Read also:
|
Our common Indo-European ancestors were not numerous and initially occupied some small territory of Eastern Turkey or the territory along the Oder and Vistula rivers, and they got there by separating earlier from a more ancient tribe. It was so long ago that at the time of separation they did not have a developed language. As their numbers increased, individual families moved to other lands in Europe and Western Asia, giving rise to new tribes and clans. Indo-Europeans - Celts, Slavs, Baltic, Germans, to the greatest extent created the modern ethnic map of Europe. The Slavs separated from the Indo-European community in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. The territory from the Carpathians to the Dnieper is recognized as the ancestral home of the Slavs. Distribution of tribes, cat. could be called Slavic, began in the 4th century. AD, and the Slavs came to the lands of modern Belarus, Ukraine, and the European part of Russia in the 6th-7th centuries. Until the 7th century. not a single Russian existed on earth. The first written evidence about the Slavs appears in thousands of Greek, Arab and Byzantine sources. The names Slavs, or Wends or Andes appeared in the sources. On the way of their settlement, the Slavs met other tribes: nomadic and agricultural Baltic and Finno-Ugric, and from the south - the Goths were replaced by the Huns, the Huns were replaced by Avars, the Avars by the Ugrians and Khazars, the Khazars by the Pechenegs, the Pechenegs by the Cumans, the Cumans by the Tatars. The community played a major role in the life of the ancient Russian village. By the time the state was formed in the east. of the Slavs, the tribal community was replaced by a territorial community. As a result of the transfer of the right to own land by the princes to the feudal lords, some of the communities came under their authority. Dr. By subjugating neighboring communities to feudal lords, they were captured by warriors and princes. Communities that did not fall under the power of feudal lords were obliged to pay taxes to the state, cat. in relation to these communities, both the supreme and feudal authorities acted. At the head of the East Slavic tribal unions were princes from the tribal nobility and the former clan elite - “deliberate people”, “best husbands”. There was a militia. At their head were the thousand and sotskys. A special military organization was the squad, which was divided into the senior one, from which came the ambassadors and princely rulers who had their own land, and the younger one, who lived with the prince and served his court and household. The warriors collected tribute from the conquered tribes. Such campaigns for tribute were called “polyudye”.
East Slavic tribes: Slavs, Krivichi, Vyatichi, Polyans, Drevlyans (~15 tribes)
Economy: agriculture (rye, barley, turnips), cattle breeding, hunting, fishing, blacksmithing, foundry, beekeeping.
Religion: worship of the forces of nature, cult of ancestors.
They settled mainly along rivers, which were the main means of communication with each other and the rest of the world. 2 most important routes - “from the Varangians to the Treks” it connected Scandinavia with Byzantium, “from the Varangians to the Persians” the highway went to Central Asia and the Arab countries.
By the 7th century a powerful alliance of a number of leading East Slavic tribes emerged, which foreigners called “Rus”. The body of power is the veche and the leader chosen by it. Formation of a privileged military-retinue class (prince and his squad). Power and wealth were combined in the hands of the prince; he declared himself the owner of the land and forced free community members to pay tribute in their favor.
I. Lesson objectives
1. Educational
· Reveal the basic theories of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs;
· Consider the economy, social system, culture and religion of the Eastern Slavs in the 8th – 9th centuries.
2. Educational
· To form ideas among students that increase their general cultural level;
· Instill in cadets and students the idea of the importance of history in shaping their worldview.
II. Calculation of study time
III. Literature
Main:
1. Orlov A.S., Georgiev V.A., Georgieva N.G., Sivokhina T.A. Russian history. Textbook. – M., 2009.
2. History of Russia / Ed. A.N. Sakharov. Textbook. In 2 vols. – M., 2009.
3. Dvornichenko A.Yu., Kashchenko S.G., Krivosheev Yu.V., Florinsky M.F. History of Russia from ancient times to the beginning of the twentieth century. – St. Petersburg, 2006.
4. Fortunatov V.V. Domestic history for humanitarian universities. – M., 2009.
Additional literature:
1. History of the Fatherland in the context of world civilization. Reader. – St. Petersburg, 2002.
2. History of Russia: Educational and methodological manual for seminar classes / Ed. G.N. Serdyukov. M. - Rostov n/d, 2004.
3. Reader on the history of Russia: Textbook. – M., 2006.
IV. Educational and material support
1. Technical teaching aids: multimedia projector, computer.
2. Slides:
· Topic title.
· Study questions.
V. Text of the lecture
Introductory part
In the introductory part, the goals of this lecture should be outlined, which consist of presenting the main theories of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs; consideration of the economic life, social system, culture and religion of the Eastern Slavs in the 8th – 9th centuries.
PROBLEMS OF ETHNOGENESIS OF THE SLAVS. SETTLEMENT OF THE ANCIENT SLAVS
The first question must begin with the historiography of the issue, i.e. consideration of the main hypotheses of the origin of the Slavs.
Ethnogenesis - the process of origin and development of a particular ethnic group - is one of the most difficult problems in science. The roots of the origin of this or that people are lost in ancient times. Numerous migrations, mixing, and assimilation complicate the work of the researcher. Therefore, to study ethnogenesis, a synthesis of various sciences is necessary. Comparative historical linguistics and archeology can provide invaluable assistance.
The ethnic classification of peoples is based on linguistic differences between them, i.e. language.
According to researchers, in the 4th – 3rd millennium BC. e. (Copper and Bronze Age) develops Indo-European ethnolinguistic family.(However, there is another point of view, according to which we can talk about ethnic groups only in relation to the Early Iron Age, i.e. in the 1st millennium BC). The following groups are distinguished in the Indo-European language family: Iranian, Romance, Germanic, Baltic, Slavic, as well as the languages of many peoples of the Middle East and India.
In historical science back in the first half of the 19th century. the so-called Indo-European problem arises, associated with clarifying ancestral homelands of the Indo-Europeans(including the ancient Slavs). As such they were called Central Asia, southeastern Europe, Balkan-Caucasus region, area around the Black Sea and etc.
At the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. ancient Indo-Europeans gradually settled over a large territory of the Eurasian continent, reaching the Baltic states and Scandinavia in the north, reaching the Atlantic in the west, developing the territories of Iran and India in the east, and the Mediterranean in the south.
But where and when did the Proto-Slavs emerge from the huge Indo-European massif? This question is extremely complex. At present, it has not been completely resolved. Various concepts are put forward that use data from linguistics, archeology and other sciences to confirm their positions. For example, territory of the ancestral home of the Slavs fit:
a) then in the Middle Danube (Danube concept),
b) then in the Vistula River basin (Polish Povislenie),
c) then in Pripyat Polesie (the territory of modern Belarus).
According to versions presented by archaeologists, the most ancient Slavic tribes lived in Central and Eastern Europe since mid-1st millennium BC The Proto-Slavic ones include the Przeworsk (on the territory of modern Poland) and Chernyakhov (covering the territory of the forest-steppe and steppe zone in the strip from the left bank of the Dnieper to the lower reaches of the Danube) archaeological cultures.
In the IV – VII centuries. happens B great migration of peoples. This is a huge migration movement that has completely redrawn both the ethnic and political map of Europe. First, from somewhere in the northwest (presumably from the Baltic Sea coast) the Goths came to the Dnieper region. Then the invasion of Europe by the Huns (nomads of Turkic origin from Central Asia) began. As they advanced, they involved in the movement the peoples inhabiting Eastern Europe: under the onslaught of the Huns, the Goths, Gepids, Heruls, and Vandals moved west. And this whole avalanche moved, demolishing everything in its path. The Huns were replaced by the Avars, and the Avars by the Khazars and Bulgars.
The invasions of Asian tribes disrupted the stable life of the Slavic tribes. IN VI – VII centuries. Slavs become the main protagonist of the Great Migration of Peoples. At this time, there was an active settlement of the Slavs in Europe. It took place in three main directions:
to the south - the Balkan Peninsula;
to the east and north – along the East European Plain;
to the west - to the Middle Danube and between the Oder and Vistula rivers (the eastern part of modern Germany). As a result of Slavic settlement, they populated vast areas of Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe.
The appearance of the first written sources about the ancient Slavs. Among the authors whose works contain extensive information about the Slavs, one should, first of all, name the Roman historian Tacitus, the Gothic Bishop Jordan, the Byzantine (Greek) historians Mauritius the Strategist and Procopius of Caesarea.
The name “Slavs” is an autoethnonym. Other names of the Slavs that are found in written sources are “Vends”, “Antes” (“names” of external origin).
Three directions of settlement of the Slavs predetermined the gradual dividing them into three main branches: eastern, western and southern.
The collapse of the Proto-Slavic linguistic community occurs at the turn of the 7th – 8th centuries, and the formation of individual Slavic languages begins.
As output It is important to note that, unlike the Romans and Germans, the Slavs entered the arena of world history relatively late. Such a “lag” contributed to the long-term preservation of the closeness of language, spiritual and material culture, and the main features of the social structure of the Slavic peoples.
2. EASTERN SLAVS IN THE VIII – IX CENTURIES.
ECONOMIC LIFE
The second question should begin with the ethnogeography of the Eastern Slavs.
Old Russian chronicler Nestor. PVL. 12 East Slavic tribal unions. These were territorial-political entities and not purely Slavic: they also included other tribes and peoples who were neighbors of the Slavs - the Balts, Finno-Ugrians, Iranian-speaking tribes (descendants of the Sarmatians), Khazars, Varangians.
The relationship between the Slavs and neighboring tribes and peoples was not constant: military clashes were followed by periods of establishing peaceful relations. The peaceful coexistence of the Slavs with the Balts and Finno-Ugric tribes led to their assimilation: the Slavs seemed to draw these peoples into themselves, but they themselves changed, acquiring new skills, new elements of material culture. In this way, synthesis, interaction of cultures.
According to researchers, the economy of the Eastern Slavs in the 8th – 9th centuries. was complex: settled cattle breeding and trades dominated agriculture. Agriculture was extensive. dominated communal ownership of land.
It was highly developed among the Eastern Slavs craft(pottery, weaving, leatherworking, ironworking, metal processing). In the settlements of the Eastern Slavs, which there is every reason to consider as ancestral villages, archaeologists find craft workshops. Entire settlements of artisans have also been discovered. Both craft workshops on the territory of settlements and artisan villages correspond to the stage community craft, i.e. it existed in the depths of the community and satisfied community needs.
External trade among the Eastern Slavs it was more developed than the internal one. The most stable trade routes are based on the largest river systems (they should be named).
SOCIAL ORDER
Eastern Slavs in the 8th – 9th centuries. were at the stage of decomposition of tribal relations.
The basic social unit was tribal community.
Genus- a group of blood relatives descending from a common, often legendary, ancestor. The clan consisted of paired families, which, over time, were replaced by large families. At the head of the family was the ancestor. A clan community is characterized by:
Rigid, conditioned by tribal traditions, regimentation of life;
Collective ownership of land;
Mutual responsibility;
Joint farming and equal distribution of production products;
Blood feud;
Direct democracy, i.e. election and collective decision-making.
Consequently, the clan community was a self-sufficient (or closed) social and production collective, designed to organize all types of human activity - labor, ritual, cultural.
The clans were united into tribes, and the latter into tribal unions (Polyans, Drevlyans, Vyatichi, etc.). Tribal unions were formed as a result of fragmentation and mixing of tribes, and were already exclusively territorial and political in nature. This means that among the Eastern Slavs there was a gradual breakdown of tribal relations, as a result of which the clan community was replaced at the end of the 10th century. came neighboring (or territorial) community (rope, world).
At this time, the Eastern Slavs had institution of slavery.
Servants- foreign slaves. Patriarchal character (Quoted from Mauritius Strategist).
The most important elements of the socio-political structure the Eastern Slavs had:
Veche (in which the entire population participated);
Prince (+ squad; prince first among equals);
Council of Elders.
All the most important issues were brought to the people's assembly. The people had the right to participate in clan and tribal property; represented the armed forces; took part in tribal management.
Procopius of Caesarea: “... are not governed by one person, but since ancient times they have lived in the rule of people, and therefore they consider happiness and unhappiness in life to be a common matter.”
The princes stood at the head of both individual tribes and at the head of tribal unions.
These princes had different functions. The tribal prince could be elected for a time, during the period of hostilities. His power is small compared to the power of the leader of the tribal union. The power of the latter is constant, the functions are more diverse (internal construction of the union, organization of the army, was in charge of external relations, performed religious and judicial functions).
The prince was assisted in military affairs by his squad.
The council of elders included representatives of the tribal nobility. The elders are the authorized leaders of society, with whom the princes were forced to reckon. The elders dealt with civil affairs.
This triad can be found in many societies that were experiencing an archaic stage of development. Moreover, the clan nobility and military leaders did not oppose the rest of the free people, being an organic part of it.
CULTURE AND RELIGION
Little is known about the level of culture of the Eastern Slavs. Folklore has come down to us in the form of ritual songs, funeral laments, riddles, and fairy tales.
According to their religious views, the Eastern Slavs were pagans. In East Slavic paganism one can find all those stages that were characteristic of other pagan cults that existed among other peoples - these are fetishism, animism, totemism, ancestor cult, werewolf, polydemonism, polytheism, i.e. belief in gods.
It is important to emphasize that Old Russian paganism was so widespread that Ancient Rus', even after the adoption of Christianity, in ideological terms and in practical actions, was a pagan society with the formal existence in it of elements of the Christian faith and cult. Most pagan beliefs and customs continued to be observed without or with little introduction of Christian norms into them in subsequent times.
The problem of ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs
Ethnogenesis is the moment of origin and subsequent process of development of a people, leading to a certain state, type, phenomenon. Includes both the initial stages of the emergence of a nation and the further formation of its ethnographic, linguistic and anthropological characteristics.
The East Slavic peoples include Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, as well as sub-ethnic groups of small numbers: Pomors, Don Cossacks, Zaporozhye Cossacks, Nekrasov Cossacks, Russian Ustyintsy, Markovtsy and some others. The territory of residence of these peoples is compact, limited from the west by Poland, the Baltic countries, the Scandinavian countries, from the north by the Arctic Ocean, then from the east by the Dvina and Volga rivers and from the south by the Black Sea. The main part falls on the East European Plain, which dictates the main landscape of the territory (plains, zone of deciduous forests). The climate is moderate.
The prehistory of the Eastern Slavs begins with the 3rd millennium BC. e. The Proto-Slavic tribes already knew hoe farming and cattle breeding. It has been established that within the 4th millennium BC. e. pastoral and agricultural tribes, carriers of the Balkan-Danube archaeological culture, occupied the region of the lower reaches of the Dniester and the Southern Bug.
The next stage was the settlement of the “Trypillian” tribes - 3rd millennium BC. These were tribes with a developed cattle-breeding and agricultural economy for their time, inhabitants of huge settlements.
During the Middle Ages, the following tribes of the Eastern Slavs stood out:
- Krivichi;
- Slovenians from Novgorod;
- Vyatichi;
- radimichi;
- Dregovichi;
- northerners;
- clearing;
- Tivertsy;
- incriminate;
- Drevlyans.
2.1. The problem of ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs: theories of origin and settlement
The history of the peoples of our country goes back to ancient times. The homeland of their distant ancestors was Eurasia. Indo-Europeans (the ancestors of the Germanic, Slavic and some other peoples) came to Europe from the steppes of the Northern Black Sea and Volga regions (the area of their earlier settlement is controversial) and initially populated the lower and middle reaches of the Danube, the northern part of the Balkans. Under the influence of migration processes, the single Indo-European community disintegrates: tribes rushing to the East reach the Caspian coast, penetrate into Asia Minor and gradually populate the Hindustan Peninsula. The movement to the West allowed the Indo-Europeans to advance deeper into Europe. The time of separation of the Slavs (more precisely, the Proto-Slavs) from the Indo-European linguistic and ethnic community is usually attributed to the 2nd - 1st millennium BC. e. Most likely, the process of separation of the Proto-Slavic tribes occurred when the tribes settled in Europe. According to archaeological data, the ancestral home of the Slavs was a territory that stretched from the Oder in the west to the Dnieper in the east, from the Vistula and Pripyat in the north to the Danube in the south. The closest neighbors of the Slavs in the west were Celtic-Illyrian tribes, in the north - Baltic and Finno-Ugric, in the southeast - Iranian-speaking, in the southwest - Dacian.
The historical landscape of the territory inhabited by the Slavs included huge forests, a wide steppe, crossed by the large river systems of the Dnieper, Volga, Western Dvina, Dniester, Western and Southern Bug. Unlike Western Europe, there were no mountains separating peoples. The main habitat of the ancient Slavs was the forest, which saved them from the steppe nomads, provided food, clothing and shoes, housing and fuel. The main occupations of the Slavic tribes were slash-and-burn forest farming, hunting, beekeeping, and forestry. Another natural element of ancient man was rivers with their abundant fish stocks. Rivers were the main means of communication. It was along the flow of the rivers that the Slavic colonization , there were trade routes connecting the Slavs with other peoples. Thus, the “path from the Varangians to the Greeks” through the Dnieper connected the Baltic with the Black Sea and Byzantium. It was on this path that the first cities arose - Novgorod, Smolensk, Kyiv. Another river route - along the Oka and Volga to the Caspian Sea - allowed the Slavs to trade with the state of the Bulgarians (now Chuvashia and Tataria). The third route connected the middle reaches of the Dnieper with the Don and Northern Donets and went out into the Azov and Caspian Seas. Based on the river system, one can determine the habitat of individual Slavic tribes. The main water artery was the Dnieper. On the right bank of the middle reaches of the Dnieper and its right tributaries there were Polyans, Drevlyans, Dregovichi. Northerners and Radimichi settled on the left tributaries of the Dnieper. In the upper reaches of the Dnieper, Volga, Western Dvina lived Krivichi, and on the Dniester, Southern Bug, closer to the Carpathian Mountains - Volynians, Buzhanians and other few tribes.
To the east of the Dnieper, south of the Oka and Upper Volga stretched the steppes. From Asia, from the North Caucasus, warlike nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes penetrated into the southern Russian steppes, posing a great threat to the Slavs. In the IV - V centuries. These were Huns, at the end of the 7th century. appeared Avars, which were replaced Khazars who founded a strong state on the Lower Volga and in the Don steppes - Khazar Khaganate- with the capital Itil. The Khazars conducted extensive trade with their closest neighbors. During the heyday of the Kaganate, their influence spread to the North Caucasus. Some Slavic tribes paid tribute to the rulers of Khazaria, established trade relations with them, or waged armed struggle. At the end of the 9th century. in the Northern Black Sea region, in the Azov steppes, a Turkic nomadic tribe appeared - Pechenegs, constantly raiding Slavic lands. In the second half of the 11th century. they were replaced Cumans, also quite often violating the borders of Slavic settlements. As a result of constant clashes between various nomadic, semi-nomadic and sedentary tribes, a gradual process of formation of the Old Russian nationality took place.
The era of the Great Migration of Peoples, towards the end of which the separation of the Eastern Slavs took place, the improvement of tools and farming techniques, and the development of handicraft production led to a change in the social structure of society: the destruction of ancient tribal ties began and the strengthening of territorial-political ties. Radimichi, Krivichi, Polyans, Dulebs and other Slavic tribal unions, which are mentioned by the author of the most ancient chronicle "Tales of Bygone Years" , were territorial-political, not ethnic entities. Stable settlement and the dominance of agriculture gave rise to an agricultural community among the Eastern Slavs ( "peace", "rope"), which for a long time became the main primary organization of East Slavic society. Several ropes were combined into "ground", where state power gradually became isolated. This power, represented by local princes, performed two main functions: settling communal disputes and defending the territory from neighbors (in the north - from Scandinavian raids, in the south - from various kinds of steppe nomads). In addition, the prince also led the armed forces - squad, ruled the court, for which he was paid tribute for the maintenance of his court and squad. Sometimes several princes ruled in one tribe.
The Slavs, like other peoples who were at the stage military democracy , were pagans. They worshiped the forces of nature, which were incomprehensible to man, and deified dead ancestors. With all its unique features, the paganism of the Eastern Slavs was only a branch of the common Slavic, more broadly, the pan-Indo-European, moreover, the universal tree of pagan religion and mythology. Slavic pre-Christian beliefs went through three stages in their development. Initially, the Slavs made sacrifices to ghouls and beregins. Ghouls are vampires, werewolves, who personified evil. Beregini are kind spirits that help people. The spiritualization of all nature, its division into good and evil principles are very ancient ideas that arose among Stone Age hunters. Various conspiracies were used against ghouls, they wore amulets - “amulets”, etc. At the second stage, the Slavs began to make sacrifices to Rod and women in labor, the deities of fertility. Most likely, the appearance of these deities is associated with agriculture and indeed reflects a later stage of human development - the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and subsequent times. Rod was the supreme deity of heaven and earth, the manager of the vital elements - sun, rain, thunderstorms, water. Belief in one supreme God was the basis of later Christian monotheism. Subsequently, the Slavs began to pray to Perun, while maintaining faith in other gods. The cult of Perun, the god of thunder, war and weapons, arose relatively late in connection with the development of the druzhina, military element of society.
The prayers of the pagan Slavs to their gods were strictly scheduled according to the seasons and the most important agricultural periods. The year was determined by solar phases, since the sun played a huge role in the worldview and beliefs of ancient farmers. The pagans sought to actively influence their gods through requests, prayers and sacrifices. In honor of the gods, feasts were held, at which bulls, goats, and rams were slaughtered, beer was brewed by the whole tribe, and pies were baked. Experts in rituals and exact calendar dates for prayers were the wise men, sorcerers, and sorceresses, who appeared in the primitive era. Along with pagan prayers for the harvest, which formed the content of the annual cycle of holidays, Slavic paganism also included primitive animism(belief in goblin, water, swamp spirits) and ancestor cult(veneration of the dead, belief in brownies). Weddings and funerals were decorated with complex rituals. Wedding ceremonies were full of magical actions aimed at the safety of the bride, who was passing from the protection of her household spirits to someone else's family, for the well-being of the new family, and for the fertility of the young couple. The funeral rites of the Slavs became significantly more complex towards the end of the pagan period due to the development of the druzhina element. Along with the noble Russians, they burned their weapons, armor, and horses. Ritual murders of their wives were carried out at the graves of rich Russians.
For the first time, an attempt to fix the highest circle of pagan deities at the national level belonged to the Kyiv prince Vladimir I. According to the chronicle, Vladimir ordered the idols of Perun, Khors (the god of the Sun), Dazhdbog (the god of light, heat, fertility), Stribog (the god wind, sky), Simargl (god of soil, plant roots), Mokoshi (female deity), and under the hill - the “cattle god” Veles (Hair).
eastern(Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians);
Western(Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatians);
southern(Bulgarians, Macedonians, Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Serbs).
the origin of the Slavs still remains controversial. The most widespread opinion today is that the formation of the Slavs as a separate ethnic community and their culture took place in several stages.
1. The Pre-Slavic stage covers the second half of the 2nd-1st millennium BC. Then, in Central and Eastern Europe, several related archaeological cultures were formed, in which a number of elements existed (later they became characteristic of the culture of the Slavs). The first of these cultures should be called Trzyniec-Komarovskaya ethnic community, which, according to many researchers, was Proto-Slavic - predecessor of the Eastern and Western Slavs.
From the 1st millennium BC the difference between western and eastern halves of the Proto-Slavic world:
western involved in connection with the Celtic world (Sorbian culture);
the eastern continues to gravitate towards the Cimmerian-Scythian and Thracian world (Chernolesskaya culture).
The Chernolesskaya culture formed in the eastern part of modern Slavic territory at the beginning iron age and bordered on Cimmerians and then nomadic Scythians.
In the VI-IV centuries. BC, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, in the eastern part of the modern Slavic territory they reached a fairly high level of development Scythian farmers, who exported bread from the Middle Dnieper region through Olbia to the Mediterranean countries. The combination of archaeological and linguistic data, according to some scientists, gives grounds to classify the Herodotus Scythian farmers as Proto-Slavs.
2. Old Slavic stage is due to the fact that in the last centuries of the 1st millennium BC. and in the first centuries of our era we already see distinct archaeological cultures of the ancient Slavs, including the ancestors of the Ukrainian people. Around the 2nd century. BC. under the pressure of the Sarmatians, there was a partial departure of the forest-steppe population from the south to the north and their colonization of the forest zone between the Desna, Seim and Sozh rivers. This led to the emergence Aruban-Neck culture, which researchers recognize as undeniably Slavic.
The Zarubintsy culture quickly transformed in its southern part into an incomparably higher Chernyakhov culture - ІІ- V V. From that time on, trade relations between the Ukrainian lands and Rome became very active. The Chernyakhov culture ceased to exist, apparently as a result of the invasion Huns, however, it had a fairly strong influence on them.
Of great importance for studying the history of the ancient Slavic stage belongs to written sources, in particular the works of Roman authors of the end I centuryPliny the Elder, Tacitus, Ptolemy, who knew the Slavs under the name Wends(they were also called Venets, Vendas, Winds). Roman authors reported that the Wends lived at the turn of our era between the river. Odra and Dnieper and near the Carpathians. They were engaged in agriculture, settled cattle breeding, hunting and fishing, and had trade relations with other tribes. In the 3rd century. they fought wars with the Roman Empire. Many historians have taken the view that Wends became the common ethnic basis for the formation of the Western and Eastern Slavs.
More specific information about the Slavs was given by the Gothic historian Jordan, who for the first time made an attempt to clarify the location of settlement of various parts of the Slavs. During this period, information about the Slavs was also left by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea. These authors shared Venedov into two parts:
western - Sklavens (Slovins, Slovenians);
antes.
|
Sklavens |
Ants |
|
The Sklavens occupied the territory between the Dniester in the east, and probably the Tisza basin in the west. This territory overlaps the area of the archaeological culture of Prague ceramics and includes the Czech Republic, Moravia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, most of Moldova, the right bank of the forest-steppe part of Ukraine and Ukrainian Polesie, part of Serbia (Voevodino), possibly parts of Croatia, Slovenia and Austria. The Sklavins were mainly responsible for the colonization of the Balkan Peninsula by the Slavs at the end of the 6th - first half of the 7th century. |
Ants- the name of the East Slavic tribes of the III-VII centuries. They occupied the territory between the Dniester, the Dnieper and east of the Dnieper. Basic information about the Antes is contained in the works of the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea and the Gothic historian Jordan. Ants founded the first Slavic state association - the Ant kingdom (IV-VII centuries). They had hereditary royal power. The main occupation of the Ants was agriculture, which reached a fairly high level. Some historians consider the Antes to be the direct ancestors of the Ukrainians. |
The Slavs were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, crafts, and lived in neighboring communities. Pagan beliefs were widespread among them. Written and archaeological materials indicate that in the VI-VII centuries. AD The Slavs experienced a collapse of primitive communal relations.
The further evolution of social relations led to the branching of each of the three linguistic-ethnic groups of the Slavs, the formation of large related tribal unions, the unification of the latter into separate peoples and the emergence of their own states (not all of them). The 9th century was special in this regard, when Moravian, Polish, Serbian, Croatian, Kiev states. An important role in this process was played by the adoption by the Slavic peoples Christianity, which generally fell on the IX-X centuries.
INTRODUCTION
The question of the origin of the Slavs is considered one of the main issues in the history of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The problem is not only to determine the ancestral home of the Slavs, but even to answer the question of their origin. There are many versions of this problem, however, none of them can be considered completely reliable. The efforts of various historians, archaeologists, linguists, anthropologists, and ethnographers are aimed at solving it, whose joint research should ultimately lead to certain positive results. The greatest disputes arise when determining the territory of formation of the Slavs, the chronological framework of the formation of the Slavic community. It is paradoxical that this multi-million people cannot determine the place where they came from. One of the reasons for this is the absence of any comprehensive written sources about the Slavs until the middle of the 6th century AD.
Currently, the Slavic peoples include Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Gascons, Slovenes. But at the initial stage there were still a lot of groups and tribes of Slavs who were known in Greece, Asia Minor, North Africa, some even settled in Spain. But later they were destroyed or assimilated. In modern science, there are 2 points of view on the origin of the Slavs:
1) According to the first point of view, the Slavs are the indigenous (autochthonous) population of Eastern Europe. They come from the creators of the Zarubinets and Chernyakhov archaeological cultures who lived here in the early Iron Age.
2) According to the second point of view, the Slavs moved to the territory of the East European Plain from Central Europe, and more specifically, from the area of the upper Vistula, Oder, Elbe and Danube. From this territory, which was the ancient ancestral home of the Slavs, they settled throughout Europe. The Eastern Slavs moved from the Danube to the Carpathians, and from there to the Dnieper, where they appeared in the 6th - 7th centuries. Nowadays this point of view is more common in science.
Speaking about the ethnogenesis of the Slavs, we must rely on several sources. These include: 1) Legends and traditions of the people themselves, early medieval chronicles and chronicles (epics, fairy tales, “The Tale of Bygone Years”, etc.).
2) Evidence from neighboring peoples who had writing.
3) Archaeological data, archaeological cultures.
Based on these data, at different times scientists built hypotheses according to which in the early period of their existence the Slavs occupied certain territories. The hypotheses are combined into two groups: a generalizing plan, whose supporters profess the idea of the unity of the anthropological composition of the Slavs, and a differentiating plan, which denies this approach. The first consider the history of the Slavic peoples as the formation in a certain territory of a community of a physical type, which included common ancestors, and its settlement with the participation of foreign elements of different origins on the outskirts of their area. The second believes: the Slavs were formed from different racial components that were not related to each other by origin. Supporters of both groups guide us differently in matters of culture and glottogenesis (the origin of languages) of the Slavic peoples: the views of the first in general correspond to the basic genetic principles of Indo-European linguistics in the broad sense of the word; secondly, the glottogonic concept of academician N. Ya. Marr (1864 - 1934), under the influence of which they were partially formed.
Hypotheses of the origin of the Slavs: 1. Danube, 2. Carpathian, 3. hypothesis of two Slavic ancestral homelands (A.A. Shakhmatov), 4. Vistula-Oder, 5. Vistula-Dnieper, 6. neo-Danube.
The purpose of this work is to try to analyze and present the points of view and theories of historians who studied the problem of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs.
1. MIGRATION THEORY
Using the sources listed above, scientists build hypotheses about the origins of the Slavs. However, different scientists do not agree not only on determining the place of the Slavic ancestral home, but also on the time of separation of the Slavs from the Indo-European group. There are a number of hypotheses according to which we can speak with confidence about the Slavs and their ancestral homeland, starting from the end of the 3rd millennium BC. (O.N. Trubachev), from the end of the 2nd millennium BC. (Polish scientists T. Lehr-Splawiński, K. Yazhdrzewski, J. Kostrzewski and others), from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. (Polish scientist F. Slavsky), from the 4th century. BC. (M. Vasmer, L. Niederle, S.B. Bernstein, P.Y. Safarik).
The first who tried to answer the questions: where, how and when the Slavs appeared on historical territory was the ancient chronicler Nestor, the author of The Tale of Bygone Years. He defined the territory of the Slavs, including the lands along the lower Danube and Pannonia. It was from the Danube that the process of settlement of the Slavs began, that is, the Slavs were not the original inhabitants of their land, we are talking about their migration. Consequently, the Kiev chronicler was the founder of the so-called migration theory of the origin of the Slavs, known as the “Danube” or “Balkan”. It was popular in the works of medieval authors: Polish and Czech chroniclers of the 13th-14th centuries. This opinion was shared for a long time by historians of the 18th - early centuries. XX centuries The Danube “ancestral home” of the Slavs was recognized, in particular, by such historians as S.M. Soloviev, V.O. Klyuchevsky and others.
According to V.O. Klyuchevsky, the Slavs moved from the Danube to the Carpathian region. Based on this, his work traces the idea that “the history of Russia began in the 6th century. on the northeastern foothills of the Carpathians." It was here, according to the historian, that an extensive military alliance of tribes was formed, led by the Duleb-Volhynian tribe. From here the Eastern Slavs settled east and northeast to Lake Ilmen in the 7th-6th centuries. So, V.O. Klyuchevsky sees the Eastern Slavs as relatively late newcomers to their land. Many Russian and Western European researchers were supporters of the Danube origin of the Slavs. Moreover, at the end of the 20th century. Russian scientist O.N. Trubachev clarified and developed it. However, throughout the 19th – 20th centuries. This theory also had many opponents.
The origin and spread of another migration theory of the origin of the Slavs, which received the name “Scythian-Sarmatian,” dates back to the Middle Ages. It was first recorded by the Bavarian chronicle of the 13th century, and later adopted by many Western European authors of the 14th - 18th centuries. According to their ideas, the ancestors of the Slavs moved from Western Asia along the Black Sea coast to the north and settled under the ethnonyms “Scythians”, “Sarmatians”, “Alans” and “Roxolans”. Gradually, the Slavs from the Northern Black Sea region settled to the west and southwest.
At the beginning of the 20th century. an option close to the Scythian-Sarmatian theory was proposed by Academician A.I. Sobolevsky. In his opinion, the names of rivers, lakes, and mountains within the location of the ancient settlements of the Russian people supposedly show that the Russians received these names from another people who were here earlier. Such a predecessor of the Slavs, according to Sobolevsky, was a group of tribes of Iranian origin (Scythian root). Later, this group assimilated (dissolved) with the ancestors of the Slavic-Baltic people who lived further to the north and gave rise to the Slavs somewhere on the shores of the Baltic Sea, from where the Slavs settled.
One of the major Slavic historians, the Czech scientist P.I. Safarik believed that the ancestral home of the Slavs should be sought in Europe, in the neighborhood of related tribes of Celts, Germans, Balts and Thracians. He believes that the Slavs already occupied vast areas of Central and Eastern Europe in ancient times, and in the 4th century. BC. under the pressure of the Celts they moved beyond the Carpathians.
However, even at this time they occupy very vast territories - in the west - from the mouth of the Vistula to the Neman, in the north - from Novgorod to the sources of the Volga and Dnieper, in the east - to the Don. Further, in his opinion, it went through the lower Dnieper and Dniester, along the Carpathians to the Vistula and along the watershed of the Oder and Vistula to the Baltic Sea.
At the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. acad. A.A. Shakhmatov developed the idea of two Slavic ancestral homelands: the region within which the Proto-Slavic language developed (the first ancestral home), and the region that the Proto-Slavic tribes occupied on the eve of their settlement throughout Central and Eastern Europe (the second ancestral home). He proceeds from the fact that initially a Balto-Slavic community emerged from the Indo-European group, which was autochthonous in the Baltic region. After the collapse of this community, the Slavs occupied the territory between the lower reaches of the Neman and the Western Dvina (the first ancestral home). It was here that, in his opinion, the Proto-Slavic language developed, which later formed the basis of all Slavic languages. In connection with the great migration of peoples, the Germans at the end of the 2nd century AD. moving south and liberating the river basin. Vistula, where the Slavs come (second ancestral home). Here the Slavs are divided into two branches: Western and Eastern. The western branch advances to the river area. Elbe and becomes the basis for modern West Slavic peoples; the southern branch after the collapse of the Hun Empire (second half of the 5th century AD) was divided into two groups: one of them settled the Balkans and the Danube (the basis of modern South Slavic peoples), the other - the Dnieper and Dniester (the basis of modern East Slavic peoples).
The most popular hypothesis among linguists about the ancestral homeland of the Slavs is the Vistula-Dnieper hypothesis. According to such scientists as M. Vasmer (Germany), F. P. Filin, S. B. Bernstein (Russia), V. Georgiev (Bulgaria), L. Niederle (Czech Republic), K. Moshinsky (Poland), etc. ., the ancestral home of the Slavs was located between the middle reaches of the Dnieper in the east and the upper reaches of the Western Bug and Vistula in the west, as well as from the upper reaches of the Dniester and Southern Bug in the south to Pripyat in the north. Thus, the ancestral home of the Slavs is defined by them as modern northwestern Ukraine, southern Belarus and southeastern Poland. However, in the studies of individual scientists there are certain variations.
L. Niederle believes that the location of the Slavic ancestral home can only be determined tentatively. He suggests that such tribes as the Nevri, Budins, and Scythian plowmen belong to the Slavs. Based on reports from historians of the Roman era and data from linguistics, in particular toponymy, L. Niederle very carefully outlines the area of Slavic settlement at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD.
It, in his opinion, was located to the north and northeast of the Carpathians, in the east it reached the Dnieper, and in the west - the upper reaches of the Varta River. At the same time, he notes that the western borders of the Slavic area may have to be moved to the Elbe River if the Slavic affiliation of the burial grounds - burial fields of the Lusatian-Silesian type - is proven.
Domestic historians, in reflecting this issue, note the complexity of the very process of the origin of the Slavs. In their deep conviction, initially individual small, scattered ancient tribes took shape on a certain vast territory, which then formed into larger tribes and their associations and, finally, into historically known peoples that formed nations. This is the general path of ethnic, cultural and linguistic development of peoples and nations. Consequently, peoples were formed in the course of history not from a single primordial “proto-people” with its “proto-language” through its subsequent disintegration and resettlement from some original center (“ancestral home”), but on the contrary, the path of development mainly went from the original plurality of tribes to their subsequent gradual unification and mutual crossing. At the same time, a secondary process could, of course, occur in individual cases - the process of differentiation of previously established large ethnic communities.
F.P. Owl determines the area of settlement of the Slavs at the beginning of our era. between the Western Bug and the Middle Dnieper. He, relying on linguistic and extralinguistic data, proposes a periodization of the development of the language of the Proto-Slavs. The first stage (until the end of the 1st millennium BC) is the initial stage of the formation of the basis of the Slavic language system. At the second stage (from the end of the 1st millennium AD to the 3rd-4th centuries AD), serious changes in phonetics occur in the Proto-Slavic language, its grammatical structure evolves, and dialect differentiation develops. The third stage (V-VII centuries AD) coincides with the beginning of the widespread settlement of the Slavs, which ultimately led to the division of a single language into separate Slavic languages. This periodization largely corresponds to the main stages of the historical development of the early Slavs, restored on the basis of archaeological data.
Further settlement of the Slavs from the Vistula-Dnieper region took place, according to S.B. Bernstein, west to the Oder, north to Lake Ilmen, east to the Oka, south to the Danube and the Balkans. S.B. Bernstein supports the hypothesis of A.A. Shakhmatov about the initial division of the Slavs into two groups: Western and Eastern; from the latter at one time the eastern and southern groups emerged. This is what explains the great closeness of the East Slavic and South Slavic languages and a certain isolation, in particular phonetic, of the West Slavic.
B.A. repeatedly addressed the problem of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs. Rybakov. His concept is also connected with the Vistula-Dnieper hypothesis and is based on the unity of the territories inhabited by the Slavic ethnic group for two millennia: from the Oder in the west to the left bank of the Dnieper in the east. History of the Slavs B.A. Rybakov begins with the Bronze Age - from the 15th century. BC. - and identifies its five stages.
He associates the first stage with the Trzyniec culture (XV-XIII centuries BC). The area of its distribution, in his opinion, was “the primary place of unification and formation of the Proto-Slavs who first branched off... this area can be designated by the somewhat vague word ancestral home.” The Trzyniec culture extended from the Oder to the left bank of the Dnieper. The second stage - Lusatian-Scythian - covers the 12th-3rd centuries. BC. The Slavs at this time were represented by several cultures: Lusatian, Belogrudov, Chernolesk and Scythian forest-steppe. The tribes of the forest-steppe Scythian cultures, engaged in agriculture, were Slavs, united in a union under the name Skolots. The fall of the Lusatian and Scythian cultures led to the restoration of Slavic unity - the third stage in the history of the Proto-Slavs began, which lasted from the 2nd century. BC. to the 2nd century AD, and is represented by two closely related cultures: Przeworsk and Zarubinets. Their territories extended from the Oder to the left bank of the Dnieper. He dates the fourth stage to the 2nd-4th centuries. AD and calls it Przeworsk-Chernyakhovsky. This stage is characterized by the strengthening of the influence of the Roman Empire on the Slavic tribes. The fifth stage is the Prague-Korchak stage, dating back to the 6th-7th centuries, when, after the fall of the Roman Empire, Slavic unity was restored. The coincidence of the areas of all the listed cultures, including the reliably Slavic one - Prague-Korchak - is, according to B.A. Rybakov, proof of the Slavic affiliation of all these cultures.
In recent decades, expeditionary research by Ukrainian archaeologists has significantly expanded the scientific base. According to these scientists, the history of the Slavs begins with the late La Tène period. According to V.D. Baran, the formation of early medieval Slavic cultures was the result of the integration of several cultures of Roman times: the Prague-Korchak culture developed on the basis of the Chernyakhov culture of the Upper Dniester and Western Bug region with the participation of elements of the Przeworsk and Kyiv cultures; the Penkov culture developed in the context of the merging of elements of the Kyiv and Chernyakhov cultures with nomadic cultures; Kolochin culture arose from the interaction of late Zarubintsy and Kyiv elements with Baltic ones. The leading role in the formation of the Slavs, according to V.D. Baran, belonged to the Kyiv culture. The concept of Slavic ethnogenesis is outlined by V.D. Baran, R.V. Terpilovsky and D.N. Kozak. The early history of the Slavs, in their opinion, begins in the first centuries of our era, when information about the Slavs, then called Wends, appears in the works of ancient authors. The Weneds lived east of the Vistula, they belonged to the Zarubinets and Przeworsk cultures of the Volyn region. Subsequently, the Zarubinets and late Zarubinets cultures were associated with the Slavs, and through them the Kiev and partially Chernyakhov cultures, on the basis of which the early medieval Slavic cultures were formed.
In recent decades, a number of works by V.V. have been devoted to the problems of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs. Sedova. He considers the culture of under-klesh burials (400-100 BC) to be the oldest Slavic culture, since it was from this culture that elements of continuity in the evolutionary development of antiquities can be traced up to the authentically Slavic era of the early Middle Ages. The culture of subkleshevy burials corresponds to the first stage in the history of the Proto-Slavic language according to the periodization of F.P. Owl. At the end of the 2nd century. BC. Under the strong Celtic influence, the culture of under-klesh burials was transformed into a new one, called Przeworsk. Within the Przeworsk culture, two regions are distinguished: the western - Oder, inhabited mainly by the East German population, and the eastern - Vistula, where the predominant ethnic group was the Slavs. Chronologically, the Przeworsk culture corresponds, according to the periodization of F.P. Filin, the middle stage of development of the Proto-Slavic language. He considers the Zarubintsy culture, formed with the participation of the alien Pokleshevo-Pomeranian tribes and local Milograd and Late Scythian tribes, to be a linguistically special group that occupied an intermediate position between the Proto-Slavic and Western Baltic languages. The Slavic Prague-Korchak culture is connected in its origin with the Przeworsk culture. According to V.V. Sedov, the Slavs constituted one of the components of the multi-ethnic Chernyakhov culture.
HE. Trubachev in his works rejects both the Vistula-Dnieper hypothesis and its Vistula-Oder version. As an alternative, he puts forward the so-called “neo-Danubian” hypothesis of the ancestral home of the Slavs. He considers the Middle Danube region to be the place of their primary settlement - the territory of the countries of the former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro), the south of Czechoslovakia and the lands of the former Pannonia (in the territory of modern Hungary).
For some time around the 1st century AD. the Slavs were driven out by the Celts and Ugrians to the north, in Povislenye, and to the east, in the Dnieper region. This was connected with the great migration of peoples. However, already in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. the Slavs, “preserving the memory of their former habitats,” “again occupy the Danube region, the lands beyond the Danube, and the Balkans.” Thus, “the movement of the Slavs to the south was reversible.” His hypothesis O.N. Trubachev argues with linguistic and extralinguistic facts. He believes that, firstly, the advance of the Slavs first to the north and then to the south fits into the general process of migration of peoples within Europe. Secondly, it is confirmed by the records of the chronicler Nestor: “By many times, the time is not.” Thirdly, it was among the southern Slavs who lived along the river. Danube, the first to appear was the self-name *slovмne - Slovene, which gradually became established in the works of Byzantine historians of the 6th century, the Gothic historian of the 6th century. Jordan (sklavina). At the same time, they call the Western and Eastern Slavs Wends and Ants, that is, names alien to the Slavs. The ethnonym Slavs itself is O.N. Trubetskoy correlates the word with the lexeme and interprets it as “clearly speaking,” that is, speaking an understandable, not alien language. Fourthly, in the folklore works of the Eastern Slavs, r. is very often mentioned. Danube that O.N. Trubachev considers the Danube region to be a preserved living memory. Fifthly, he believes that the Ugrians, having come to the territory of the Danube region and founded them in the 1st century AD. their state, they found there a Slavic population and Slavic place names. So, he. Trubachev believes that “the southern Vistula-Oder area... approximately coincides with the northern periphery of the Middle Danube area,” and the area of primary settlement of the Slavs coincides with the area of primary settlement of speakers of the common Indo-European language.
The question of the ancestral home of the Slavs continues to remain open. Scientists are putting forward more and more evidence in favor of one or another hypothesis. In particular, G.A. Khaburgaev believes that the Proto-Slavic tribes arose as a result of the crossing of Western Baltic tribes with Italics, Thracians (in the area of modern northern Poland) and Iranian tribes (on the Desna River).
Conclusion
The Slavs, having separated from the Indo-European family, formed a certain array of related tribes, distinguished primarily in linguistic terms. But we cannot assume that this massif was isolated from other ethnic groups and developed on its own until the Slavs emerged. In fact, the process of ethnogenesis is much more difficult and contradictory. The most ancient Proto-Slavs occupied a fairly significant area and came into contact with populations of different cultures and mixed with different tribes.
Some researchers are already inclined to see the future in this, that the Slavs from the very beginning were by no means homogeneous, from ancient times they followed almost different paths. But in fact, this long preparatory process culminated in the formation of tribal groups or tribal unions. Indeed in the VI-VII centuries. The Slavs had several large groups and many small tribes, but the main thing was that they had a single identity. In addition, at this time there was an active movement of the Slavs across a vast territory. On the one hand, this led to the mixing of Slavs from different regions and increased consciousness of unity throughout the Slavic world. But on the other hand, it was at this time that the Slavs began to move into new territories and mix with different foreign-language groups. This led to the further (VIII-IX centuries) division of the Slavic community into three branches: western, eastern and southern.
But, despite the inconsistency of the stated points of view on the beginning of the formation of the Slavic community and the ethnicity of individual cultures, almost all researchers unanimously agree that in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. the territory between the middle Dnieper and the Bug was occupied by Slavic tribes. The populations of the Zarubinets, Kyiv, partly Przeworsk and northern forest-steppe parts of the Chernyakhov culture are identified with them. Ethnic processes occur continuously, and all archaeological cultures left by the Slavic or non-Slavic population had more or less to do with the formation of the Slavic early medieval communities, while making their own contribution to the creation of the physical type of the Slavs, to the development of their material, spiritual and industrial activities. ethnogenesis exists in... the process has begun resettlement Slavs, that is Slavs not... the so-called migration theories origin Slavs, known as “... only from the 7th century. eastern Slavs gradually settled on...
National history. Course of lectures (1)
Abstract >> HistoryTerritory resettlement eastern Slavs was determined by the following... eastern Slavs, to state that relatively origin words " Slavs" ... : Problem ethnogenesis eastern Slavs. Problem the origin of the names " Slavs", ... PEOPLES THEORY - theory, ...
Origins and beginning of Slavic culture. Origin ancient Slavs
Test >> Culture and artStudy Sources ethnogenesis Slavs Theories origin Slavs Culture Slavs a) Beliefs of the ancients Slavs b) Social... Introduction Problem origin and ancient history Slavs... territory resettlement ancient Slavs with the Central and Eastern ...
Lectures on history
Abstract >> HistoryIn progress resettlement eastern Slavs By East-The European plain near... the divine origin royal power, enlighteners put forward theory“public... territory of our country. Problem ethnogenesis eastern Slavs. Lecture 2. Kievan Rus...
The ancestors of the Eastern Slavs lived in Central and Eastern Europe. By language they belonged to the Indo-European peoples. Tribes can be traced back to 2000 BC. The ancestors of the Slavs (proto-Slavs) are found among the tribes that inhabited the basins of the Odra, Vistula, Oka, Dnieper and Danube rivers. Ancient authors called Slavs Wends, Ants. The estimated territory of settlement of the ancestors of the Slavs reached the Elbe, in the north to the Baltic Sea, in the east to the Oka. From the single European group of tribes, the east was separated. Glory to the branch: Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians. The ancestors of the Slavs belonged to the ancient Indo-European unity. Gradually, related tribes emerged among the Indo-Europeans, similar in language, economic activity, and culture. The Slavs became one of them. Later, western (Vends) and eastern (Antes) branches appeared in the Slavic massif.
At the end of the 5th century. the settlement of the Slavs stopped: the eastern branch came to the Dnieper, gradually settling to the lake. Ilmen and the upper reaches of the river. Okie.
The Polyans, the Drevlyans, were founded on the right bank of the Dnieper and its tributaries.
Northerners, Radimichi and Vyatichi are on the left bank of the Dnieper.
Krivichi - in the upper reaches of the Volga and Western. Dvina.
An important factor in the formation of the people and the state are the neighboring peoples and tribes, which differ in their language, way of life, way of life, morals and customs, culture, etc. At different times, neighboring peoples subjugated the Slavic tribes and drew them into the sphere of their economic activity or, conversely, were under the influence of the Slavs.
The neighbors of the Eastern Slavs (late 9th century) were:
1) in the west: Baltic tribes: Litas, Lithuanians, Yatvingians, etc.; Western Slavs: Poles (Poles), Slovaks, Czechs, Hungarians (Ugrians); 2) in the northeast: Finno-Ugric tribes: Karelians, Mordovians, Mari, Muroma, etc.; 3) in the Lower Volga: Khazars; 4) in the east : Volga Bulgarians; 5) in the south in the Black Sea region: Pechenegs and other Turkic tribes. As they settled, the Eastern Slavs displaced peoples or assimilated them. After settling in new places, the Eastern Slavs created the foundations of their social and economic life. The convenience of river routes ensured that diverse ties were maintained between tribes and facilitated the formation of a single state. In the beginning. I thousand. The Slavs lived in tribal communities. However, the development of agriculture, which was quite high for its time, and the presence of excess product led to the fact that the tribal community was replaced by a neighboring community, the unity of which was maintained not by blood, but by economic ties.
From the 6th century - the process of stratification of tribal relations. The manifestation of property inequality and the development of product exchange led to the formation of separate social groups. In the 6th-8th centuries, the first associations of the Eastern Slavs appeared.
At the beginning of the 9th century. the process of forming statehood is underway. The religion of the Eastern Slavs was complex and varied. In the pre-Christian era, the Eastern Slavs were pagans. They deified the forces of nature and believed in good and evil spirits. Their most important gods were: Perun - the god of thunder and lightning, war; Svarog - god of fire; Dazhdbog (aka Yarilo, Khoros) - god of the sun and fertility; Volos is the god of wealth and fertility; Stribog is the god of thunder and bad weather; Mokosh is a goddess who protected the female part of the household; Veres god, patron of cattle breeding; Semark is the god of the underworld. The Eastern Slavs had temples - places where prayers took place and sacrifices were made to idols. A noticeable role in the life of the Slavs was played by magicians, believers, etc. There was a cult of ancestors. The remains of the dead were burned and mounds were built over them. At first, ancestral tombs were built, then, with the decomposition of the clan system and the emergence of a paired family, separate mounds began to be erected over each burial. There were pagan holidays associated with the seasons and agricultural work. At the end of December, they caroled - mummers went from house to house with songs and jokes, praising the owners, who were supposed to give gifts to the mummers. The big holiday was seeing off winter and welcoming spring - Maslenitsa. On the holiday of Ivan Kupala, rituals with fire and water, fortune-telling, round dances were held, and songs were sung. In the fall, after the end of field work, a harvest festival was celebrated: a large honey loaf was baked. Much attention was paid to wedding and funeral rites. The Slavs believed in the immortality of the soul and the afterlife, which would be happy if the living correctly escorted the deceased to another world.
According to the Tale of Bygone Years, the Radimichi, Vyatichi, Northerners and Krivichi burned the dead, put the ashes and remains of bones in a vessel and placed them on poles in small log houses near the roads. The Vyatichi sometimes buried log-coffins; burnt ashes into the ground. In many places, mounds were built over the graves, next to which rites were held - military competitions in memory of the deceased and memorial feasts - funeral feasts.
In the 9th century. The Slavs began to bury their dead without burning them. Food, tools, weapons, and jewelry were placed next to the deceased. It is known that the Eastern Slavs still retained blood feud: the relatives of the murdered man took revenge on the murderer by death.
With the adoption of Christianity in 988 (already during the time of Kievan Rus), the Slavs began to have two names. “Real” - given at baptism (Hebrew or Greek names), and worldly - “from the evil eye”: a pagan nickname, a Scandinavian or West Slavic name. Moreover, in life a person was called by a “false” name. And many did not remember that Prince Vladimir the Red Sun was actually Vasily, Yaroslav the Wise was Yuri (George), and Vsevolod the Big Nest was called Dmitry.
Even before their settlement across the East European Plain, the Slavs were engaged in arable farming, cattle breeding, hunting and beekeeping. While settling in new places, they continued their previous activities and mastered new ones. The Slavs of the forest-steppe zone were dominated by the arable farming system - fallow, when a plot of land was sown for several years until it was exhausted, and then moved to a new one. In the forest zone, they used a slash-and-burn farming system: they cut down and uprooted a section of the forest, burned the trees, fertilized the ground with ash and also used it for two to three years, and then cleared a new area. On the cleared lands they grew rye, wheat, barley, millet, oats, and from garden crops - turnips, cabbage, beets, carrots, etc., they also engaged in livestock breeding: horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats. The tools used were an axe, a hoe, a harrow, a spade, a sickle, flails, stone grain grinders and hand millstones. In the southern regions, the main tool was the plow, and later a wooden plow with an iron tip - a ploughshare. Oxen were used as draft animals in the south, and horses in the forest zone. The economy was of a subsistence nature: it produced agricultural and livestock products necessary to satisfy basic needs.
Crafts played a secondary role in the economy of the Eastern Slavs. These were hunting, fishing and beekeeping. Crafts have not yet completely separated from agriculture. Furriers, weavers and carpenters were the same grain growers, who alternated work in the field with occupations and crafts. However, potters and blacksmiths lived at some distance from the villages and did not engage in agriculture. In the VIII-IX centuries. Modeled dishes were replaced by dishes made using a potter's wheel. The emergence of surplus products contributed to active exchange, and later to the emergence and development of trade, which went mainly along numerous rivers and their tributaries.
The route from the “Varangians to the Greeks” was actively used by the Scandinavian peoples, whom the Slavs called the Varangians (hence the name of the route itself). The Varangians traded with coastal tribes, including the Slavs. They not only traded peacefully, but often also robbed, and sometimes were hired to serve in squads of Slavic princes.
The Slavs conducted active trade with the Khazars, Bulgarians, Arabs and, of course, the Greeks (Byzantines). The main items of foreign trade were furs, wax, honey, and servants (slaves). Silks, silver and gold items, luxury goods, incense, weapons, and spices came from the East and Byzantium. The emergence of cities among the Slavs was associated with the development of trade. The Tale of Bygone Years already names the cities of Kyiv, Chernigov, Smolensk, Lyubech, Novgorod, Pskov, Polotsk, Murom, etc. In total, by the 9th century. there were about 24 large cities. The Varangians called the Slavic land Gardarika - the country of cities. The chronicles brought to us the legend about the emergence of Kyiv. Kiy, his brothers Shchek and Khoriv and their sister Lybid founded their settlements (courtyards) on three hills on the Dnieper. Then they united into one city, which they named Kiev in honor of Kiy. The first principalities appeared: Kuyabiya (Kuyaba - around Kyiv), Slavia (in the area of Lake Ilmen with the center in Novgorod). The emergence of such centers testified to the emergence of new intra-tribal relations in the organization of the Eastern Slavs, which created the preconditions for the emergence of a state among them.
In the VI century. The Eastern Slavs lived in a tribal system. The main unit of society was the clan. The clan was headed by elders, and on the most important issues a council of all relatives met; 3-5 clans close in origin made up a tribe. Tribes united in alliances with chiefs at their head. In the VII-IX centuries. clan relations among the Eastern Slavs began to disintegrate due to the advent of metal tools and the transition from slash to arable farming. The main economic unit became the individual family.
Gradually, the clan community is being replaced by a neighboring, territorial one, the members of which were no longer blood relatives, but simply neighbors. The neighboring community in the south was called “mir”, in the north - “rope”. In the neighboring community, communal ownership of arable land, forest and hay land, etc. was retained, but the family was already allocated plots of arable land for use - “allotments”. These plots were cultivated by each family with its own tools, which received ownership of the harvest it collected. In the tribal environment of the 7th - early 9th centuries. the “deliberate children” stood out - leaders, elders, famous warriors. Power and wealth were concentrated in their hands. Many of the “deliberate children” began to live in separate fortified estates. Private property was born. The improvement of tools led to the production of not only what was necessary in a subsistence economy, but also a surplus product. There was an accumulation of surplus product, and on its basis - the development of exchange between individual families. This led to differentiation of the community, increased wealth inequality, and accumulation of wealth by elders and other nobility.
The most important governing body among the Slavs continued to be the veche - popular government, which jointly resolved all the most important issues. But gradually its importance fell. The Eastern Slavs fought numerous wars with their neighbors, repelling the onslaught of nomadic peoples. At the same time, they made campaigns in the Balkans and Byzantium. Under these conditions, the role of the military leader - the prince, who, as a rule, was the main person in the management of the tribe - increased enormously. When wars were rare, all the men of the tribe took part in them. In conditions of frequent wars, this became economically unprofitable. The growth of the surplus product made it possible to support the prince and his squad. The military squad nobility declared themselves the owners of lands or a tribal union, imposing tribute (tax) on their fellow tribesmen. Another way of subjugating neighboring communities was the transformation of the old tribal nobility into boyars - patrimonial lands and the subordination of the community members to them.
By the VIII-IX centuries. At the head of the East Slavic tribal unions were princes from the tribal nobility and the former clan elite - “deliberate people”, “best husbands”. Princes and warriors grew rich from war booty: they turned captured prisoners of war into slaves, forcing them to work on their lands. In the VI-IX centuries. The slaves of the Eastern Slavs were mainly prisoners captured in the war. At that time, the Slavs had customary law. Slaves were used mainly in the household, in the most difficult jobs. Slavery among the Slavs was of a patriarchal nature, when slaves do not form a class, but are considered junior members of the family. Thus, the Eastern Slavs experienced a process of differentiation (stratification) of society. The prerequisites for the formation of the state were created.
Problems of Slavic ethnogenesis
The collapse of the ancient European linguistic community and the separation of the Balto-Slavic (or Proto-Slavic) language from it dates back to the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. However, most linguists date the identification of the Proto-Slavic language proper only to the 7th–6th centuries. BC e. The isolation of the Proto-Slavs as an ethnographic (archaeological) whole is most often associated with those that arose in the 5th century. BC e. on the territory of modern Poland by the Pomeranian and Pomeranian cultures. This does not exclude the concept of autonomous development of Proto-Slavic elements in the east, within the framework of the Zarubintsy Balto-Slavic culture, advocated by a number of archaeologists. In general, from the 2nd century. BC e. Proto-Slavs are being introduced into several different tribal cultures, without forming an indisputable ethnographic whole. This is the Przeworsk culture in the west, Zarubinets, and later Chernyakhovskaya (which also absorbed the Przeworsk element) culture in the east. This makes it difficult to study their early history.
In written sources from the beginning of the Christian era, separate references to the Proto-Slavs appear. This is mainly information from geographical descriptions (“Natural History” by Pliny the Elder, “Germany” by Tacitus, “Geography” by Ptolemy, “Pettinger Table”). The Roman emperor Volusian (251–253) received the title “Venedic” for his campaign in Dacia. The Proto-Slavs appear in these references as “Vends”. This is an ethnonym of Italo-Illyrian origin; The ancient Veneti (Venedi) were a tribe close to the Illyrians in the north-east of Italy, in the area of present-day Venice. The appearance of this ethnonym in Central Europe can be linked to the Italic migration noted by linguists, which influenced the formation of the Proto-Slavic language. The identity of the Wends and Proto-Slavs is supported, firstly, by Jordan’s direct reference to the origin of the Slavs and Antes from the Wends. Secondly, the Slavs are called Vends or Vinds in Germanic, Vene (v?n?) - in Baltic-Finnish languages (cf. also the name or epithet of the Gothic king Vinitarius). Wends, conquered, according to Jordan, in the 4th century. Germanaric, can be correlated with some part of the Przeworsk population.
In Ptolemy, among the neighbors of the Wends, the Slavs themselves appear (Slovenes is the oldest Proto-Slavic ethnonym with the meaning ‘speaking’) - the Stavans. They are localized together with the Balts (Galinds and Sudins) to the southeast of the Wends and north of the Alans, in the territories then occupied by the Przeworsk and late Zarubinets monuments. Another subsequently Slavic ethnonym mentioned by Ptolemy is the Velts (Velets) east of the Veneti in Pomerania.
When describing the events of the 4th century that led to the fall of the Gothic “kingdom” of Hermanaric, Jordan cites a legend about the war between the Goths and the Antes tribe, which above refers, along with the Slavs, to the descendants of the Wends. About the kinship and monolingualism of the Antes and Slavs in the 6th century. Procopius of Caesarea also speaks.
The Antes were active on the European stage in the 6th - early 7th centuries, which will be discussed further. For the period of their struggle with the Goths, there is no direct news, except for the indicated testimony of Jordan. Traces of the same legends are found in the Germanic languages (Old High German, Anglo-Saxon), where the name Ants came to mean mythical giants. The later Antes correlate with the Penkovo culture in the south of the East European Plain, genetically related to the Chernyakhov culture. The Chernyakhov culture, at least in some part of it, must be associated with the antes of Gothic legends.
Were the Ants of the legends used by Jordan Proto-Slavs? The ethnonym “Anty” is non-Slavic. It is associated with the ancient Sarmatian linguistic environment and is translated “outskirts” or even “external”, “strangers”. This could well be the name given to the Alan tribes of the Chernyakhov culture who settled in a foreign-language environment, and to the tribes themselves that made up this environment.
The testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus, a contemporary of the events, can be compared with Jordan’s story about the fall of the Ostrogothic kingdom. According to Jordan, the Huns, after the death of Germanarich, destroyed his kingdom. The Ostrogoths were conquered by the Huns, and the Visigoths separated from them. Amal Vinitarius, the great-nephew of Germanarich, became the ruler of the Ostrogoths. Freeing himself from the power of the Huns, he first opposed the Antes, and after a changeable war he defeated them, crucifying King Boz with his sons and 70 noble people. Balamber, the king of the Huns, entered into an alliance with part of the Goths, opposed Vinitarius and, after two unsuccessful battles on the Erak River, defeated him. Vinitary died, the Ostrogoths submitted to the Huns. Power over the Ostrogoths passed to Germanaric's son Gunimund. The fate of Vandalarius, the son of Vinitarius, is not clear; Much later (at the beginning of the 5th century), the Ostrogoths subordinate to the Huns were led by his son Valamer.
According to Ammianus Marcellinus, the kingdom of the Grevtungs (Ostrogoths of Jordan), ruled by Ermenrich, was destroyed by the Huns with the assistance of the Tanait (i.e. Don) Alans, conquered by force, neighboring the Grevtungs. Vitimir was elected king of the Grevtungs, who, having bribed some of the Huns, entered into war, first of all, with the Alans, and this war was at first quite successful for him. However, in the end, having suffered a series of defeats from the Huns and Alans, he fell in battle. His young son Viterich received power under the regency of Alafey and Safrak. The latter led the Grevthungs into the Empire, following the Thervingi of King Athanaric.
Cup. Chernyakhov culture
A number of general points are obvious, and we must take into account the natural exaggeration of Gothic successes in the Gothic epic. After the death of Germanarich, the Goths were led by a new ruler, Vitimir (or Vinitarius), who entered into the fight with the Huns (King Balamber) and their allies, but died in battle. At the same time, there was a division of the Ostrogoths (Greutungs) into his supporters and Gunimund, an ally of the Huns, noted by Jordan. Supporters of Vitimir or some part of them, led by Alafey and Safrak, followed the Visigoths (Tervingi) of Athanaric to the Empire. The king of this part of the Greuthungians is Vitherich, son of Vitimir, identical with Vandalarius of Jordan. The king of the Goths (Ostrogoths) who submitted to the Huns was Gunimund, not mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus.
Here the identity of the “Alans” (Tanaites?), with whom Vitimir fought, becomes obvious, with the Antes, against whom Vinitarius, who wanted to overthrow the Gothic yoke, first turned. This in itself does not indicate ethnicity. Ammianus Marcellinus himself notes that during the period of their hegemony, the Alans spread their name to many allied tribes of different origins. This brings us back to the question of the nature of Chernyakhov’s culture. It combines Alan-Sarmatian, Germanic, Dacian, “Balto-Slavic” and Proto-Slavic (in the contact zone with the Przeworsk culture in Volyn and Polesie) ethnic elements. Excluding the Germanic Goths, it is this mixed population from the left, northern tributaries of the Dnieper to the Olt, the upper reaches of the Dniester and the Western Bug that are the Antes of the Jordan. Judging by the news of Ammianus about the neighborhood of the Tanaites with the Goths, in a political sense this vast territory should have been divided between both. On the other hand, part of the Tanait Alans could form the basis of the Chernyakhov culture. Antov IV century. one must then consider it as the western “external” part of the Tanaitian association, which included multi-tribal components. It is worth adding that the name of the king of the Antes (Boz) is non-Slavic.
Iron axe. Chernyakhov culture
The final transformation of the Antes into a Slavic ethnos, as well as the formation of the ethnos of the Slavs themselves (Slovenes), occurs during the 5th century. However, the history of the Proto-Slavs began, as we have seen, from a much earlier time. If it is possible to consider the 5th century to be the beginning of Slavic history proper, it is only conditionally. The past of the Slavs by that time spanned more than one millennium.
From the book Ancient Rus' and the Great Steppe author Gumilev Lev Nikolaevich145. At the end of ethnogenesis On the eve of Batu’s campaign, the “semi-states” that made up Ancient Rus' were populous (about 6 million in total) and rich, especially Novgorod. The population consisted of healthy, courageous people. These people were capable of perceiving Byzantine
author Gumilev Lev NikolaevichX. Algorithm of ethnogenesis Ethnic relics Ethnic history can count over twenty super-ethnoses that disappeared in historical time and were replaced by those that currently exist. For now, the task is to describe the mechanism of the disappearance of superethnoses, and about them
From the book Ethnogenesis and the Earth's Biosphere [L/F] author Gumilev Lev NikolaevichThe explosion of ethnogenesis in the 1st century. n. e If ethnic groups were “social categories”, then they would arise in similar social conditions. But in fact, as will now be shown, the triggering moments of ethnogenesis, where they can be traced on strict factual material, coincide
From the book Ethnogenesis and the Earth's Biosphere [L/F] author Gumilev Lev NikolaevichThe explosion of ethnogenesis in the 6th century. n. The events of the 7th century were similar in nature and results. in Central Arabia. A community of warlike followers arose around the Prophet Muhammad, breaking the old tribal relations and creating a new stereotype of behavior.
From the book Ethnogenesis and the Earth's Biosphere [L/F] author Gumilev Lev NikolaevichThe explosion of ethnogenesis in the 11th century. n. e One gets the impression that the linear sections of the earth’s surface, along which intensive processes of the emergence of ethnic groups took place, do not cover the entire globe, but are limited by its curvature, as if a strip of light fell on a school globe and
From the book Ethnogenesis and the Earth's Biosphere [L/F] author Gumilev Lev NikolaevichEthnogenesis curve In all historical processes from the microcosm (the life of one individual) to the macrocosm (the development of man as a whole), social and natural forms of movement are sometimes so bizarrely co-present that it is sometimes difficult to grasp the nature of the connection. It's special
From the book History of Germany. Volume 1. From ancient times to the creation of the German Empire by Bonwetsch Bernd From the book Millennium around the Caspian Sea [L/F] author Gumilev Lev Nikolaevich2. Ethnogenesis curve In all historical processes - from microcosm (the life of one individual) to macrocosm (the development of humanity as a whole), social and natural forms of movement are sometimes so bizarrely co-present that it is sometimes difficult to grasp the nature of their connection. This
From the book Gumilyov, son of Gumilyov author Belyakov Sergey StanislavovichPHASES OF ETHNOGENESIS “Gumilev literally transfers the laws of organism development to ethnogenesis,” write critics of the passionary theory of ethnogenesis. But natural processes have a beginning and an end; each system, having exhausted the resources for development, dies. The mountains are collapsing and drying up
From the book Slavs. Historical and archaeological research [With illustrations] author Sedov Valentin VasilievichAnthropology and ethnography in the study of Slavic ethnogenesis The role of anthropology in the study of the early history and origin of the Slavs is small. In all regions of Europe where the Slavs and their immediate ancestors lived, in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age,
From the book HISTORY OF RUSSIA from ancient times to 1618. Textbook for universities. In two books. Book one. author Kuzmin Apollon GrigorievichPossibilities of various sciences in covering Slavic ethnogenesis The history of the early Slavs can be studied with wide cooperation of various sciences - linguistics, archeology, anthropology, ethnography and folkloristics. Any of these sciences separately does not have and is unlikely to
From the book The Origin and Early History of the Slavs [With illustrations] author Sedov Valentin VasilievichPOSSIBILITIES OF VARIOUS SCIENCES IN COLLECTING SLAVIC ETHNOGENESIS The history of the early Slavs can be studied through the wide collaboration of various sciences - linguistics, onomastics, archeology, anthropology, ethnography and folkloristics. None of these sciences separately
From the book Mongols and Merkits in the 12th century. author Gumilev Lev NikolaevichEthnogenesis curve In all historical processes from microcosm (the life of one individual) to macrocosm (the development of humanity as a whole), social and natural forms of movement are co-present and interact, sometimes so bizarrely, that it is sometimes difficult to grasp the character
From the book From Ancient Times to the Creation of the German Empire by Bonwetsch BerndProblems of ethnogenesis of the ancient Germans The history of each people begins with its origin, the origins of which most often belong to the unwritten era. Dividing into two huge stages (preliterate and written), ethnogenesis, according to the specifics of the source base, becomes
From the book The Rise of China author Medvedev Roy AlexandrovichProblems of Poverty and Problems of Corruption in China China is still a very poor country, and the average salary of workers, office workers, engineers or teachers in China is about 10 times lower than in the USA or Japan. In terms of per capita income, China reached the
From the book Dawn of the Slavs. V - first half of VI century author Alekseev Sergey ViktorovichProblems of Slavic ethnogenesis The collapse of the ancient European linguistic community and the separation of the Balto-Slavic (or Proto-Slavic) language from it dates back to the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. However, the isolation of the Proto-Slavic language itself is most