Basic concepts of the origin of the Belarusian ethnos. The role of the ethnogenesis of Belarusians in the formation of national statehood

Topic 2. Ancient civilizations and Belarus. Ethnogenesis of the Belarusian people.

Primitive population of Belarus. The emergence of white ethnos.

White concepts. ethnogenesis.

Ethnic features of Belarusians, their anthropological composition, character, names and surnames.

Ethnic groups and international relations in Belarus.

The first The emergence of human society on Earth is a long and complex process that stretched over millions of years. There are several hypotheses about the origin of man on Earth:

Darwinian theory of human animal origin (from the common ancestors of humans and monkeys - humanoids). In the USSR, only it was recognized as scientific

religious(about the creation of man and the universe by God in 6 days).

unearthly the origin of man (from space). d/f "Memories of the Future" - about the civilization of the Incas.

But these are all hypotheses. So far, scientists do not know how people appeared. Scientific studies confirm that the most ancient people (archanthropes) appeared about 2.5 million years ago in East Africa, where the climate is warm. Approximately 1 million years ago, they came to the Mediterranean, and on the territory of modern Europe, the first people of the European species appeared about 600 thousand years ago.

When did the primitive population appear on the territory of modern Belarus? Who were our distant ancestors? How did the Belarusian ethnos arise, what stages did it go through in its development?

The first people came to the territory of Belarus much later - somewhere around 100-40 thousand years BC. (Paleolithic). Why at this time? The territory of our state has long been covered with glaciers. There are 3 major and somewhat smaller in scale and duration of icing.

Berezinsky - lasted 150 thousand years (began approximately 500-350 thousand years BC).

Dnieper - lasted 190 thousand years BC. (300 thousand - 110 thousand years BC).

Valdai - lasted 7 thousand years (90 thousand years BC - 83 thousand years BC).

Although warming came after it, the glacier made itself felt for a long time (it left, then reappeared). It reached the Pinsk-Mozyr-Rechitsa-Gomel line (along the Pripyat). The last glacier left the Belarusian territory in Mesolithic. The most ancient sites found on the territory of Belarus date back to about 40-30 thousand years BC. in the Gomel region (villages of Berdyzh and Yurovichi, Kalinkovichi district).

Written history began later (Cyrillic and Glagolitic - 9th century AD) more than 1 thousand years. From this time begins the era of civilization, and before that - the era wildness and barbarism.

Belarusians were not the first to appear civilizations. Around this time:

4 thousand years BC civilization appears in Egypt and Mesopotamia

3 thousand years BC - In India

7 thousand years BC - the most ancient in the world - Sumerian (the territory of modern Iraq).

What was the ancient population on the territory of Belarus?

According to the accepted ethnic periodization, 4 main eras are distinguished:

pre-Indo-European (Stone Age 100-40 thousand years to 3-2 thousand years BC)

Indo-European (bronze) (on the border of 3-2 thousand years BC - 8-7 centuries AD)

Baltic (iron) (beginning from the 8th century BC - 5-6th century AD)

Slavic (6th century AD in the south, 8-9th century AD - in the north (Vitebsk)).

the creation of the Belarusian nationality (GDL, 13th century) - this era does not belong to antiquity.

This ethnographic periodization is based on the formation of the Belarusian ethnos.

Pre-Indo-European the era occupies the entire Stone Age (100-40 thousand years to 3 thousand years BC). The most ancient sites were found in the villages of Yurovichi and Berdizh (Gomel region) - 28-26 thousand BC. The ethnicity of the natives has not been clarified, but, apparently, they were of the Caucasoid race. They invented the bow, were engaged in gathering, hunting, fishing. They had a matriarchy with exogamy (the prohibition of marriage in the same gender) and endogamy (the prohibition of marriage within the tribe). There were big families. During the Mesolithic, ceramics already existed, flint was mined for grinding stone (By the way! The only mine in Eastern Europe for its extraction was near Volkovysk). Approximately 600 Neolithic sites (5-3 thousand BC) have been found. During this period, a gradual transition to animal husbandry and agriculture began, from a gathering to a producing economy. The population was up to about 10 thousand people. Polesie, Ponemonie and Posozhie were mostly populated.

Among the pre-Indo-Europeans of the Neolithic era on the territory of Belarus in 3 thousand BC. can be identified Finno-Ugric (comb-pit pottery culture). They went from the Urals to the north of Belarus because of the better climate here. According to the anthropological type, the Finno-Ugric peoples were divided into 2 branches: Mongoloid appearance (narrow eyes, round face, black hair. For example, in Russia - Khanty, Mansi) and caucasoid- Finns, Hungarians, Estonians. Evidence of their existence in Belarus is external similarity, hydronymy, toponymy (Zelva, Svir, Dvina).

The Finno-Ugric peoples are the only people in Europe whose ancestors were not Indo-Europeans. In terms of development, they were not higher than the natives and probably assimilated among the latter.

Indo-European the era begins at the border of 3-2 thousand years BC. Indo-Europeans - ancestors modern peoples Europe and partly Asian (Indian, Iranian, Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Romanesque, Slavic and others).

Indo-Europeans first lived in Asia Minor and Central Asia. As a result of the "population explosion" associated with the technological revolution (transition to settled life (cattle breeding and agriculture), the emergence of food surpluses, wealth, social inequality), they began to eat better → transition to patriarchy. The great migration of peoples began, the so-called. migration to free lands, incl. on the territory of Belarus. At that time, researchers identified 2 migration flows:

One wave of Indo-Europeans went to India, where, under the name of the Aryans, they founded their civilization - the ancient Vedas.

The second wave through the Balkans and the Ukrainian steppes - to Europe. In the south of Europe, the Indo-European tribe of the Achaeans founded Troy and laid the foundation for the ancient Greek civilization. From there comes the formation of many European and Asian peoples - Germans, Celts, Iranians, Balts, Slavs (with their own languages ​​and cultures).

In Belarus, with the arrival of the Indo-Europeans, the Stone Age ended and the Bronze Age began. The Indo-Europeans settled in the vast expanses of Central and of Eastern Europe from the Rhine to the Volga.

The Indo-Europeans were the first people in history to invent:

metal (first copper, after tin and got bronze (hence the name Bronze Age). This was a new circle of technological revolution.

combat drilled axes

agriculture

animal husbandry

created pottery cultures

burial mounds (the dead were sprinkled with red ocher (a symbol of fire and the sun, which the Indo-Europeans worshiped)).

The level of development of the Indo-Europeans was higher than the local population, so they assimilated it, formed their own languages. As a result of the mixing of the Indo-Europeans with the local population, their single community disintegrated into separate ethnic communities. One of them is Pro-Balto-Germanic-Slavic (mid 2000 BC). Later it will be divided into Balts, Germans and Slavs.

A number of scientists believe that the most ancient Indo-Europeans on the territory of modern Belarus were the Celts (in the West and south of Belarus). They came from the Middle East and settled on the lands modern Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, France, Spain, England.

In 1 thousand years BC. on the territory of Belarus, the Balts settled, who stood out from the Indo-Europeans.

Baltic ethnographic era began in the 8th century. BC (Iron Age). There is an opinion among scientists that the Balts are an offshoot of the Gauls (part of the Celtic tribes), their level of development is higher than their predecessors, so they assimilated them.

Peculiarities Balts:

the first to start making iron from swamp ore (iron axes)

spinning

weaving

pottery

At this time, the Balts observed the accumulation of surplus products, the division of large patriarchal families into small ones. They build settlements in impregnable places (they use ramparts, ditches with water, settlements). The fact that there were Balts in Belarus is evidenced by totems (in the form of a snake, a snake (bracelets)), the dead began to be buried in mounds, the corresponding toponymy, hydronymy, names and surnames.

The first written information about our ancestors (South Belarusian Balts) under the name neurons is in the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. At the beginning of 1 thousand years A.D. in most of our territory lived the following Baltic tribes:

Yotvingians (Grodno and partly Brest lands)

lotva (Vitebsk region and Northern Minsk region)

Daynova (Narochan-Molodechno region)

lithuania (Upper and Middle Panyamonne) and others.

The Baltic period of the ethnic history of Belarus coincided in time with the emergence and flourishing of the Roman ancient civilization. As a result of contacts between our Balts and the Roman Empire, the circulation of money in Belarus began with Roman silver coins - denarii (2-3 centuries AD), found in the Brest and Grodno regions.

Slavic ethnographic era begins with the 6th century. AD The Slavs, as well as the Balts, stand out from the general array of Indo-Europeans and initially settled in Europe (the territory between the Oder and the Vistula (East of Germany - west of Poland)). The movement of the Slavs in these territories became part of the so-called. "Great Migration of Nations" - the settlement of the territory of the Roman Empire by primitive tribes from 4 to 7 centuries. AD In 476 AD the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus Caesar, was overthrown, and so-called. "Barbarian" kingdoms. The expansion of the Slavic tribes covered the territory of the Balkans (Yugoslavia) + Central Europe - North. Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus.

The Slavs appeared in the south-west of Belarusian Polissya in the 6th century. AD, they began to move north, where the Baltic tribes lived. In the 8th-9th century AD. inhabit Posozhye, in the 9th century. - Move. The Slavs went to the Belarusian lands both from the West and from the south. With their arrival, the era of primitiveness ended and the transition to early feudal relations began.

On the territory of Belarus settled several Slavic tribes:

Krivichi (Vitebsk, Smolensk, Vilna and partly Grodno region)

Dregovichi (Central Belarus and northern Polissya)

radimichi (Mogilev and Gomel regions).

Other East Slavic tribes also lived on the territory of Belarus - the fool, the Drevlyans. The Tale of Bygone Years mentions their settlement. The level of their development was higher than that of the Balts who lived here. In particular, they had:

arable farming,

plow with iron tip,

From the 6th-7th centuries. AD begins a long process of consolidation of the Slavic tribes and the Baltic population assimilated by them into one ethnic community. This will be facilitated by the creation of their first state formations. With the advent of the Slavs, the primitive system ends and the transition to feudalism begins.

From the 13th century the 5th era of the creation of a single ethnic community begins - Lithuanians(ON) - Belarusian people.

Thus, the roots of the Belarusian ethnos go back to antiquity. Belarusians belong to one of the ancient peoples of Europe. Our nationality, like many others, was formed as a result of the migration processes of the ancient inhabitants of Asia and Europe, the synthesis of tribes that lived at different times on our territory. These were first pre-Indo-Europeans + in the northeast - Finno-Ugric peoples, then the Indo-Europeans came, who assimilated the natives. Balts, Slavs, stood out from the Indo-Europeans, but the Baltic substratum (basis) lies at the basis of their ethnogenesis. This is evidenced by archaeological data, the names of localities and the appearance of the Belarusians.

As is known, Slavs divided into several groups with their own ethnic characteristics:

western (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, puddles)

southern (Croats, Serbs, Macedonians, Montenegrins)

Eastern (Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians).

As noted above, the Litvins, as a single nationality, formed in the GDL. She was most of the population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, since the ancestors of today's Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and Aukstaits also lived there. Name Lithuanians for 500 years of existence, the GDL has become a historical ethnonym of the Belarusians.

Second The problem of Belarusian ethnogenesis is the most controversial and politicized. As for the origin of Belarusians, there are many concepts (lat. - a way of understanding the problem), some of them are falsified. Our task is not just to list some of them, but to give a scientific justification for the real ones and criticism for falsifications.

Great Russian the concept of the origin of Belarusians.

It has been established in historical literature since the 19th century. - It is falsified, exists today. Invented by Russian politicians and historians who wanted to justify the annexation of Belarusian lands to Russia at the end of the 18th century. (Her Imperial Majesty Empress Catherine II ordered to cast the medal "Rejected return"). It was beneficial for them to forget the original meaning of the word "Rus", "Russians"- that is what the inhabitants of the eastern regions of our country were called. And these names had nothing to do with Muscovy then. Later Muscovy will call itself Rus. Even in the "Tale of Bygone Years" (12th century) it is said: "Initially, Russia sat along the Varangian (Baltic Sea)". The first Prince Rurik came from Varangians, from the Rus. Koenigsberg was called the capital of Prussia, next to Russia. These are German historians and geographers who served in Russia under Peter I and later, tried to eradicate the name Rus from the names of the Baltic lands and capture them. Even Ivan IV the Terrible, then Alexei Mikhailovich and other Moscow Tsars, waging wars for access to the Baltic, reclaiming our lands (because they can't be bypassed) considered it necessary to take care of Belarusians - co-religionists with the Muscovites. After the accession of Belarusian lands to the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th century, conducting censuses, religion was considered the main ethnic trait, all Orthodox were recorded as Russians, and Uniatism was liquidated. Since 1840, even the name "Belarus" was banned - the North-Western Territory was established. There are no Belarusians, but there are Russians spoiled by Polish influence.

Wielkopolska the concept (invented by the Poles) arose in the 20s. 20th century (Some still recognize it.) According to it, the Belarusian lands were called the eastern Kresy of Poland (outskirts), and the Belarusians were called Poles, spoiled by Russian influence. The explanation is as follows: for a long time they lived in one state, the Commonwealth + Kreva union + 7 dynastic unions was formed. Historically, the struggle between Russia and Poland for the Belarusian lands ended in 1921 with the Treaty of Riga, according to which Western Belarus was ceded to Poland. In 1939 (according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), Western Belarus joined the USSR. During World War II, the Akovtsy (Craiova Army) advocated the return of Western Belarus to them. This concept is also a falsification, beneficial to Poland, which has no scientific basis.

Krivichi and Krivichi-Dregovichi-Radimichi concepts. They are also inaccurate. At the beginning of the 20th century Vaclav Lastovsky spoke out against the great-power aspirations of Russia and Poland, proposed to consider Belarusians as an ethnic group that exists separately from Russians and Poles. He laid out the independent origin of Belarusians in the Krivitsky concept (in the fantastic story "Labyrinth"). In particular, he proved that in the 9th-13th centuries. the Krivichi had their own independent state, that they were the direct ancestors of the Belarusians, but then he did not know that the Balts lived on the Belarusian lands. It turns out that before the appearance of the Krivichi, there was no one here. He claimed that Belarusians had more than 1000 years of state administration. The inaccuracy of these concepts lies in the fact that the Slavs came to the Belarusian lands only in the 6th century AD. (To the south), and to the north - in the 9th century AD, it turns out that until now there was no one in Belarus, but this is not so. The sites near the villages of Yurovichi and Berdyzh testify that approximately 30 thousand years BC. people already lived here, and not only from the 6th century AD. In addition, it is known that the Krivichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi disappeared from the pages of chronicles in the middle of the 12th century, and Belarusians as an ethnic group formed in the middle of the 13th century. The chronological gap indicates the imperfection of the proof.

The well-known Belarusian scholar J. Karsky, Slavic historian V. Picheta developed the Krivichi-Dregovichi-Radimichi concept. She claims that the ancestors of the Belarusians are the tribal associations of the Eastern Slavs - the Krivichi-Polochans, who lived along the Western Dvina, the Dregovichi - lived on the territory of the Pripyat Polissya between the Pripyat and the Dvina - and the Radimichi, who settled on the Sozh River.

Old Russian people (KyivRus). Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians come from it. The concept was created by Soviet historians in the mid-1950s. (Ethnographer Tokarev, V. Mavrodin) to justify the formation of an artificial unified community of people in the USSR - the Soviet people. According to it, the origins of the Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian peoples are the ancient Russian nationality - the East Slavic ethnic community that developed in the 9th-10th centuries. in the Middle Dnieper region as a result of a mixture of Krivichi, Dregovichi, Drevlyans, Severians, etc. This concept proceeded from the fact that from the beginning of colonization by the Eastern Slavs (from 6-7 centuries AD) the lands of modern Ukraine, Belarus and part of Russia were created united ancient Russian state with the center in Kyiv with common language, culture, traditions, single destiny. This means that a single ancient Russian ethnos was created. After the collapse Kievan Rus in the 12th century into many small principalities, the single ancient Russian people also broke up into 3 (Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians), which even genetic level throughout history, they have retained the desire for reunification in the new society of the USSR as a single Soviet people. The Bolsheviks have always been internationalists, as it was believed that under communism there would be no nations. A N.S. Khrushchev said Belarusians would be the first to come to communism. But, as is known from history, in fact there was no common ancient Russian state of Kievan Rus, which would constantly include the Principality of Polotsk. Of the 500-year history, only a short time it fell under the dependence on Kyiv. The arrival of the Eastern Slavs to these lands is associated with mixing with the indigenous, more numerous population. But peoples were formed on different ethnic basis:

Belarusians (Slavs + Balts)

Ukrainians (Slavs + Sarmatians (Iranian tribes))

Russians (Slavs + Finno-Ugric peoples).

It was the pre-Slavic populations of Belarusians, Ukrainians and Russians that predetermined the difference 3 East Slavic peoples, i.e. no common cradle existed, and the anthropological view is also different.

Fifth Slavic (Slavic-Baltic origin) concept. Scientifically substantiated. According to her, the ancestors of the Belarusians are both the Slavs and the Balts, who lived here about 2 thousand years BC. before the Slavic colonization. Our ancestors are Slavs on the Baltic substrate (underlying). There is a lot of evidence for this:

archaeological data (housing, tools, burials, decoration, totems inherent in the Baltics)

hydronymy

toponymy

ethnographic data (names and surnames)

linguistics

anthropology (appearance of Belarusians).

Interestingly, the Russian archaeologist Valentin Sedov was the first to speak about the Baltic origin of Belarusians (in 1970), published a study in which he substantiated the Baltic basis (substrate) in the process of ethnogenesis (formation) of Belarusians. Lithuanians - Baltarusia, Latvians - Baltakryvia and are now called. Proponents of this theory see the origins of Belarusians in the Slavicization of the Balts. The roots of the Belarusian ethnos date back to the time when the Slavs settled in the Upper Dnieper and neighboring regions. As a result of the development of the territory of Belarus by the Slavs, where the Balts used to live, in the 8th-9th centuries. Ethnically close communities of the East Slavic population developed: Krivichi, Dregovichi, Radimichi, partly Volhynians, Drevlyans and Northerners, who are named in the annals. On their basis, an ancient ethnic group was formed.

It caused panic in the capital of the BSSR, the Minsk historian L. Abetedarsky said about it that this was the work of supporters of American imperialism. At this time, they even canceled the holding of a conference on this topic, and also removed from leadership positions scientists who shared this opinion.

Third The difficulties of the historical development of Belarusians (the loss of statehood over the past 2 centuries, the destruction of the national intelligentsia did not interrupt the ethnic consolidation of the people). It has managed to take shape as an independent nation, which has its own language, territory, state, culture, and lives in a single economic space. The Belarusian ethnos is determined by distinctive national features (character, mentality, which distinguishes it from others).

The most important ethnic feature - Belarusian language(according to the 1989 census - 77.7% of Belarusians are native Belarusian language, and in 1999 the issue of mother tongue was not raised). The Belarusian language belongs to the Slavic group of the Indo-European language family. Began to form in the 10th-13th century. (as Old Belarusian), gradually penetrated into church literature and supplanted Church Slavonic. Its heyday falls on the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (F. Skorina published 23 books of the Bible until 1519, where a combination of folk speech and Church Slavonic was observed), and already S. Budny and V. Tyapinsky wrote only in their native language.

The fate of the Belarusian language is difficult: it was banned by Poland (1696), Russia (1840), in 1990 it received the status of the state language, and since 1995 bilingualism has been established. As a result of centuries of Polonization and Russification, the prestige of the Belarusian language has decreased even in the eyes of the Belarusians themselves. For a long time, the idea was planted that the Belarusian language does not exist, that these are dialects of either Polish or Russian. But in fact, it is very ancient (belongs to the Indo-European language family of the East Slavic language group). The proximity of the Belarusian language to Indo-European(before its fundamental principle) indicates that the Belarusian language:

inherited Indo-European vocabulary

sights: zekanie, zakanie, "y" short, j

in white language and Sanskrit there are many words that have the same sound and meaning(dad mom)

in ancient Indian works there is a mention of the Krivichi, but there are no words "Rus", "glade"

many borrowings from other languages ​​(from Latin - honor, calendar, ax, from Tatar - pumpkin, goat, fool, from German - sugar, brick, from Polish - fork, betrayal, treasure).

Second Statehood

The people cannot exist without their own statehood, and the Belarusians had it.

Anthropological type of Belarusians- Central European version of the European race. Average height, oblong face, straight nose with a slight hump, light skin and hair, and if dark, then these are Finno-Ugric peoples or Celts.

National character. Belarusians have such qualities that are highly valued in any human society: diligence, kindness, responsibility, tolerance, patience, hospitality, rejection of violence and cruelty. At the same time, there are also negative features: indecision, cunning, conformism, conservatism, inertia (a Belarusian will not tear his shirt).

Olgerd Kwasnevsky said to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin: "We, the Poles, and you, the Russians, are Slavs, but we have a significant difference: we, the Poles, fight to the first blood, and you, the Russians, to the last."

Original Belarusian folklore(legends, traditions, fairy tales). One of the oldest and richest among the East Slavic peoples.

Life(folk calendar, rituals, food, place names).

Names and surnames. Approximately 2800 Belarusian names (about 1700 male and 1100 female and their colloquial variants). In 2000, a dictionary of personal names was published. Belarusians have a variety of names and surnames. Surnames appeared on the territory of Belarus in the 16th-17th centuries. The Slavized Balts added the suffix to their surnames and names "ich"(Nesterovich, Zhilunovich, Mironovich). Proper names - patronymics, surnames, pseudonyms, nicknames of people, nicknames of animals. The surnames of Belarusians could come from:

names of animals, birds, insects (Hare, Mosquito, Beetle, Shpak)

from the name of the profession that the ancestors were engaged in (Blacksmith, Potter, Bandar, Baker, Shoemaker)

from the names of body parts (hand, head, nose, tooth)

from the name of the area (Mstislavets, Zagorsky, Pinchuk, Oshmyanets)

from nicknames (Bobylev, Fist, Parosha, Klim)

from the proper names of the ancestors (Antonov - the son of Anton, Levanovich, Fomin, Andreyuk, Gavrilyuk)

Baltic origin (Ragoisha, Ablameyko, Domeiko, Korbut)

from the title specific subjects(Kosh, Vine, Fur Coat, Loop, Mushroom)

Names of Belarusians:

actually Belarusian: Yaroslav (Yar-sun), Miroslav (glorifies the world), Nadezhda, Lada.

the desire of parents to emphasize the mental and physical qualities of the child: Dobrynya, Samokhval

the desire of parents to scare away evil spirits from the child and gave "false names" (Gadish, Nevpakoy, dead, Krivets)

names borrowed from Poland (Mateusz, Agnieszka, Jane, Jan, Zhanna)

names borrowed from the Scandinavians (Olga, Oleg, Igor)

Orthodox canonical names adapted to the Belarusian language: John - Ivan, Evdokia - Avdotya.

in Soviet times, "ideological" names appeared (Traktorina, Oktyabrina, Aurora, Progress, Vilen, Kim, Industry)

changes in the shades of the name depending on the situation: Peter, Pyatrak, Petya, Peter, Petrus, Petrasyuk, Pyatrosha.

Belarus is a mono-ethnic multi-ethnic state. According to the 2009 census, Belarusians make up 83.7% - the titular nation.

Ethnic section of Belarus (%)

Ethnos- this is a historically established community of people in a certain territory who have similar, relatively stable features of culture (including language) and psyche, as well as self-awareness, that is, awareness of their unity and difference from all other similar communities, which is expressed in the name of the ethnos (ethnonym) . It is advisable to distinguish between objective factors that determine the very emergence of an ethnos, and signs that arise in the process of formation. ethnic communities. Ethno-forming factors include: the unity of the territory, natural conditions, economic connection, etc., but these are not ethnic categories. Ethnic features in the narrow sense of the word, reflecting the real differences between ethnic communities, include features in the field of ethnic self-consciousness and culture of the ethnos. The most important ethnicity is ethnic identity. It represents a system containing elements of two types - stable formations (attitude towards values ​​and ideals), as well as mobile, socio-psychological moments (feelings, emotions, mood, tastes, sympathies). Ethnic self-consciousness includes the judgment of the members of the ethnos about the nature of the actions of their community, its properties and achievements. In the self-consciousness of an ethnos, we will find ideas about the historical past of our people, about its territory, language, culture, universe, and, of course, judgments about other ethnic groups. The main conditions for the emergence of an ethnos - a common territory and language - subsequently act as its main features. At the same time, an ethnos can also be formed from multilingual elements, take shape and consolidate in different territories in the process of migration (gypsies, etc.). Additional conditions for the formation of an ethnic community can be the commonality of religion, the proximity of the components of an ethnic group in racial terms, or the presence of significant mestizo (transitional) groups. In the course of ethnogenesis, under the influence of characteristics economic activity in certain natural conditions and other reasons, specific for this ethnic group features of material and spiritual culture, life, group psychological characteristics. The members of an ethnos develop a common self-awareness, a prominent place in which is occupied by the idea of ​​a common origin. Outward manifestation This self-consciousness is the presence of a common self-name - an ethnonym. The formed ethnic community acts as a social organism, self-reproducing through predominantly ethnically homogeneous marriages and transferring language, culture, traditions, ethnic orientation, etc. to the new generation.

Ethnogenesis(from the Greek “tribe, people” and “origin”), ethnic history is the process of the formation of an ethnic community (ethnos) on the basis of various ethnic components. Ethnogenesis is the initial stage of ethnic history. Upon its completion, other groups assimilated by it can be included in the established ethnos, fragmentation and the allocation of new ethnic groups. The problem of the origin of the Belarusian people is very complex and insufficiently studied. Its complexity is due to the fact that it is studied by analyzing many, different in nature, sources - written monuments, ethnographic data, archeology, anthropology, linguistics, etc. It is quite difficult to study all these sources in depth, to compare the information contained in them. In addition, ethnogenesis is a very rich historical process in content. To reach the truth, it is necessary to cover all its aspects. There is also a difference in the methods of analyzing the factual material by researchers of this problem. "All this determines the existence of different views on the origin of the Belarusian people. Among them, one can single out the" Finnish "," Baltic "," Krivichi-Dregovichi-Radimichi "," Old Russian "concepts of the Belarusian ethnogenesis. In accordance with the "Finnish" concept (I. Laskov), the ancestors of the Belarusian people were Slavs and Finns. As evidence, he refers to the fact that some names of Belarusian rivers and lakes, such as Dvina, Mordva, Svir, are of Finnish origin. Supporters called "Baltic" concept (V.Sedov, G.Shtykhov and others) believe that the ancestors of Belarusians are Slavs and Balts. They refer to the names of Belarusian rivers and lakes of Baltic origin (Ores, Kleva, Resta, etc.), claim that the Balts as the ancestors of the Belarusians are evidenced by some elements of the traditional Belarusian culture and language (the cult of the snake, the female headdress of the warrior, hard sound"r", etc.). The authors of the "Krivichi-Dregovichi-Radimichi" concept (E. Karsky, M. Dovnar-Zapolsky, V. Picheta and others) believed that the main ancestors of the Belarusian ethnos were the Krivichi, Dregovichi, Radimichi. Their arguments include continuity material culture and linguistic borrowings. So, they believed that a plow with a crossbar and "akanye" were originally characteristic of the Krivichi, and the Polissya plow and the diphthongs uo, ie in the south were originally elements of the culture and language of the Dregovichi. Those who adhere to the "Old Russian" concept of the origin of the Belarusian people (E. Korneichik and others) argue that the ancestors of the Belarusians were one of the parts of the so-called Old Russian nationality. At the same time, they are confident in the existence of a single ancient state - Russia, in which there were uniform Old Russian language and culture (for example, epics). In order to determine the attitude towards different concepts, it is first necessary to find out what place in the ethnic (cultural) history of the region is occupied by the facts on which these views are based. Do the names of some Belarusian rivers of Finnish origin prove that the ancestors of the Belarusians were also Finnish-speaking groups of the population? It is safe to say that they are not. The Finnish-speaking population on the territory of Belarus lived in ancient times, at the end of the Stone Age, and was assimilated here not by the Slavs, but by the ancient Balts, who settled in the Ponemanye, Dvina and Upper Dnieper regions in bronze age. The Finns on the territory of Belarus were the substratum (underlying) not of the Belarusians, but of the ancient Balts. The Finnish names of rivers and lakes in our region were first adopted by the Balts, and then from the Balts they passed into the vocabulary of the Slavic population that appeared in the Ponemanye, Dvina and Upper Dnieper regions after the Balts. There is a lot of controversy in the evidence of the "Baltic" concept. The facts referred to by its supporters are typical not only for the Balts and Belarusians. The hard "r", for example, in addition to the Balts and Belarusians, is also inherent in the language of Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Slovaks, on whom the Balts did not exert cultural influence. The povoynik female headdress was typical not only for the Balts and Belarusians, but also for other Slavic peoples, in particular Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Poles. And such a phenomenon as the cult of the snake was even more widespread. It is inherent in the religion not only of the Balts and Slavs, but also of the Greeks and Albanians. The names of Belarusian rivers and lakes of Baltic origin cannot be considered evidence of the Baltic substratum (substratum) of Belarusians. They only testify that in the past, after the Finns, the ancient Balts lived on the territory of Belarus. As a result of the wide settlement of the Slavs in the territory of our region and their mixing with the eastern Balts, not Belarusians were formed, but the primary East Slavic ethnic communities - Krivichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi. The view, which was widespread up to that time, that from the very beginning they were purely Slavic ethnic communities, and not of mixed origin, has no solid evidence. Much more arguments in favor of the view that the Dregovichi, Krivichi and Radimichi formed on the territory of Belarus. Part of the Slavs was only one of the groups of ancestors of each ethnic community, and the other part of the Balts. In comparison with the ancient Finnish-speaking and Baltic-speaking populations, the East Slavic ethnic communities of the Krivichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi are historically closer to Belarusians. But there are also controversial points in the argumentation of the view that the immediate ancestors of the Belarusians are the Krivichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi. Elements of culture and language of Belarusians ( different types sokhi - Polissya and with a crossbar, features of the dialects of individual regions - "akanye", diphthongs uo, ie), considered constituent elements the cultures and languages ​​of the Dregovichi or Krivichi emerged later than the existence of the Krivichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi, not earlier than the 12th century, and spread over wider areas than their territories. There is a lot of schematic in the representations of the "Old Russian" concept of the origin of the Belarusians. The idea of ​​considering Ancient Russia as the common cradle of the Belarusian, Ukrainian and Great Russian communities is also controversial, since it fell apart and disappeared before the Belarusian and Great Russian peoples arose. The regional features of the culture and language of the Eastern Slavs, both early and late, do not correspond to the East Slavic ethnic groups - Belarusians, Ukrainians and Great Russians. The western part of the territory of the Eastern Slavs, which became the area for the formation of the Belarusian ethnos, during the existence Ancient Russia did not stand out as a separate linguistic and ethnographic zone. The statement that Ancient Russia is the cradle of three East Slavic ethnic communities is a simplified approach to a complex historical process. Probably, the main ancestors of modern Belarusians were population groups that lived on modern Belarusian lands after the Krivichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi disappeared. They were primarily residents who occupied the north of the Podvinsk-Dnieper and Poprypyat regions. The first community was formed as a result of the transformation of the Krivichi, Vyatichi and the northern part of the Radimichi, the second - the Dregovichi, Drevlyans and southern Rodimichi. Both also had the common name "Rusyns", "Russians", i.e. East Slavs. They differed from the Krivichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi in new features of culture and language. Among the inhabitants of the Podvinsk-Dnieper region, a plow with a crossbar, a rectangular threshing floor, straight-cut outerwear, an initiatory wedding song (pillar), etc., appeared in their speech. ), as well as "zekanye" (the consonant sound "d" began to be pronounced softer). The characteristic elements of the culture of the inhabitants of the Pripyat basin were the Polissya plow, polygonal threshing floors, a developed form of the caravan rite, winter New Year's celebration Carols. In speech, the sounds "r" and "ch" began to be pronounced firmly, the diphthongs uo, lie appeared. Another very important aspect of the Belarusian ethnogenesis was the diffusion (penetration) of cultural and linguistic phenomena. Diffusion had a noticeable impact on the formation of the Belarusian language, in particular its phonetics. The phonetics of the Belarusian language arose by combining some features spoken language poprypyatsky population, on the one hand, and Podvinsky - on the other. First, it occurred in the central region of the Poneman and Dnieper lands, and then through the central region it expanded further to the southern and northern parts of the region. From the south (Popripyat) to the north (Podvinye), hard "r" and "h" were widely distributed, and from north to south - soft "d" ("zekanye"), as well as "akanye". The diffusion of cultural and linguistic phenomena was facilitated by the migration of both East Slavic and non-East Slavic groups, their mixing with local residents and the assimilation of West Slavic (Polish), Baltic, Turkic (Tatar) by the East Slavic population. Belarusian ethnogenesis is closely connected with political history the edges. It took place both during the existence of the ancient principalities - Polotsk, Turov, etc., and during the creation of a new state - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russian and Zhemoytsky.

At the end of the 1st millennium AD. the conditions for the formation of the East Slavic, or Old Russian, people began to take shape. The constant strengthening of political and economic ties between the Slavic tribal associations and unions living on the territory of Western, North-Eastern and Southern Russia led to a gradual smoothing out of a number of differences and the emergence of common features that contributed to the formation of a new ethnic community with a common language, territory, culture and ethnic identity. self-awareness. At the same time, as a number of scholars rightly emphasize, nationality is not only an ethnic, but also a historical community of people with characteristic features division into classes, and where statehood exists (5, 219). These conditions also took place in the Old Russian state. However, the process of development and strengthening of the super-ethnic integrity - the ancient Russian people was interrupted already in the first half of the 12th century. in connection with the beginning of political, state destabilization and the collapse of Kievan Rus as united state into a number of independent specific principalities. By the XIV century. Old Russian ethnic tradition came to naught.

This largely predetermined the acceleration of the formation of the Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian peoples. The formation of the Belarusian ethnos took a historically long period and went through a number of stages, differing in different degrees of maturity of its features. In the IX-X centuries. on the territory of present-day Belarus, peculiar forms of pre-state organization of society - reigning - were further developed. Krivichi, Dregovichi, Radimichi were not so much tribal as such territorial-political formations. This contributed to an even stronger unification, the consolidation of already historically established stable groups of people, characterized by a common origin, a pronounced commonality of language, culture, way of life, socio-psychological make-up, traditions, customs and mores.

The name "Belarusians", like the name of our country, comes from the term "Belaya Rus", which during the 12th-15th centuries was used in relation to various East Slavic lands. Historical documents on this subject indicate that in the XII century. the term "White Russia" was used in relation to the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. In the XII-XIV centuries. this name was used to designate the Moscow, Smolensk and Pskov lands. In the XV-XVI centuries. the authors of many foreign chronicles and geographical maps called White Russia the present-day East Belarusian lands, as well as Novgorod, Pskov, Chernigov, Kyiv and Volyn lands.

Regarding the territory of Belarus, this term began to be fixed from the 14th century, although there is reason to believe that our land was known under the name "Belaya Rus" in the 13th century. The well-known Slavist, academician V. Lamansky believed that the name "Belaya Rus" ... is more ancient than the Olgerd time and even Gedimin's, that it existed at the end and even half of the 13th century. This is confirmed by the publication in 1979. previously unknown source - a manuscript of the 13th century, kept at the University of Dublin (Ireland). It contains a message about Belaya Rus, where a Catholic monk-missionary preached. The geographical context of the entry allows us to conclude that under White Russia the author understood the part of Russia adjacent to the Baltic region - Western Russia.

The meaning of the word "white" in the name "Belaya Rus" at different times was explained in different ways: the beauty of the local lands, plenty of snow, as free and independent, including from the Tatar-Mongols, predominantly white clothing of the population, blond hair and eyes inhabitants, Some researchers associated the name "Belaya Rus" with the Christian, pure, in contrast to the pagan religion. In our time, new explanations have appeared. It is associated with the earlier adoption of Christianity, in comparison with Black Russia, with the widespread use of the name "white" in toponymy. Some authors believe that the term "Belaya Rus" means "free, great and bright" power, based on the fact that among the ancient Slavs the concepts of "white", "whiteness" symbolized purity, kindness and joy. It is most likely that "White" in the distant times of the emergence of this term in relation to Western Russia meant free, independent, noble, rich.

It is generally accepted that for the first time the name "Belaya Rus" in relation to a large territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was used in the XIV century. P. Zuchenvirt. At the same time, the Polish historian Ya. Chernkovskii called Polotsk "the fortress of White Russia." A. Gvagnini in the "Chronicle of European Sarmatia" (1611) stated: "... there is a three-fold Russia: one White, the second Black, the third Red. Belaya near Kyiv, Mozyr, Mstislavl, Vitebsk. Orsha, Polotsk, Smolensk and Severskaya Land” (2, vol. 1, 65). In the XVII - mid-eighteenth in. the name "Belaya Rus" was steadily assigned to the lands of Polotsk, Vitebsk, Mstislavl, and partly Minsk provinces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and part of the Smolensk region. Simultaneously with the XVII century. in historical documents the entire eastern part of ethnographic Belarus began to be called "Belarus". By the end of the XIX century. this name has spread to the entire modern territory of Belarus.

The problem of the formation of the ethnic territory of the Belarusians, as well as its name, is closely intertwined with the history of the Baltic peoples and, above all, the Lithuanians. However, in the problem of the localization of Lithuania as an ethnic and historical region, there is discord. Some authors "place" it between Novogrudok and Minsk, Molodechno and Slonim. The latter, referring to the "Chronicle" by M. Stryikovsky, also single out the so-called "Lithuania of Mindovg", placing it between Novogrudok and Pinsk. Still others believe that Lithuania was located to the east of the Principality of Polotsk, within the boundaries of the modern Vitebsk and Smolensk regions. That is, a number of authors ignore the fact that the Lithuanian branch of the Balts in the second half of the 1st - the beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. occupied the territory of modern Lithuania.

In the last decade, the problem of the name "Lithuania", as well as finding out the place of its initial consolidation, has acquired a conflict-polemical character and even political relevance. Historians, ethnologists, archaeologists, linguists, specialists from other branches of science, as well as wide circle publicists. Moreover, in the course of the debate, more questions arise than answers are given.

Some scientists, a number of publications of a certain orientation believe that modern Belarusians come from the Litvin tribe. It is alleged that in the region of the upper Ponemonye between Minsk and Novogrudok from east to west and from Molodechno to Slonim from north to south, in ancient times the Lithuanian tribe lived, which not only gave the name to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but was almost the core of the Belarusian people. This concept, in our opinion, is not distinguished by both elementary plausibility and logical consistency, historical beauty. This concerns both the origin of the ethnonym "Litvins" and groundless attempts to transfer it to the entire Western Russian population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL), and the assertions that "Litvins are a Slavic phenomenon."

The agreement between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Pskov (1440) stated; “... it’s more important to penalize ours, or Litvin, or Polotsk, or Vitebsk or Smolny in Pskov ...” (80, 43). Only one conclusion can be drawn from this: under the Litvins, the then diplomats meant only Lithuanians, possibly including the Aukshtaites and Zhmudins in this concept. Of interest in this sense is the evidence of E. Telak, Latin secretary at the State Chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In a speech to the Pope in 1501, he noted that the Litvins retained their own language, however, due to the fact that the Rusyns inhabited almost half of the principality, and their language is elegant, harmonious and easy to use, they also use this language (3, 58).

If the Belarusians were called Litvins for some time, then this meant nothing more than the fact that they were residents of the ON, or, as it was abbreviated, Lithuania. That is, the name "Litvins" acquired the meaning of a polytonym. In the XIV-XVI centuries. the ethnonyms “Litvins”, “Rusyns” simultaneously reflected both the ethnogenetic essence and the nationwide consolidation of the inhabitants of the GDL. Rus, Russian lands at that time were called the eastern and central parts of the territory of Belarus, and their population, respectively, Rusyns. The ethnonym "Litvins" was common in the regions of Vileyka, Smorgon, Oshmyany, Molodechno, Lida, Krevo. Gradually (in our opinion, mainly abroad), the entire population of the GDL began to be called “Litvins”, and the state itself, for convenience, Lithuania. In this regard, the Belarusians were called "Litvins of the Russian kind", "Litvins of the Russian faith", "Litvins-Belarusians", "Lithuanian Belarusians". “Litvin, Belarusian by birth”, “Belarusian by birth” - this is how Belarusian peasants, artisans, merchants in Moscow called themselves.

At the same time, in the Great Russian written sources first third of the 17th century There is a lot of evidence that Belarusians at that time were called not only the inhabitants of Polotsk, Vitebsk, Orsha, Mstislav, but also the Slavic population of Oshmyany (1627), Lida region (1636), Sluchchyna (1639). Along with the form "Belarusians" in the late 1640s, there is also a modern form of the name of our people - Belarusians. But due to the historical tradition that developed in the 14th-16th centuries, the term "Belarusians" (Belarusians) was rarely used in comparison with the names "Litvins", "Rusyns". In connection with belonging to the state, called the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Belarusians were called Litvins, from the point of view of their place of residence, they could call themselves, say, Gomel residents. in connection with the Orthodox religion and language - Russian. F. Skaryna called himself a Polochan, Rusyn and Litvin.

In this context, it is also appropriate to note that the ethnonym "Belarusians" in the 13th-14th centuries. was not widely used for a number of reasons. Firstly, this was due to the fact that the Belarusian lands in the XIII century. began to be part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which only in the XIV century. after the annexation of all Belarusian lands, as well as parts of Ukrainian and Great Russian, it became known as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia. The ethnicity of Belarusians was designated by the term "Rusyns", which simultaneously denoted the entire East Slavic methoenos - Belarusians, Ukrainians and Great Russians.

Secondly, if before the collapse Old Russian state on the territory of modern Belarus, the names “Rus”, “Russian land” were widely used, and the population considered themselves “Roses”, “Rus”, “Rusich”, “Rusyns”, then after the Tatar-Mongol invasion and the fall of not only Kyiv, but also many other Russian principalities, on the Western Russian lands there was a certain decrease in the prestige of these names. The advantage began to be given to local-territorial names, the ethnic names “Polotsk”, “Turovtsy”, “Minsk”, etc. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as you know, the Tatar-Mongol bulk passed by. From the second half of the thirteenth century it began to gain political, military and economic power, and this, of course, influenced the fact that the words "Lithuania", "Litvins" began to displace the ethnonyms "Rusichs", "Russians", including the ethnonyms "Belarusians" that were beginning to come into use , "Belarusians", "Belarusians". Thirdly, this can be explained by the fact. that, as many examples show, the political center often imposes its name on dependent territories, primarily those of other ethnicities. In our case, with the advent of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania - a new, dynamically gaining strength state, headed by Lithuanian princes, there was a relatively rapid transfer of the ethnonym "Lithuania" to the Belarusian-Slavic population. The proper spread of the self-name of the Belarusians was also restrained by the multi-confessional nature of the people. When part of the population of Belarus adopted Catholicism (which was facilitated by the adoption of Catholicism by Lithuania in 1386), it to a certain extent began to separate itself from half-brothers who belonged to Orthodox faith. For this reason, the ethnonym "Litvins" began to spread in the regions of Grodno, Novogrudok, Volkovysk, Slonim.

To full approval modern name Belarusians lay a long, controversial and difficult path. Only in new historical conditions that took shape at the end of the 18th century. In connection with the entry of the territory of Belarus into the Russian Empire, the term "Belarusians" became the main name of the Belarusian people, reflecting its ethnic essence.

Ideologically covering this topic, two extremes should be avoided in every possible way: neither belittle nor excessively exalt one's ethnic group. In the first case, you can generally lose your historical, cultural, linguistic roots. In the second - "slide" onto the road of nationalism, racism. Therefore, it is necessary to adhere to historicism, objectivity, i.e. science in explaining our origin and development.

The formation of Man on Earth begins about 2 million years ago in Africa. About a million years have passed since the settlement of the Mediterranean, the Caucasus and the south of Ukraine. It was no longer a prehistoric man who came to the territory of Belarus, but “ Homo sapiens"- Homo sapiens about 40 thousand years ago. The harsh climate of our territories, generated by the ice age /16-8 thousand years BC/, scared away nomads primitive people from this region. Two ancient sites person on the Belarusian territory. Near the village of Yurovichi, not far from Mozyr, on the Pripyat River and on the Sozh River, near the village of Berdyzh, near Chechersk. About 50 people lived on them, about 23 thousand. years ago.

As the glacier melted and retreated /8-5 thousand years BC/ and the territory of Belarus was populated more massively by newcomers from different places and directions. In the valleys of the largest rivers, a permanent population was fixed, as evidenced by the discovered 120 sites of people of that period, with a total number of up to 6 thousand people. Nomadic, not bound by the conduct of a permanent economy, a person populated the most suitable areas for gathering, hunting and fishing on an ad hoc basis.

Soviet Academician V.Yu. Bromley explained the formation of different ethnic groups in this way. A small group of people /family, clan/, living in a limited area, forms the basis of an ethnic group: language, culture, type of management and way of life. An increase in its numbers makes it necessary to search for and develop new territories for living, since natural resources are scarce, and agriculture and cattle breeding have not yet appeared. Obeying the circumstances, part of this ethnic group left in search of new lands rich in resources, adhering to rivers, shores of lakes and seas, which provided a variety of flora and fauna, a favorable habitat for humans. The rivers played the role of a compass, roads and provided the pioneers with a solution to their problems. If they met indigenous people along the way, they could be subjugated, subordinated. However, mutual experience, languages, culture, mixing and interacting with each other, mutually enriched and improved. Thus, related, but different from each other, especially over time, ethnic groups were formed. In the opposite case, when the natives subjugated the newcomers, the cultural and life potential of the latter also did not disappear without a trace, but was integrated, at least partially, into common culture new ethnic formation. If the lands new to the newcomers were not occupied, then in this case their language was enriched, new labor skills, traditions, etc. appeared. The old culture adapted to the new conditions and inevitably changed itself.

The concept of V.Yu. Bromley is also very important for understanding the process of formation of the Belarusian ethnos, especially its Indo-European period. It is associated with the first great migration of peoples, which took place in the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. Due to the sharp increase in the population of the Earth, Europe from the Rhine to the Volga was flooded with wave of settlers of the Indo-European language group. There was no unity on the question of their origin. The concept of European localization claimed that the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans is Northern Germany and Southern Scandinavia. She was actively supported in Nazi Germany. But science unequivocally asserted that Europe was settled by migrants from south to north, and not vice versa. Yes, and cattle breeding with agriculture in the north of Europe was fixed later than, for example, in the Balkans.

did not clarify the situation Balkan concept their origin. After all, the Indo-Europeans came to this territory from outside.

There was also a concept according to which the Indo-Europeans migrated from the southern steppes of Eastern Europe and vast regions of Siberia. This theory did not resist, mainly because the original ancestral home of ethnic groups, according to science, cannot be so extensive.

A more deeply grounded concept won and gained a foothold Anterior Asian ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans. From the 70s of the XX century. this concept prevails. According to her, the Indo-Europeans spread to the west, north and east of Europe from the territory of present-day Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. Miscellaneous sciences/archeology, toponymy, ethnography/ prove that the Indo-Europeans come from the mountainous south. They knew about mountain glaciers, deserts, lions, elephants, and so on. As a result of their arrival on a vast territory covering the basins of such rivers as the Vistula, Neman, Dnieper, Western Dvina, a a new ethnic group - the Balts. In it, the local population was assimilated by the Indo-Europeans, who brought with them the skills of cattle breeding and agriculture. Iron tools appeared and improved. The population on our territory has increased to 50-75 thousand people. The type of settlement also changed: these were already fortified settlements, of which there were up to a thousand.

With the advent of the Slavs/IV-Vcc. AD / the modern ethnic stage of the history of Belarus has come. From the 8th century AD Slavs massively consolidated on the right bank of the Dnieper, along the Berezina, in the Dvina, along the Neman. The Baltic population was partially destroyed, part of it was forced out to the Baltic states, where it contributed to the formation of ethnic groups of Latvians and Estonians, and the rest were assimilated by the Slavs until the 13th century. and later. As a result of the historical interaction of the Slavs and the Balts, new ethnic communities arose: Krivichi, Radimichi, Dregovichi. The Krivichi lived in the upper reaches of the Dnieper, Western Dvina and Volga. In Polissya, between Pripyat and Berezina - Dregovichi, between Sozh and Iput - Radimichi.

In the second millennium AD the tribal organization of our ethnos is replaced by a political one. The emergence of cities and principalities unified their life on a political, state basis. There are conditions for the emergence of a larger community of Belarusians - the nation.

In parallel with the described ethno-demographic processes, there were other processes that had an impact on the formation of the Belarusian ethnos. History highlights and second great migration. It dates back to the 4th-7th centuries AD, but it started even before our era. the movement of the Scythians and Sarmatians from the territory of modern Central Asia and Kazakhstan from Altai to the Danube. In addition, one of the East Germanic tribes, goths, from the coast of the Baltic Sea / in the territory modern Poland/ moved through our lands to the south of Ukraine, spreading its influence from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Slavs in their settlement from the Elbe to the East European Plain, starting from the VI century. had a direct impact on the formation of our ethnic group.

As a result of these intensive mass migrations of peoples in the Middle Dnieper, within the framework of Kievan Rus, an Old Russian nationality appeared with a common name - Rus. But in the future / from the beginning of the XII century / she divided into three kindred peoples: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Each of them created and experienced own history preserving and increasing the commonality of ties while asserting ethnic and political independence.

On the territory of present-day Belarus, after the collapse of Kievan Rus, two dialect-ethnographic zones clearly appeared: Poleshuks and ancient Belarusians, who became the direct ancestors of modern Belarusians. From the end of the XV century. the dominance of an independent complex of ethnic culture with its own language under the name "Belaya Rus" was fixed in the current borders of Belarus. The inhabitants of the territory began to be called "Belarusians".

The territory of Ancient Russia was divided into "White Russia", "Black Russia", "Red Russia" based on the tradition of colors to designate the cardinal points: white is the west, blue is the east, black is the north, red is the south. So that Belarusians are the western part of the Slavs. Besides, White color meant and purity, independence and freedom from paying tribute.

The formation of the Belarusian ethnos is ideologically explained not so clearly. Back in the 19th century the Polish and Great Russian concept appeared, according to which the Polish side /L.Galembovsky, A.Rypinsky/, on the grounds that the Belarusians allegedly do not have their own independent Slavic language, considered the Belarusian language a part, a dialect of Polish, respectively, an integral part of the Polish ethnic group. On the Russian side /A.Sobolevsky, I.Sraznevsky/ - on the contrary, on the same basis, Belarus was considered a part of the Great Russian ethnic territory, and the Belarusian language was a dialect of Russian.

Both approaches generally denied the Belarusian people the right to an independent national, and even more so, a state existence. But history put everything in its place. Now the Belarusian nation, the Belarusian state are real and legally equal subjects with other nations and states international relations recognized by the world community. Truth, the process of formation of the Belarusian nation dragged on until the 20th century for a number of objective reasons. After all, a nation is a historically established community of people who have mutual language, general theory, common economic and cultural life. Nations in the world were formed on the basis of industrial production with the victory of bourgeois relations over feudal ones. In Belarus, both came rather late, as in the Russian Empire as a whole, in which Belarus existed as a peripheral agrarian northwestern region. Industrial and bourgeois-democratic transformations came here later than political and economic centers Russia, and even in a truncated form.

Frequent wars, redistribution of territory with its subsequent Polonization and Russification prevented the formation of territorial stability and integrity of Belarus. This also prevented the consolidation of the national Belarusian language and national self-consciousness among the people. The economy of the agrarian region with a rural population and the dominance of Russian and Jewish capital in the cities also did not contribute to the consolidation of the Belarusian people into a nation with a single culture. This process was hindered by the division of the population along religious lines into Orthodox and Catholic. The situation was overcome through socialist revolution and industrialization in the 20th century.

The Belarusian nation is characterized by such universally recognized stable characteristics as tolerance, i.e. tolerant attitude towards something else (to religion, culture, other opinion, to other people, nations, races). It could not be otherwise in the conditions of multifaceted and active interaction with other ethnic groups and states. We also have such a trait as industriousness. Formed mainly as a peasant nation, earning their livelihood through hard work in the zone of risky agriculture and far from the best soils, the Belarusians could survive, survive and develop only through hard and systematic work. And in the conditions of industrial development, with very limited natural resources, it is possible to exist and progress only by multiplying industriousness by professionalism and high qualification of work. Our nation is also characterized by such features as heroism in defense of the Fatherland, obedience to the law, respect for human rights and the pursuit of social justice. The totality of these qualities constitutes a positive image / image / of the Belarusians and the state of Belarus in the world community.

Analyzing the history of formation and the current state of the Belarusian ethnos, modern science proves that Belarusians are a typical European nation. So, A. Mikulich, anthropologist, geneticist, doctor biological sciences, laureate State Prize scientifically substantiated this position. His arguments are as follows. The Baltic-Black Sea watershed passes through Belarus. The anthropological division of the northern Caucasoid population and the southern one also takes place here. At the turn of the new and the old era, the Scythian, Germanic, Baltic and Finno-Ugric tribes interacted here. And in the middle of the first millennium AD. the Slavs also came here. The question arises: what kind of blood flows more in our veins - Scythian, Baltic, Slavic?

A. Mikulich, as an anthropologist, studied rural population of Belarus, where the basis of the gene pool is still preserved, in contrast to the urban population, where interethnic and even interracial migration is much more significant. The Belarusian political scientist Yu. Shevtsov also claims that in our country “migrations, as a rule, were not associated with the mass resettlement of the ethnic population in countryside. The migrants settled mainly in the cities, with an almost complete absence of rural areas that would be completely colonized by other ethnic migrants.

The study of A. Mikulich showed that the South European admixture is manifested in the Poleshuks, and the North European / Finno-Ugric / - in the northeastern Belarusians. On the whole, on the world map, the established Belarusian type occupies its niche assigned to it by nature and history. On the geographical map In Belarus, the genetic components of the blood of our indigenous population change smoothly from the southwest to the northeast /as well as changes in flora and fauna, in the type of forest/. As in all of Europe, the hair color of our population also changes: from dark among the Poleshuks to light among the inhabitants of the Podvinya. At the genetic level, it is also confirmed that Belarusians have 5-6 types of faces, 6 distinct ethnographic regions: Eastern Polesie, Western Polesie, Ponemonie, Central Belarus, Dnieper and Dvina. They have already formed XVII century. And the common Belarusian genotype, with its local characteristics, was formed already 3 thousand years ago, when the Balts lived here. Since then, our ancestors have been like you and me.

The ethnographic regions of Belarus, according to A. Mikulich, coincide with the map of Belarusian dialects compiled back in 1903 by the Russian ethnographer E. Karsky and with the latest electronic map compiled on the basis of ethnogenomics (differences between ethnic groups at the DNA level). The same maps also indicate that the borders of the Belarusian ethnic group are wider than the borders of the state of Belarus: they capture the Baltic states, part of Poland and Russia.

Polissya is a special region of our country. natural conditions contributed to the preservation of the deepest features of our gene pool here. In Polissya, A. Mikulich discovered the genotypes of the so-called paleo-European race: they were once among the ancestors of all Caucasians, and now they are preserved only in Spain among the Basques and in northern Europe among the Lapps. On the whole, Belarusians are like all Europeans, and therefore, A. Mikulich notes, that we are, as it were, “of the same blood”. The first and second blood types prevail in Belarusians /35-37% each/. The third group - in 17-20% of the population. Little (5%, and in the east of the country - up to 9%) of the blood of group IV. On the map of the blood types of the Eurasian subcontinent, a trend is clearly visible: the farther to the east, the more people with III and IV blood groups. Among the Mongoloids, group III generally predominates. And vice versa - the farther to the west of this vast territory, the more it has populations with I and II blood groups.

Thus, the Belarusian ethnos is an independent, long-formed and stable ethnos, which has taken its place in the anthropological, ethno-cultural and political life Europe. Even the most bloody wars swept on our territory, destroying up to ¾ of the Belarusian population (the Livonian war of 1557-1582, the war of 1648-1667, North War 1700-1721, Napoleon's invasion, World War I 1914-1918., Civil War on the ruins of the Russian Empire and World War II) could not destroy the Belarusian people. It survived, asserted itself and took the path of progress and prosperity.

The process of formation of the Belarusian ethnos is rather complicated and contradictory. There is no consensus among scientists both about the time when Belarusians appeared as an ethnic group, and about the ancestors of modern Belarusians. It is believed that the ethnogenesis of Belarusians took place on the territory of the Upper Dnieper, Middle Dvina and Upper Ponemon. Some researchers (Georgy Shtykhov, Nikolai Yermolovich, Mikhail Tkachev) believe that the Belarusian ethnos existed already in the 13th century. Archaeologist Valentin Sedov believed that the Belarusian ethnic community was formed in the XIII-XIV centuries, Moses Grinblat - in the period from the XIV to the XVI century.

The emergence of Belarus as an ethnic territory, its East Slavic population is an integral part of the formation of the Belarusian people (ethnogenesis). It is impossible to answer numerous questions about the origin of Belarus without considering a number of problems of the Belarusian ethnogenesis, without answering the question about the ancestors of the Belarusians, the historical roots of our people.

Today, unfortunately, there is no single point of view among Belarusian scientists regarding the ethnogenesis of Belarusians. There are many different versions about where the Belarusians came from, where their ethnic roots are, within which state formations our people, our nation was formed. The presence of several concepts of the emergence of Belarus and the origin of the Belarusian people is due to the complexity of the very process of formation of the ethnic territory and the methods of its research, the variety of sources, which very often differ radically from each other.

There are several fundamentally different concepts of the ethnogenesis of Belarusians:

Krivichi theory of the origin (ethnogenesis) of the Belarusian people

One of these theories of the origin of the Belarusian people is the Krivich theory, formulated in general terms in the second half of the 19th century and significantly developed at the beginning of the 20th century in the works of a number of scientists, in particular the famous Belarusian historian and public figure Vaclav Lastovsky (1883-1938). V. Lastovsky argued that the formation of the Belarusian people was based on the traditional culture of one of the first East Slavic ethnic communities - the Krivichi tribe, who are the ancestors of the Belarusians. The scientist proceeded from the fact that it was the Krivichi who were the most numerous community among the tribes on the territory of modern Belarus and occupied some lands beyond its borders. Moreover, it was on the territory of the settlement of the Krivichi that such a state formation as the Principality of Polotsk was formed, which had a significant impact on the development of the rest of the Belarusian lands. V. Lastovsky also expressed the idea that it would be more correct to call Belarusians "Krivichi", and Belarus - "Krivia". Despite a number of facts that testify in favor of this theory, its main provision that the ancestors of the Belarusians are the Krivichi, and the ethnic territory of the Belarusian people was formed on the ethnic territory of the Krivichi, contradicts reality. The Krivichi and their ethnic territory (Krivia) disappeared in the middle of the 12th century, while the Belarusian ethnos and its ethnic territory had not yet formed at that time. The controversy of this concept is also revealed in the fact that it cannot convincingly explain the emergence of ethnic features of the southern Belarusian population, since the Krivichi lived only in the northern and central part of modern Belarus.

Famous Belarusian scientists Ya.F. Karsky and V.I. Picheta, who included not only Krivichi, but Radimichi and Dregovichi in the composition of the ancestors of the Belarusians, to some extent overcame the one-sidedness of the Krivichi theory. However, they did not take into account the important factor that there is no direct continuity between the Slavic tribes, on the one hand, and the Belarusians, on the other. The Dregovichi, Krivichi and Radimichi disappeared in the 12th century, and the all-Belarusian complex of language and culture had not yet formed at that time.

The Baltic theory of the origin (ethnogenesis) of the Belarusian people

There is another rather interesting and well-reasoned theory of the origin of the Belarusian people. This is a Baltic theory, which took shape in the 60s - early 70s of the XX century and connects the origin of Belarusians with living on the territory of modern Belarus in the pre-Slavic period of the Balts. One of the authors of this theory was a Moscow archaeologist, Dr. historical sciences V.V. Sedov. He suggested that the mixing of Slavs and Balts resulted in the formation of the Belarusian ethnos, the originality of its culture and language. At the same time, the scientist argued, the Balts in the ethnogenesis of the Belarusians played the role of a substratum (substratum). His theory V.V. Sedov argued with the data of archaeological excavations, which he carried out on the territory of Belarus and in the Smolensk region. He found a number of adornments, tools, and weapons that were characteristic of the Baltic culture and did not belong to the Slavs. On the basis of archaeological data, V.V. Sedov came to the conclusion that at the end of the Bronze Age and during the Iron Age, the Balts lived on the territory of the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea to the upper reaches of the Don, including the Oka basin, and from the Dnieper to the Kiev region. From the middle of the first millennium began the migration of the Slavs. But they could not force out the Balts, moreover, the Balts took an active part in the ethnogenesis of the Slavic tribes, became part of them and adopted various dialects of their language. Thus, according to the Baltic theory, the main determining factor in the formation of the Belarusian ethnos is the colonization by the Slavs of the territory located north of Pripyat, including the Upper Ponemanye, the Upper Dvina and the Dnieper, the assimilation of the Balts by them, the impact of the Balts on the language and culture of the Slavic tribes. This is evidenced by the fact that many elements of the Belarusian language and culture have Baltic roots, for example, the worship of snakes and stones in traditional religion Belarusians, bast shoes of direct weaving, housing construction techniques, a number of sounds of Belarusian phonetics (hard “r”, “akanye”, etc.).

Despite the significant argumentation of the Baltic concept, a number of scientists found many controversial points in the statement that the separation of the Belarusian ethnic group from other groups of the Slavic population was mainly due to the influence of the Balts. The significant influence of the Balts on the formation of the Belarusian people, its culture, language, the isolation of Belarusians from other East Slavic peoples - Russians and Ukrainians are put into question.

The ancient Russian concept of the origin (ethnogenesis) of the Belarusian people

Another concept of the ethnogenesis of Belarusians is also disputable - the ancient Russian concept. One of its theorists was our fellow countryman - associate professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy M. O. Koyalovich (1828-1891), who defended the pan-Slavist concept of the history of Russia and believed that Russian people consists of three parts: Great Russians, Little Russians and Belarusians. According to this theory, the Krivichi, Radimichi, Dregovichi, as well as other East Slavic tribes changed in ethnicity even before the formation of the Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian peoples. Initially, the East Slavic ethnic communities were replaced by a common East Slavic community, and their ethnic territories formed Kievan Rus, which was the forerunner of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.

Today, this theory is disputed by many scientists, a minority of whom deny the existence in the past of a common East Slavic community - the Old Russian people. Indeed, there are many questions to which this theory does not provide answers. In fact, the chronological framework for the existence of such a nationality (formed in the 9th-10th centuries, disintegrated in the 12th century) on the territory of Belarus is not confirmed by the actual material. In a simplified way, the theory also explains the path of the emergence of Belarus from the ethnic territory of Ancient Russia, does not take into account the complexity of the ways and means of forming a new ethnic territory, the impact on this process not only of evolution, but also of diffusion phenomena of culture and language, names. The assertion that the process of disappearance from the political map of Kievan Rus and the formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the State of Moscow on its territory, as well as the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars and crusaders, is not convincing either. But after all, the ancestors of modern Belarusians, Russians and Ukrainians lived together in one state, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, during the XIII-XVIII centuries, but the process of completing the formation of the ancient Russian nationality was never carried out. This may mean that each of the peoples indicated above followed its own historical path. Undoubtedly, the Old Russian language brought them together, common features cultures, a common ethnic self-name (Russians, Russes, Ruthenians), a single Orthodox religion.

.Finnish concept

There is also a "Finnish" concept, put forward by the writer Ivan Laskov. According to her, the ancestors of the Belarusians were the Finno-Ugric peoples. The concept was formed on the basis of the presence of a significant number of ancient Finno-Ugric hydronyms on the territory of Belarus (for example, Dvina, Svir). Nowadays, however, it is believed that the Finno-Ugric peoples acted as a substrate not for the Belarusians, but for the Balts.

.“Polish” and “Great Russian” concepts

Chronologically, the “Polish” (L. Galembovsky, A. Rypinsky) and “Great Russian” (A. Sobolevsky, I. Sreznevsky) concepts arose first, according to which the ethnic territory of Belarusians was considered as originally Polish or originally Great Russian, respectively, the argument for which was the lack of Belarusians have a separate language. Meanwhile, back at the beginning of the 20th century, Evfim Karsky in his fundamental work “Belarusians” proved the independence of the Belarusian dialect from both the Polish language and the Great Russian dialect of the Russian language, thereby refuting the main argument of the supporters of these concepts.

The Slavs emerged from the Indo-Europeans by the middle of the 1st millennium BC. The first Slavs came from the south (6-7th century AD). There was an opinion that the Slavs went to Belarus only from the south, but Karsky proved that the main mass of the Slavs moved from the south and west. Hypotheses about the appearance of the Slavs: 1) Most researchers consider the homeland of the Slavs from the Carpathians to the upper reaches of the Dniester in the south to the upper reaches of the Pripyat and Vistula in the north. 2) The basin of the Oder and the Vistula. The Slavs settled near the Balts, often subjugating them and occupying their settlements. They surpassed the Balts in terms of social. Economic development, they were engaged in agriculture, they knew two fields, they used an iron tip. In the 8-9 centuries. Great groups of Slays advanced and settled in all regions, establishing close contacts with the Baltic population. The bulk of the Slavs of B. were: - Dregovichi, - Krivichi, - Radimichi.

The Dregovichi settled the land between Pripyat and the West. Dvinoy. The chronicler of the place derives the name of the tribes from the word drygva (swamp). But Nikolai Ermolovich believes that the name has a patronomic character and comes from the Slavic name dragovit. Slavic elements prevailed in their koltura, their language was Slavic. Women wore temporal rings, on a cat. Copper beads were worn, there were ceramics, spiral rings, star buckles.

Radimichi - Radimichi lived to the east of the Dregovichi. The axial area of ​​the population is the basin of the Sozh and Iput rivers. The culture was dominated by Slavic elements. The language was Slavic. Slavic elements: ceramics, rings. Baltic: bracelets with a snake The name comes from the mythical personality Radima.

Krivichi - to the north of the Radimich and Dregovichi lived the Krivichi, they occupied the expanses of the podvinya, and Polotsk was their tribal center in the upper Dnieper. The culture of the Krivichi was divided into 2 groups: Polotsk-Smolensk and Pskov. The language is Slavic. There are several hypotheses about the names of the tribes: 1) from the Balt priest Krive Kreveiteny 2) on behalf of the ancestor of Krive-Krivite 3) from the mountainous terrain (Krivuny) 4) similarity with the word blood (kreiyny)

The main concepts of the origin of the Belous ethnos. Contemporary discussions on this topic.

In the 19th century A Polish and Great Russian concept appeared. They denied the Independent white. Ethnicity on the basis of the fact that the population of Belarus would not have had it. independent language. Supporters of the Polish concept - Galimbovsky and Repinsky considered Belarusians to be part of the Polish ethnos and Belarus to be part of Poland. The Belarusian language is the dialect of the Polish language. The Great Russian concept (Sobolevsky and Radnevsky) is based on the idea that Belarus is part of Russia. Bel.yaz.- adverb of the Russian language. The scientist Karsky in his work "Belarus" proved that the Belarusian language is an independent Slavic language, which, in terms of its lexical composition, is equally included in the group of East Slavic languages.

Krivichi concept (20c): based on the idea that almost all the features that Belarusians differ from Ukrainians and Russians are perceived by them from Krivichi. The authors identified Belarusians and Krivichi, suggested calling Belarusians - Krivichi, and Belarus - Krivia. The precariousness of this concept was that the Krivichi and the territory of Krivia disappeared until the middle. 12th century, and the Belarusians as an ethnic group were not formed at that time, there was no common Belarusian language.

Baltic. According to which the appearance of the Belarusians is explained by the fact that the Balts lived on the territory of Belarus before the appearance of the Slavs. According to this theory, the merging of the Slavs with the Balts allegedly led to the emergence of the Belarusian ethnic group, language. (Sedov). Many elements of the language and culture of the Belarusians have Baltic roots. Opponents believed that the main position was not confirmed either in fact or theoretically. The elements of culture and yashchyk shown above are characteristic of both Slavs and Bats,

Finnish. (Laskov) Draws attention to the fact that in Belarus there are names of rivers and lakes of Fmin origin.

ancient concept. (Mavrodin, Tokarev). According to which the origins of the white, Ukrainian and Russian people are the ancient Russian nationality - the East Slavic ethnic communities that have developed as a result of mixing, K, R, D, Drevlyans and northerners. However, this concept has many opponents (Yermolovich, Shtykov). They completely deny the very fact of the existence of the Old Russian people.

Mikhas Pilippenko in the 90s of the 20th century formulated a new concept. He denies the role of the Balts as the ancestors of the Belarusians. As a result of the wide settlement and mixing of the Slavs with the eastern Balts, communities formed - K, D, R. Then, together with other communities, K, D, R consolidated into a new community - the Russian people