturgical books. The process of Christianization undermined the local power of the Polabian tribal nobility, which was actually removed from government on the lands of the Vendian state. Against the policy of Gottschalk, a conspiracy arose among members of his family, representatives of the tribal nobility, pagan priests, and Luticians who had been conquered by him. At the head of the conspiracy of the tribal nobility stood Bluss, whose wife was Gottschalk's own sister. In 1066, simultaneously with the removal of Archbishop Adalbert from power and his loss of political influence, an uprising against Gottschalk began in Slavonia, the center of which was the city of Retra, located in the land of the Luticians. "Because of fidelity to God" the prince was captured and killed in the church by pagans. They also killed Bishop John of Mecklenburg, who "cut off his arms and legs, and stuck his head on a spear as a sign of victory and offered it as a sacrifice to the gods." The rebels ravaged and destroyed Hamburg, as well as the Danish border lands in the Hed region. The popular uprising was suppressed by Prince Heinrich (son of Gottschalk), he called back the German bishops and ruled as a vassal of the Saxon Billungs. Some tribes, such as the wounds, did not recognize Henry and, together with the Polish princes, continued to fight against German aggression. Weakened by territorial losses and internal dynastic turmoil, the Vendian Empire finally disintegrated around 1129. In the XII century. came The final stage the struggle of the Polabian Slavs, led by Prince Niklot Bodrichi, against German aggression, organized by Henry the Lion and Albrecht Medved, who sought to finally enslave the Slavs beyond Laboya with the forces of a kind of crusaders.

Bishops took part in the campaign, and above all the bishops of the Slavic regions, forced after the Slavic uprisings of the late 10th and early 11th centuries. leave their dioceses. These bishops, led by the bishop of Havelberg, who was appointed papal legate under the crusaders, dreamed of returning the lost tithes and other incomes and lands once granted to them by Otto I. The Danes, who suffered from Slavic raids, and even Burgundian, Czech and Polish feudal lords. After failing at the first Crusade against the Slavs in 1147, Henry the Lion succeeded, as a result of subsequent campaigns to the east, to capture almost the entire territory of the Bodrichi and become the owner of a vast territory east of the Elbe. Thus, from 1160, the possessions of the Slavic princes in Mecklenburg became dependent on the Germans. In 1167, the lands of the Bodrichians, with the exception of the County of Schwerin, were returned to the son of Niklot Pribislav, who converted to Christianity and recognized himself as a vassal of Henry the Lion. In 1171 he founded the Doberan Monastery, provided funds for the Bishopric of Schwerin, and accompanied Henry to Jerusalem in 1172. Christianization was for the German feudal lords only a plausible pretext for theft in the Slavic lands beyond Laba.

The Slavs did not have an organizing policy, which the Germans met in the south - in the former Rome, having adopted Christianity, and in fact assimilating many of the principles by which the Roman Empire was built. Since the second half of the 12th century, the Polabian-Baltic Slavs have been under German citizenship. This meant for them not only the loss of political freedom, their faith and culture, but also their nationality, since those who were not destroyed began to be subjected to increased Germanization, reinforced by the return colonization by the Germans of those areas in which they once lived in the beginning. ad.

From the Oder to the Vistula, those who were named according to their coastal place of residence settled, occupying the territory east of the Oder and up to the border of the Prussian region: Pomeranians.

The exact boundaries of the settlement of the Pomeranians are unknown. The border between the Lyutichs and the Pomeranians ran along the Oder and separated these hostile tribes. After the collapse of the Lutician union, some of the lands of the Luticians west of the Oder passed to the Pomeranians, and the territory of their settlement changed. From the east there were other neighbors - the Prussians. The Prussians crossed the borders of this region only in the 12th century, having conquered the so-called Pomesania, located between the Vistula and the Drwence. In the 13th century, the lands of the Prussians were captured by the Teutonic Order. A massive influx of Lithuanian and Polish population into the region began. As a result, at the beginningXVIII century there was a complete disappearance of the Prussians as a separate nationality. In the south, the border between the Pomeranian and Polish regions was the rivers Warta and Notec, but this is only in name, since the actual border was a vast impenetrable virgin forest. Only along the lower reaches of the Vistula, the Poles advanced in the areas of Kotsev and Chelmno, and soon they began to move towards the sea ...

Pomeranians - this is a union of tribes, which included tribes that were significantly different from each other - these are the Kashubians, who occupied the area from the mouth of the Vistula to Zharnovsky Lake, extending to the line of Bytov, Lenbork, Miastko, Ferstnovo, Kamen, and the Slovenes, who settled near Lake Lebskoe. In the west, their lands border on Germany. In the Middle Ages, the Kashubians settled in the western regions of Pomerania, in the basin of the Parsenta River near the town of Kołobrzeg. In the 13th century, western Pomerania was called Kashubia. The Kashubians, descendants of the ancient Pomeranians, currently live on the coast of the Baltic Sea, in the northeastern regions of Poland.

The only Pomeranian language that has survived to this day is Kashubian, the speakers of other Pomeranian languages ​​switched to German. The preservation of the Kashubian language was facilitated by the fact that part of Pomerania to the west of Gdansk maintained ties with the Polish state and long time was in its composition. With regard to the language of the Pomeranian Slavs, there is still a dispute whether to attribute it to the Polish language and consider it only as a dialect of the Polish language, or to classify it as a group of independent languages.

Each region included in Pomerania had its own political center - a city, with the territory surrounding it. Further, there were other, smaller, castles.

In the 9th century, some Slavic settlements at the mouth of the Odra, such as Szczecin and Wolin, as well as Kolobrzeg, were transformed into densely built-up settlements surrounded by fortifications, with shopping malls in which auctions were held, for example, in Szczecin twice a week. The population - these are artisans, fishermen, merchants, was for the most part free, weighed down only by appropriate tributes and duties in favor of public power. In some places, aliens settled, who enjoyed considerable freedom of action.

Already in the X century. from the fortified points around which many Slavic villages were originally located, cities grew that were the military-administrative centers of individual tribes or their unions: Branibor - the center of the Gavolyan tribe, Retra - the main point of the four Luticic tribes, Mikelin or Mecklenburg - in the land of Obodrites. These cities in the X-XI centuries. conducted a lively trade with Saxony, Denmark, Sweden and Russia, exporting bread, salt and fish. Gradually, handicraft production also developed in the Slavic cities: weaving, pottery, jewelry and construction. Buildings in Slavic cities were distinguished by their beauty, which amazed contemporaries. Numerous cities of the Western Slavs were built of wood, as later in Rus'. The very word "city" meant "enclosed space". Most often, the fence consisted of ditches filled with water, from a stream with a changed course, and ramparts. Shafts are logs sprinkled with earth, into which powerful stakes pointed outwards were inserted.

Such protective structures reached a height of five (and more) meters, the same number - in width. It was these settlements that were excavated by German archaeologists. For example, Thornov on the banks of the Spree. In total, to the west of the Oder, in the lands of the Polabian Slavs, a dozen and a half settlements of the IX-XI centuries were excavated, but this is only an insignificant part of the cities that once existed here.

In the 40s - 60s of the XII century, Pomerania was a federation of Slavic principalities, headed by the Slavic city of Szczecin, whose decisions were significant for other principalities and cities. Szczecin represented the interests of Pomerania before the Polish prince, seeking a reduction in tribute. The supreme body - the People's Assembly - VECHE met in the city, but the Slavic population also participated in it from the rural district of the city. The will of the prince was adamant for all the Pomorians: when the prince of the Pomorians in the winter of 1107-1108, upon meeting with the Polish prince Boleslav Krivousty, approached Boleslav, bowed before him and declared himself a knight and servant loyal to him, the Polish prince, without a single battle, was able to annex almost the whole Principality of Pomerania.

The accession of Pomerania and the Serbo-Lusatian lands contributed to the strengthening of the Slavs in these lands and their further opposition to Germanization. In the 11th-12th centuries, the princes of Pomerania made campaigns against Poland.

Like all Slavs, the basis of the Pomeranian economy was agriculture and cattle breeding, supplemented by forestry, hunting and fishing. Pomeranians sowed millet, rye, wheat, barley, and at the beginning of the Middle Ages - oats. In the 7th-8th centuries, beef dominated the diet, but in the following centuries it was almost completely replaced by pork. Forest and hunting trades were well developed in spacious forests. Many rivers and lakes and the sea contributed to the development of fisheries. In Kołobrzeg, since the 6th-7th centuries, the Pomeranians have been making salt.

Around 1000, the Pomeranian salt pans became famous far beyond the borders of Pomerania. Salt was one of the most important items of trade, both import and export, depending on its availability in a particular Slavic region. There were areas inhabited by the Slavs where there was no salt, but there were areas rich in this mineral, where the salt trade developed. Salt was known to the Indo-Europeans, who had common name, and from this it follows that the Slavs knew and used salt already in the prehistoric era. In what way it was mined in those days, we do not know, since there are no reports about this; perhaps they received it, like others northern peoples, by pouring salt water on burning firewood, from which they then collected ashes mixed with salt.

The first reports about the use of salt by the Slavs in food and as an object of trade appear only in the 9th century AD. e.; At that time, the Slavs already used several methods for extracting salt, depending on the conditions of its location. On the coast of the Adriatic, Aegean and Black Seas, ancient salt pans dominated, where water was evaporated in the sun. Water was also evaporated in large iron pans, called sartago in Latin sources, and cheren, cheren in Slavic sources. So far, salt has been produced in this way in Bosnia or in Galicia, where salt-bearing raw materials are dug out of pits. Pieces of salt were removed from the pans like loaves of bread, then these pieces were divided into parts, for which several ancient terms were preserved, for example: head, pile. Boiled salt was an expensive commodity, so the Varangian salt makers were well armed and united to protect their product on the road, which they traded everywhere. Initially, the Varangians were entirely from the Slavs, and later passionate youth from Scandinavia began to be included in their number. The very word "Varangian" meant "salt maker" from the word variti, that is, evaporate-cook salt. Hence the name of the mitten - varega, which was used by salt workers to protect hands from burns, and later the mitten came in handy in the northern regions in winter to protect hands from frost. There is another interpretation of the word "Varangian" - from the meaning in Sanskrit of the word water - "var". In this case, "Varangians" means people living near the water, Pomors.

In the 10th century, long-distance trade flourished there. Free tribes of the Pomeranians by the 10th century A.D. e. gradually merged into larger unions. Pomorie has contacts with almost all European countries. From here, grain was exported to barren Scandinavia, and salted herring was exported to the hinterland of Poland. In addition to ties with Scandinavia, which were supported by the cities of Wolin, Szczecin, Kamen, Kolobrzeg, Gdansk, stable relations are being established with Russia and other Slavic lands, among which the inland Polish regions should be highlighted. In addition, relations are being established with the Prussians, Byzantium, some Arab countries, England and Western Europe. Ties with the Prussians were manifested not only in the appearance of imported Prussian products, but also in the formation of some new cultural features, for example, the spread of metal sheaths of knives, and also, perhaps, in the form of some pagan idols. On the other hand, the Prussians adopted the forms of Pomeranian pottery. The influence of ceramic production of the Pomeranians also spread to Scandinavia. shopping centers Szczecin and Wolin, where auctions were held and, for example, in Szczecin twice a week.

There is a flourishing of local production. Quite early here they began to make amber beads on a lathe. By the 6th or 7th century A find in Tolishchek relates: in an earthenware vessel there were silver rings and beads made of glass, amber and clay, a necklace made of glass beads, and another one made of amber, including polished ones. Excavation materials, for example, in Kołobrzeg-Budzistowa indicate that in the following centuries, work on amber, bone and horn was carried out by the same artisans or in the same workshops.

Metallurgy and blacksmith crafts are developing. The basis for the growth of metallurgy was created by marsh, meadow and partially lacustrine ores. The main centers of iron mining were located mainly in the villages. krytsy (a bloom is a loose, spongy, slag-impregnated iron mass, from which, through various treatments, bloom iron or steel is obtained) were smelted in blast furnaces. Charcoal was used for heating. Raw materials were processed in Gorodishche centers; forges also sprang up there. In the cities of Radashche in Kendrzyno, Wolin, Szczecin, Kolobrzeg and Gdansk, production workshops appeared that produced tin and lead. In the lands of the Slavs, rich deposits of silver were discovered. Among the silver jewelry there are molds that were undoubtedly made in Pomorie.

The territory of free Pomerania passed several times into the power of Poland or Germany, which at that time was part of the Roman Empire. Only in 995 did Pomorie recognize dependence on the Polish prince Boleslav the Brave. At the beginning of the 11th century (1018), Boleslav the Brave annexed Lusitia to Poland, but already in 1034 she again fell under the rule of the Germans. In the same period, for some time, the lands of the Pomeranians again acquire independence. In 1110, the Polish king Boleslav Krivousty again annexed the Pomeranians, who retained Slavic paganism, to Poland, while the princes of the Pomeranians did not lose their inheritances.

Polish rule over Pomerania did not last long. The Pomeranians resisted the Polish authorities and raised uprisings over and over again, especially since the Poles not only tried to have political power over the Pomeranians, but also to Christianize them, which aroused particular indignation among the latter. In 1005 Volin rebelled, but by 1008 Boleslav managed to restore his power over Pomerania. But as a result of a new uprising of the Volynians after 1014, Poland's position in Pomorie again weakened. The previously founded bishopric in Kolobrzeg was liquidated and the process of Christianization of Pomerania was interrupted.

The accession of Pomerania to Poland in the second half of the 10th century had far-reaching socio-political consequences for these lands. Many castles were destroyed, and some of them, which served as castellan centers in the 12th century, were expanded. In Kołobrzeg, Boleslav the Brave located his main church center. In the 12th century, Bolesław Krivousty managed to subjugate eastern Pomerania with the city of Gdansk to his power, and put the princes of western Pomerania under political dependence. The emerging Pomeranian Principality of Wartislava largely imitated the structure of the Polish Piast monarchy, borrowed many elements of its system, which was manifested in the functioning of the system of tributes and duties, the organization of the court, administration, courts, etc.

From the end of the 13th century, the German feudal lords resumed the consistent seizure of the lands of the Polabian and Pomeranian Slavs, accompanied by their Germanization. In the cities it is forbidden to speak the Slavic language, all office work is translated into German, German training is conducted in schools, it is possible to engage in any privileged craft only if you speak German. Such conditions forced the Serbian population to learn the language and culture of the Germans. Slavic dialects are preserved almost exclusively in rural areas. Because of the devastating wars with the Danes, the Pomeranian feudal lords welcomed the settlement of the devastated lands by the Germans. The most active process of Germanization took place in the western lands of the Polabian Slavs. During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), more than 50% of the Serbs died here, as a result of which the distribution area of ​​the Slavs in Germany was significantly reduced. The language of the Slavs and their customs were retained the longest in the Duchy of Mecklenburg and the Hanoverian Wendland.

Western Slavs have long kept pagan tradition. It received special development among the inhabitants of the Polish Pomerania. The new king of Poland, Bolesław Wrymouth, realized that in order to join Pomerania to Poland, it was necessary to eliminate religious differences. Bishop Otton of Bamberg volunteered to preach in Pomerania after Boleslav addressed him with this request. The pagans initially show some resistance, but the planting of a new cult is carried out very aggressively, with the use of cruel measures in relation to the adherents of antiquity. After passing through several cities, Otto arrived in Wolin in 1127. Before that, he visited Shchetin. To discuss the issue of accepting Christianity in Szczecin, countless people were convened - pagans from villages and cities. Some of the noble people of the city, who had previously been inclined towards Christianity, decided to expel the pagan priests “from the borders of the fatherland” and follow Otto’s leadership in religion. After that, in Wolin, Otto did not meet any resistance. The city followed the example of Shchetin, as was customary there, and Otto continued on his way. This was the beginning of the Christianization of Pomerania. Among the Pomeranians, it spread along with the adoption of Christianity by Great Moravia and Poland, among the Slavic Slavs - along with the spread of German (Saxon) power. Among the Pomeranians, their dissatisfaction with the Poles was weakened - now they had one religion.

The main sanctuary of the Pomeranians was in Szczecin. There were four continas in the city of Szczecin, but one of them, the main one, was built with amazing diligence and skill. Inside and outside, it had sculptures, images of people, birds and animals protruding from the walls, rendered so appropriately to their appearance that they seemed to be breathing and living. There was also a triple statue here, which had three heads on one body, called Triglav.

Triglav is a three-headed statue whose eyes and mouth are covered with a golden bandage. As the priests of idols explain, the main god has three heads, because he oversees the three kingdoms, that is, heaven, earth and the underworld, and covers his face with a bandage, since he hides the sins of people, as if not seeing or talking about them. They also had other gods. They worshiped Svyatovit, Triglav, Chernobog, Radigost, Zhiva, Yarovit. Temples and groves were dedicated to the gods. Until now, in the lands inhabited by Polabian and Pomeranian Slavs, evidence of pagan culture is found. One of them is the Zbruch idol, as well as the microjin runic stones.

The inhabitants of Kolobreg worshiped the sea as the home of some gods. Like other pagans, the Pomeranians brought sacrifices to the gods. But they did not practice human sacrifice.

All Baltic Slavs had priests. But unlike the Lyutichs and Ruyans, the power and influence of the priests among the Pomeranians were not significant. Important information about the level of medicine of that time is provided by Slavic bodily burials of the 10th-12th centuries. Most Interest represent the most complex operations on the skull - trepanations. They are known in much more early times- for example, skulls with trepanations are also known from the culture of megaliths in the same Mecklenburg. And if their purpose is not completely clear, and it is assumed that they were of a mystical and cult nature, then it is unnecessary to talk about the complexity of such operations. The end of Slavic paganism in Polabye was the destruction of the sanctuary of Svyatovit in Arkona.

In addition to trepanation itself, the Baltic Slavs also know symbolic trepanation. In this case, a part of the skull was not completely removed for the patient, but only the top layer of the bone was cut or scraped off.

It is believed that head wounds could be “treated” in this way. It is most likely that the operations were carried out by pagan priests. There is no direct medieval evidence of such practices among the Slavic priests, but it is known that the priests of the Celts were skilled in such healing. The technique for carrying out such complex operations, like trepanation, disappeared immediately with the adoption of Christianity - when the priesthood was destroyed. The Slavs kept the belief that pagan idols could cure diseases. As soon as a plague epidemic broke out in the Pomeranian city of Szczecin, which had just adopted Christianity, the inhabitants of the city perceived it as the revenge of Triglav, whose idol was, shortly before, overthrown by Christians. The wholesale epidemics that have tormented Europe since the Middle Ages are directly connected with the fact that, along with the destruction of paganism in Europe, the medical knowledge of priests accumulated over thousands of years was lost.

Polabskie and Pomeranian Slavs by now almost completely assimilated by German and Polish peoples. Of the numerous tribes that inhabited the vast territories of Polabya ​​in the 6th - 11th centuries AD, now only Lusatians (Federal Republic of Germany) and Kashubians (Polish Republic) associate themselves with the Slavs. Currently, Western Pomerania is part of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the rest is Polish territory.

Modern Slavic peoples and states.

The first information about the Slavs. Wends.

The origin of the word "Slavs"

In this book, addressed mainly to students and students Russia, there is no need to elaborate on the topic of who the Slavs are. The largest Slavic people, Russians, constitutes in our country the so-called "titular" or state-forming nation.

Slavs live mainly in Eastern and Central Europe (and also in Siberia). As a result of immigration processes, there are Slavic diasporas even in the USA, Canada, Australia and a number of other regions of the planet.

Russians, according to the latest available data, more than 145 million. The second largest Slavic people are Ukrainians. There are about 50 million of them. The third largest Slavic people are Poles. Their number approaches the number of Ukrainians and is about 45 million. Further, in descending order of numbers, Belarusians - almost 10 million, Serbs until recently were at least 10 million, Czechs - about 10 million, Bulgarians - more than 9 million, Slovaks - 5 .5 million, Croats too - 5.5 million, Slovenes - up to 2.5 million, Macedonians - 2 million, Muslims - about 2 million, Montenegrins - 0.6 million people16.

For centuries, the Eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians) lived in one state, which changed names ( Russian empire, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), but united these fraternal peoples, mutually reinforcing them in cultural, economic and military-political terms. At the end of 1991, due to complex socio-political processes, the USSR collapsed. Since that time, Ukrainians and Belarusians live in their own separate from Russia and Russian national states.

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia existed on the Balkan Peninsula for several decades, uniting almost all southern Slavs - Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, Muslims and Montenegrins. Since the beginning of the 1990s, due to similar processes, Yugoslavia has gradually disintegrated. At first, the Slovenes, Croats and Macedonians almost simultaneously emerged from it and proclaimed the creation of their own states. In the end, only Serbia and Montenegro remained part of Yugoslavia, but recently Montenegro, as a result of a referendum, declared its independence from Serbia, and Yugoslavia ceased to exist as a state.

In 1993, it broke up into two West Slavic states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, a single Czechoslovakia that existed since 1918. Only West Slavic Poland and South Slavic Bulgaria remained within the borders that they acquired after the Second World War.

As a result, on this moment on the planet there are Russia (capital - Moscow), Ukraine (Kiev), Belarus or Belarus (Minsk), Czech Republic (Prague), Slovakia (Bratislava), Poland (Warsaw), Bulgaria (Sofia), Macedonia (Skopje), Croatia (Zagreb ), Slovenia (Ljubljana), Serbia (Belgrade), Montenegro (Podgorica)17.

Russian readers know what a spiritual tragedy the destruction of the USSR and the SFRY, powerful states in which peoples lived peacefully, created and developed uniquely vibrant cultures, turned out to be for all Slavs. At the same time, for example, the death of Yugoslavia resulted in an ethnic catastrophe.

In the early 1990s, a largely externally provoked war took place between fraternal peoples- Serbs, Croats and Muslims - in the Yugoslav regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina18.

Many Bosnian Serbs were eventually expelled from the lands where their distant ancestors lived. Homeless people fled en masse to Serbia.

In 1999, Serbia, which had previously accepted them, in turn, became a victim of aggression by a number of countries that are members of the NATO military bloc.

The pretext for aggression was the declared intention of the NATO members to "protect" the Albanians living there from the Yugoslav police in the Serbian province of Kosovo. For 78 days, Serbia was constantly subjected to massive bombings, as a result of which thousands of civilians were killed, ancient cities and architectural monuments were destroyed.

After that, Albanian gangs, in conditions of complete impunity, staged a series of Serbian pogroms in Kosovo with numerous murders of unarmed people, as a result of which the Serb population in the first half of the 2000s almost without exception fled this region, abandoning their homes and property19.

At the beginning of 2008, with the huge support of the United States and some other NATO countries, Kosovo declared its "state" independence, although such a declaration was accompanied by a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and international law.

Foreign forces in the XXI century. have repeatedly interfered in the internal affairs of the Slavic countries, provoking the so-called "orange revolutions" in them.

Currently Slavic world is in a state of unprecedented cultural and historical disunity, disintegration.

All the more important now is the task of getting to know Slavic issues within the framework of the course Introduction to Slavic Philology20.

The first information about the Slavs comes from Roman historians Pliny the Elder And Cornelia Tacitus 21. These are brief mentions, and both Roman authors call the Slavs "Venedi".

Thus, Pliny in his natural history" (98 AD) writes: "Some writers convey that these areas up to the Vistula (Vistula) river are inhabited by Sarmatians, Wends, Scythians, Girrs." Somewhat earlier Tacitus in his essay " Germany” also in the form of a passing mention says that the Wends live next to the tribes of Peukins and Fenns. He finds it difficult to attribute them to the Germans, whom he repeatedly criticizes for "barbarism", but argues that "the Wends adopted many of their customs", building similar dwellings and also distinguished by a sedentary lifestyle.

"Venedi" - the Slavs themselves, apparently, never called themselves this word. This is a name from the outside: that is what others called them in ancient times. Similarly one can recall all the well-known European people, whose representatives call themselves "Deutsches", and other peoples call them differently - Russians "Germans", French "Alleman", English "Jemen", etc.

Names that refract the word "Venedi" have survived to this day in the Finno-Ugric languages. In Estonian Russian - vene ("vein"), Russian - vene keel.

In the II century. n. e. Claudius Ptolemy in his " geographical guide” once again briefly mentions the Wends, who, according to his information (very vague), live “along the entire Venedsky Gulf” (meaning the Baltic Sea). From the west, the land of the Wends is limited, according to Ptolemy, by the river Vistula (Vistula).

Byzantine author of the 5th c. Priscus of Pannia was part of the embassy sent to the court of Attila. Speaking about the Turkic conquerors, the Huns, he unexpectedly names such words of the "Hun" language as the names of the drink - medos and the name of the funeral feast - strava.

Since in the first word it is easy to guess honey, and the second meant a meal in Old Russian and to this day is available in some Slavic languages, insofar as the Czech philologist Pavel Shafarik(1795-1861), author of the work " Slavic antiquities"(1837), made a reasonable assumption about the presence of the Slavs in the multinational horde of Atilla. (By the way, Prisk also calls the drink kamos, in which one has to suspect kvass.)

The Gothic historian of the 6th century knew more concrete about the Slavs. Jordan and Byzantine historians of the VI-VII centuries. n. e.

For the author of the essay About Goths"Jordan, who wrote in Latin (he served the Romans for a long time and only at the age of sixty became the" court historian "of the Gothic king), the Slavs are hated enemies who "now because of our sins" "rage everywhere" and to whom, as well as to others opponents is ready, he regularly expresses emphasized official contempt. In particular, he calls them a “crowd of cowards”, “powerful in their numbers”, and reports that they “now have three names: Wends, Antes and Sklavins”23. However, in relation to the Antes, whose lands stretch “from Danastre to Danapr” (from the Dniester to the Dnieper), Jordan makes an interesting demonstrative reservation, calling them “the bravest” (of the Slavs).

Dig Caesarea(VI century) in his work "War With Goths" divides the Slavs into two categories: he calls the Western "Slavs", and the Eastern (our immediate ancestors) "Antes". Procopius says:

“These tribes, Slavs and Antes, are not ruled by one person, but since ancient times they have lived in democracy (democracy), and therefore they consider happiness and unhappiness in life to be a common cause. And in all other respects, in both of these barbarian tribes, all life and laws are the same.

At the end of the VI century. interesting and detailed information about the Slavs brought into his military leadership « Strategicon» a certain Byzantine Mauritius (the emperor of Mauritius was mistakenly considered the author of this work for a long time, later the author was conditionally called Mauritius Strategist). He writes, for example:

“The tribes of the Slavs and Antes are similar in their way of life, in their customs, in their love of freedom; they can in no way be persuaded into slavery or submission in their own country. They are numerous, hardy, easily endure heat, cold, rain, nakedness, lack of food. They treat foreigners who come to them kindly and, showing them signs of their favor, when moving from one place to another, they protect them if necessary, so that if it turned out that due to the negligence of the one who receives the foreigner, the latter suffered ( any) damage that took it earlier starts a war (against the guilty), considering it a duty of honor to avenge the stranger. They do not keep those who are in their captivity, like other tribes, for an unlimited time, but, limiting (the term of slavery) to a certain time, they offer them a choice: whether they want to return home for a certain ransom or stay there (where they are) ) in the position of free and friends?”

Here, their military adversary tells about the Slavs, who aims to acquaint his soldiers with the methods of the most effective fight against them. Such an author "will not overpraise". All the more valuable is his objective evidence of a special Slavic love of freedom (they cannot be enslaved), endurance, cordiality and hospitality, and an amazingly humane attitude towards prisoners. All these are very informative, testifying features of the national character.

Information coming from Procopius of Caesarea and Mauritius the Strategist will be repeatedly drawn below in various sections of the Introduction to Slavic Philology.

The question of where the ethnonym "Slavs" comes from has been debated for centuries. As usual, the Slavs in various ways romanticized and, in particular, glorified their name. The point of view was popular that they are called so because they "covered themselves with unfading glory."

According to the philologist P.Ya. Chernykh, "in the popular Slavic consciousness, the name of the Slavic tribe was first associated with word, and then contacted glory. As one old man says Polish writer: "that's why the peoples of our language were called Slavs that all together, and each in particular, tried to earn a good reputation for themselves by chivalrous deeds.

The original opinion was given by I. Pervolf in the book "Slavs, their mutual relations and connections." A certain Pole Paprocki reasoned that the Slavs “were named either from fame or from the word: given word they willingly fulfilled everyone ... However, glory and the word do not differ from each other; glory to him who keeps his word.”25

In the medieval Slavic environment, even the so-called "charter" to the Slavic people from Alexander the Great (Macedonian) became widespread. This curious text reads:

“To the bright Slavic generation for its great services for all eternity, the entire part of the earth from the north to Italy itself, and the land in the south, so that no one other than your people dares to stay and settle in them; and if anyone else were found living in those countries, then he must be your servant, and his descendants must be the servants of your descendants.

P.Ya. Chernykh wrote about the word "Slav": "Since ancient times, in the written monuments, this name has been known since O after l and with the suffix -ѣnin. With this suffix, nouns were usually formed in the old days, denoting not only belonging to some tribe, people, but also origin from some particular locality or terrain: Samaritan, Galilean. Therefore, in this case, they make the assumption that the Slavs got their name from the area rich in rivers. Word or from the river Words" 27.

Nevertheless, most likely, the self-name "Slavs" was formed according to the principle that is widespread among world languages.

As correctly wrote the same P.Ya. Chernykh, “since the word was not associated with the word and received the meaning “people, people who own the word, speaking understandable language", all other people who do not speak Slavic languages, but other (incomprehensible) languages, were called "silent, dumb." This concept was expressed by the word nѣmtsi (any foreigners. - Yum.).<...> So, for example, in Moscow at the beginning of the XVII century. they said: “(arrived in Kholmogory) 5000 aglinsky German", go "Danish king Germans", "Spanish king Germans","...V Germans, V Golan land"28.

Peoples in antiquity very often called themselves "having a language", "possessing the word" - in contrast to foreigners, who seemed to them to be speechless, Germans(in fact, foreigners, of course, had a language, but it was different, incomprehensible). Slavs (Slovens) - “having a word”, meaningfully speaking.

East Slavs - large group kindred peoples, which today has more than 300 million people. The history of the formation of these peoples, their traditions, faith, relations with other states is important points in history, because they answer the question of how our ancestors appeared in antiquity.

Origin

The question of the origin of the Eastern Slavs is interesting. This is our history and our ancestors, the first mention of which dates back to the beginning of our era. If we talk about archaeological excavations, then scientists find artifacts indicating that the nationality began to form even before our era.

All Slavic languages ​​belong to a single Indo-European group. Its representatives stood out as a nationality around the 8th millennium BC. The ancestors of the Eastern Slavs (and many other peoples) lived near the shores of the Caspian Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC, the Indo-European group broke up into 3 peoples:

• Pro-Germans (Germans, Celts, Romans). Filled Western and Southern Europe.
• Baltoslavs. They settled between the Vistula and the Dnieper.
• Iranian and Indian peoples. They spread throughout Asia.

Around the 5th century BC, the Balotoslavs are divided into Balts and Slavs, already in the 5th century AD, the Slavs, in short, are divided into eastern (eastern Europe), western (central Europe) and southern (Balkan Peninsula).

To date, the Eastern Slavs include: Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians.

The invasion of the Hun tribes into the territory of the Black Sea region in the 4th century destroyed the Greek and Scythian state. Many historians call this fact the root cause of the future creation of the ancient state by the Eastern Slavs.

Historical reference

resettlement

An important question is how the development of new territories by the Slavs took place, and how their resettlement took place in general. There are 2 main theories of the appearance of the Eastern Slavs in Eastern Europe:

• Autochthonous. It assumes that the Slavic ethnos was originally formed on the East European plain. The theory was put forward by the historian B. Rybakov. There are no significant arguments in its favor.
• Migration. Suggests that the Slavs migrated from other regions. Solovyov and Klyuchevsky argued that the migration was from the territory of the Danube. Lomonosov spoke about migration from the Baltic territory. There is also a theory of migration from the regions of Eastern Europe.

Around the 6th-7th centuries, the Eastern Slavs settled the territory of Eastern Europe. They settled in the territory from Ladoga and Lake Ladoga in the North to the Black Sea coast in the south, from the Carpathian Mountains in the West to the Volga territories in the East.

13 tribes lived in this territory. Some sources speak of 15 tribes, but these data do not find historical confirmation. The Eastern Slavs in ancient times consisted of 13 tribes: Vyatichi, Radimichi, Polans, Polochans, Volynians, Ilmens, Dregovichi, Drevlyans, Ulichi, Tivertsy, Northerners, Krivichi, Dulebs.

The specifics of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs on the East European Plain:

• Geographic. There are no natural barriers, which facilitated movement.
• Ethnic. Lived and migrated in the territory a large number of people with different ethnic backgrounds.
• Sociability. The Slavs settled near captivity and unions, which could influence the ancient state, but on the other hand could share their culture.

Map of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs in antiquity

Tribes

The main tribes of the Eastern Slavs in antiquity are presented below.

Glade. The most numerous tribe, strong on the banks of the Dnieper, south of Kyiv. It was the clearing that became the sink for the formation of the ancient Russian state. According to the chronicle, in 944 they stopped calling themselves glades, and began to use the name Rus.

Slovenian Ilmen. The northernmost tribe that settled around Novgorod, Ladoga and Lake Peipus. According to Arab sources, it was the Ilmens, together with the Krivichs, who formed the first state - Slavia.

Krivichi. They settled north of the Western Dvina and in the upper reaches of the Volga. The main cities are Polotsk and Smolensk.

Polochane. Settled south of the Western Dvina. Minor tribal alliance that didn't play important role that the Eastern Slavs should form a state.

Dregovichi. They lived between the upper reaches of the Neman and the Dnieper. They mostly settled along the Pripyat River. All that is known about this tribe is that they had their own principality, the main city of which was Turov.

Drevlyans. Settled south of the Pripyat River. The main city of this tribe was Iskorosten.

Volynians. They settled earlier than the Drevlyans at the headwaters of the Vistula.

White Croats. The most western tribe, which was located between the rivers Dniester and Vistula.

Duleby. They were located east of the White Croats. One of the weakest tribes that did not last long. They voluntarily became part of the Russian state, having previously broken up into Buzhans and Volhynians.

Tivertsy. They occupied the territory between the Prut and the Dniester.

Uglichi. They settled between the Dniester and the Southern Bug.

northerners. They mainly occupied the territory adjacent to the Desna River. The center of the tribe was the city of Chernihiv. In the future, several cities were formed on this territory at once, which are known today, for example, Bryansk.

Radimichi. They settled between the Dnieper and the Desna. In 885 they were annexed to the Old Russian state.

Vyatichi. They were located along the sources of the Oka and Don. According to the chronicle, the legendary Vyatko was the ancestor of this tribe. At the same time, already in the 14th century there were no mentions of the Vyatichi in the annals.

Tribal unions

The Eastern Slavs had 3 strong tribal union: Slavia, Kuyavia and Artania.

In relations with other tribes and countries, the Eastern Slavs carried out attempts to capture raids (mutual) and trade. The main contacts were with:

• Byzantine Empire (Slav raids and mutual trade)
• Varangians (Varangian raids and mutual trade).
• Avars, Bulgars and Khazars (raids on the Slavs and mutual trade). Often these tribes are called Turks or Türks.
• Finno-Ugrians (Slavs tried to seize their territory).

What did you do

The Eastern Slavs were mainly engaged in agriculture. The specifics of their settlement determined the methods of cultivating the land. In the southern regions, as well as in the Dnieper region, chernozem soil dominated. Here the land was used up to 5 years, after which it was depleted. Then people moved to another site, and the exhausted one recovered for 25-30 years. This farming method is called shifting .

The northern and central regions of the East European Plain were characterized by a large number of forests. Therefore, the ancient Slavs first cut down the forest, burned it, fertilized the soil with ashes, and only then proceeded to field work. Such a site was fertile for 2-3 years, after which it was left and moved on to the next one. This type of farming is called slash-and-burn .

If you try to briefly describe the main activities of the Eastern Slavs, the list will be as follows: agriculture, hunting, fishing, beekeeping (honey collection).

The main agricultural culture of the Eastern Slavs in ancient times was millet. Marten skins were mainly used by the Eastern Slavs as money. great attention devoted to the development of handicrafts.

Beliefs

The beliefs of the ancient Slavs are called paganism, because there was a worship of many gods. Mostly deities were associated with natural phenomena. Almost every phenomenon or important component of life that the Eastern Slavs professed, corresponded to a certain god. For example:

• Perun - god of lightning
• Yarilo - god of the sun
• Stribog - the god of the wind
• Volos (Veles) - the patron saint of cattle breeders
• Mokosh (Makosh) - goddess of fertility
• And so on

The ancient Slavs did not build temples. They built rituals in groves, in glades, near stone idols and in other places. Attention is drawn to the fact that almost all fairy-tale folklore in terms of mysticism belongs precisely to the era under study. In particular, the Eastern Slavs believed in the goblin, brownie, mermaids, water and others.

How were the occupations of the Slavs reflected in paganism? It was paganism, which was based on worship of the elements and elements that affect fertility, that formed the attitude of the Slavs to agriculture as the main way of life.

social order