Problems of ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs. Features of economic relations, socio-political system and spiritual life of Ancient Rus'. Eastern Slavs in the 8th – 9th centuries
Introduction
.Theories of the origin of the Slavs
)Migration. "Danube" or "Balkan" migration theory. "Scythian-Sarmatian" migration theory. "Scythian-Baltic" migration theory. "Baltic" migration theory
)Autochthonous
.Norman and anti-Norman theories of the emergence of statehood in Ancient Rus'
Conclusion
Literature
ethnogenesis community migration anti-Norman
Introduction
The question of the origin (ethnogenesis) of the Slavs and their identification as a special ethnic group still does not have a single concept. The origin, history of formation and area of the ancient Slavs are studied using methods and at the intersection of various sciences: linguistics, history, archaeology, paleoanthropology, genetics.
Archaeologists often identify a number of archaeological cultures dating back to the 5th century as authentically Slavic. In academic science, there is no single point of view on the ethnic origin of the speakers of earlier cultures and their continuity in relation to later Slavic ones. One of the reasons for this, according to V.P. Kobychev, is the absence of any comprehensive written sources about the Slavs until the middle of the 6th century AD.
The study of this problem is very relevant at present. Often, many representatives of official science do not rank the culture of Rus' among the most ancient civilizations, calling the starting point of the history of the Fatherland only 1 thousand AD. e, the period of formation of ancient Russian culture, the formation of statehood with the beginning of the reign of Prince Rurik. In turn, there is irrefutable evidence (ancient texts, archaeological excavations) indicating that the ancient Slavs had full-fledged state formations and a generally rich pagan culture for many centuries before these events.
In this regard, the purpose of this abstract work is to study the origin of the Eastern Slavs based on sources reporting the origin of the Slavs, and the concepts of famous historians and archaeologists of the 20th century.
1. The concept of ethnogenesis, ethnic group, linguistic community
Concept: Ethnogenesis - the moment of origin and the subsequent process of development of any 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.
Ethnogenesis as the formation of a separate nationality is characterized by the consolidation of autochthonous ethnic components and the inclusion of settlers (migrants) in the process of ethnogenesis. Consolidation occurs within the framework of a single national state or under the leadership of a common religion, often caused by the need to coordinate actions in response to an external challenge (Americans, Germans, Swiss). Sometimes the consolidation process is caused by the opposition of closely related autochthonous components to the newcomer population (Latvians). Often an essential element of ethnogenesis is the invasion of migrants who impose their ethnonym (expressing ethnic identity) on the local population, but forget their language (Bulgarians, Uzbeks, French), or impose both an ethnonym and a language (Hungarians, Turks, Arabs). However, it is not uncommon for migrants to be themselves assimilated by the local population (Visigoths in Spain).
In addition to language and ethnonym, an important role in the formation of a nationality is played by the homeland, that is, the geographic environment that determines the characteristics of economic activity and life, as well as the features of material and spiritual culture formed on their basis. For example, from the “forest” European Englishmen, the “steppe” Americans emerged, having absorbed the traditions of other (Irish) peoples. Mountain Azerbaijanis separated themselves from the steppe Turkmens, borrowing the traditions of the local Caucasian peoples.
There are various theories of ethnogenesis. The original passionary theory of ethnogenesis, in which the entire duration of ethnic history is called ethnogenesis, was developed by Lev Gumilev in his work “Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere of the Earth.” It presupposes the emergence of an ethnos as a result of a passionary impulse and its finitude life cycle, which goes through the stages of rise, overheating, breakdown, inertia, attenuation and transition to homeostasis, which can last as long as desired. The total duration of the “life” of an ethnos, not interrupted by assimilation, destruction or a new passionary impulse, according to Gumilyov, is 1200-1500 years.
The weak point of L. N. Gumilyov’s theory can be considered the assumption that the passionary impulse is caused by cosmic radiation, but he himself never claims that this position in his constructions is decisive, indicating that even if another original reason, the rest of the reasoning will still remain generally correct.
V. Shnirelman emphasizes that the passionary theory of ethnogenesis does not take into account that ethnic identity (ethnicity) can be floating, situational, symbolic. It is not necessarily related to linguistic affiliation. Sometimes it is based on religion (Kryashens, or baptized Tatars), economic system (reindeer Koryaks-Chavchuvens and sedentary Koryaks-Nymyllans), race (African-Americans), historical tradition (Scots). People can change their ethnicity, as happened in the 19th century in the Balkans, where, moving from rural life to trade, a person turned from a Bulgarian to a Greek, and the language factor did not serve as an obstacle to this, because people were fluent in both languages.
J. A. Toynbee proposed a theory of the development of ethnic groups (ethnogenesis), in which their development was explained by the alternation of “challenges” from the surrounding world (including from other ethnic groups) and the ability to give a successful “answer” to such challenges. This theory has been criticized many times.
2. Sources reporting the origin of the Slavs: written evidence, historical information, archaeological data
The very first name of the Slavs was “Scythians-Skolity”, which was used by Herodotus in the 5th century. BC. Russian historians and writers of the 18th century. V.N. Tatishchev and V.K. Trediakovsky developed a view about the Russianness of the ancient Greek name “Scythians”. In accordance with the norms of Greek phonetics, this word is pronounced “Scythians”. “Skeet” is a purely Russian root, from which words like “wander”, “wandering” come. In this regard, the word “Scythians” - “monasteries” was given the meaning of “wanderers”, “nomads”. There is no difference of opinion regarding the term “skoly” - it means “sun worshipers” and is associated with the root “kolo” - the ancient Slavic name for the sun.
Later ancient authors - Polybius (III-II centuries BC), Titus Livy (1st century BC - 1st century AD), Strabo (1st century AD) and Tacitus (I-II centuries AD) - called the Slavs by the common ancient name “Venedi” (“Venet”) and were placed among the Scythian and Sarmatian tribes in the Vistula region.
By the end of the 1st century AD. There are reports about the Vends by Cornelius Tacitus, who characterizes them as a fairly large ethnic group. Tacitus points out that the Vendians lived between the tribes of the Pevkin (the northern part of the Lower Danube) and the Fenni, who occupied the territory of the forest belt of Eastern Europe from the Baltic to the Urals. It is not possible to indicate the exact location of the Vendians. It is also difficult to say whether the Vends of the time of Tacitus were Slavs. There is an assumption that the Vends at that time assimilated with the Slavs and received their name. And if we can argue about the Vends of Tacitus, then the Vends of later authors are undoubtedly Slavs, i.e. from the 6th century. n. e.
More significant information is available about the Slavs of the mid-1st millennium AD. e. Now the Slavs are called by their own name - Slovenians, along with which the Antes are mentioned, and Jordan also knows their former name - Vendians. Byzantine authors - Procopius of Caesarea, Agathias, Menander Protictor, Theophylact Simocatta, Mauritius - mainly describe the Slavs of the Danube region and the Balkan Peninsula, which is associated with the Slavic invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire (VI - VII centuries). The works of Byzantine authors provide information about various aspects of the life and way of life of the Slavs.
More significant information for studying the problem of Slavic ethnogenesis is available in the work of the Gothic Bishop Jordan. His work allows us to establish a connection between the Slavs and Vendas of ancient writers. According to Jordan, the Vendians are Slavs. From the messages it is clear that in the 6th century. The Slavs settled a wide strip stretching from the Middle Danube to the lower Dnieper.
Byzantine writers of the 6th century knew two large Slavic peoples - the Antes and the Sklavins, while noting that the name Veneds was being replaced by the first two. The Gothic historian Jordan notes that the Wends, Ants and Sklavins are related and originate from the same root. From his reports it is clear that the Sklavins were the western group of the southern branch of the Slavs, the Ants were the eastern group, and the Wends were the northern branch. The area of settlement of the Sklavins along the Jordan extended from the territory on the lower Danube and Lake Mursia to the Dniester and Vistula. The Antes were localized by the Jordan from the Dniester to the mouth of the Dnieper; Jordan did not know how far their lands went to the north. Jordan considered the area of distribution of the Wends to be “immeasurable expanses” from the sources of the Vistula and the foothills of the Carpathians to the east and north.
In Russian historical thought, the first who tried to answer the questions: where, how and when the Slavs appeared was the chronicler Nestor - the author of The Tale of Bygone Years. He defined the territory of the Slavs along the lower reaches of the Danube. The process of settlement of the Slavs began with the Danube, that is, we are talking about their migration.
· “A long time later [after the biblical Pandemonium of Babylon], the Slavs sat down along the Danube, where the land is now Hungarian and Bulgarian. From those Slavs, the Slavs dispersed throughout the land and were called by their names from the places where they sat. So alone, having arrived, they sat down on the river with the name Morava and they were called Moravians, and others were called Czechs. And here are the same Slavs: white Croats, and Serbs, and Horutans. When the Volochs attacked the Danube Slavs, and settled among them, and oppressed them, then these Slavs came and sat on the Vistula and were called Poles, and from those Poles came Poles, other Poles - Lutichi, others - Mazovshans, others - Pomeranians. Likewise, these Slavs came and settled along the Dnieper and were called Polans, and others - Drevlyans, because they sat in the forests, and others "settled between Pripyat and Dvina and were called Dregovichs, others sat along the Dvina and were called Polotsk, after the river flowing into the Dvina, called Polota, from which they were called Polotsk. The same Slavs who settled near Lake Ilmen were called by their own name - Slavs."
The Kiev chronicler was the founder of the migration theory of the origin of the Slavs, known as the “Danube” or “Balkan” theory. But more on that later.
Information about the life and everyday life of the Eastern Slavs is provided not only by Byzantine authors; it is also contained in geographical compilations of the largest Arab geographers of the 2nd half of the 9th-10th centuries: Ibn-Haukal, al-Balkhi, al-Istarkhi, etc.
Semi-legendary information is also told about the Slavs in the Scandinavian sagas, in the epic of the Franks, and in German legends. However, it should be borne in mind that the information they contain is far from perfect. They are incomplete, often fragmentary, and sometimes contradictory. And in the research of origins historical life Slavic knowledge of written sources alone is clearly not enough.
They come to the rescue modern sciences
A) Archeology- a science that studies the history of society based on the material remains of people’s lives and activities - material (archaeological) monuments. Archaeological research covers settlements, forms of life, level of economic development, the process of decomposition of primitive communal society (identification of warriors and leaders), religious ideas, tribal boundaries, their movements, relationships, etc.
b) Linguistics(from Latin lingua - language) - the science of human natural language and all the languages of the world as its specific representatives, the general laws of the structure and functioning of human language.
V) Toponymy(from the Greek topos - name and onyma - name, title) - a science that studies proper names, representing the names of geographical locations, makes it possible to establish the area (area, space) of a people in different periods of its historical existence and determine the linguistic affiliation of its neighbors.
G) Ethnography- (from the Greek ethnos - tribe of people and ... graphy) is a science that studies everyday and cultural characteristics peoples of the world, problems of origin (ethnogenesis), settlement (ethnography) and cultural and historical relationships of peoples.
Linguists also do not have a consensus on the time of appearance of a language that could be considered Slavic or Proto-Slavic. Existing scientific versions suggest the separation of the Proto-Slavic language from the Proto-Indo-European (or from a linguistic community of a lower level) in a wide range from the 2nd millennium BC. e. until the turn of eras or even the first centuries AD. e.
Archeology has made a great contribution to the study of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs. According to research, the time of the identification of ethnic Slavs dates from the 3rd millennium BC to the first centuries of our era. By the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. Agriculture began to dominate in the economy of the tribes that settled Eastern Europe. According to other sources, the oldest Slavic tribes lived in Eastern Europe since the middle of the 1st millennium BC, and by the end of the 2nd century BC, the Przeworsk culture was localized in the southern and central regions of modern Poland and somewhat to the west, the bearers of which are classified according to a number of characteristics to the Proto-Slavs.
Proto-Slavs- one of the families of this ethnic massif, which occupied the territory from the Middle Dnieper to the Oder and from the northern slopes of the Carpathians to Pripyat. The archaeological culture of this region dates back to the Trzyniec-Komarovka culture of the 15th-12th centuries. BC e. At the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. e. arable farming arose and the use of iron began, which corresponded to the Chernoles archaeological culture (X-VII centuries BC). Since then, the folk epic has mentioned blacksmiths forging a huge plow and defeating the fiery Serpent flying from the south (an image of the warlike Cimmerian nomads). The Proto-Slavs were opposed by the Scythian tribes that replaced the Cimmerians. Only in the VI century. n. e., with the beginning of the Great Migration of Peoples, the Slavs began to be mentioned under their own name.
There is a version that in the 5th century. throughout the Slavic world, preparations were taking place for the turbulent events of the next century, when the Slavs became active participants in the Great Migration of Peoples. In the 5th century A partial return movement of the Slavs began from the forest to the forest-steppe and steppe zones, and from there through the Balkan ridges to the possessions of Byzantium. The Slavic migration unfolded in full force in the 6th century. The Slavic invasion of the Balkans became widespread. They settled the Danube lands, Moesia, Thrace, Thessaly, and reached the possessions of ancient Sparta and the islands of the Mediterranean Sea. From the Baltic basin, flows of settlers moved westwards towards the Elbe and eastwards towards Lake Ilmen. As a result of the migration of the Slavs to the zone of settlement of Germanic tribes, a branch of the Western Slavs arose; those who settled the Byzantine possessions laid the foundation for the branch of the Southern Slavs; those who ended up on the Great Russian Plain were called the Eastern Slavs.
3. Theories of the origin of the Slavs
. Migration
A) “Danube” or “Balkan” migration theory
The author of "The Tale of Bygone Years" ("PVL"), Nestor, was the first who tried to answer the question of where and how the Slavs came from. 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 origin of the Slavs, known as "Danubian" or "Balkan". It was popular in the works of medieval authors: Czech and Polish chroniclers of the 13th - 14th centuries. This opinion was long shared 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. Solovyov, 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 reveals the idea that “the history of Russia began in the 6th century in 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 - 8th centuries. So V.O. Klyuchevsky sees the Slavs as relatively late newcomers to their land.
B) "Scythian-Sarmatian" migration theory
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 and settled under the ethnonyms “Scythians”, “Sarmatians”, “Alans” and “Roxalans”. Gradually, the Slavs from the middle Black Sea region settled to the west and southwest.
C) "Scythian-Baltic" migration theory
At the beginning of the 20th century. a variant close to the “Scythian-Sarmatian” theory was proposed by Academician A.I. Sobolevsky. In his opinion, the names of rivers, lakes, 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 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.
D) "Baltic" migration theory
This theory was developed by the prominent historian and linguist A. A. Shakhmatov. In his opinion, the first ancestral home of the Slavs was the basin of the Western Dvina and Lower Neman in the Baltic states. From here the Slavs, taking the name Vends (from the Celts), advanced to the lower Vistula, from where the Goths had just left before them for the Black Sea region (the turn of the 2nd - 2nd centuries). Consequently, here (Lower Vistula), according to A. A. Shakhmatov, was the second ancestral home of the Slavs. Finally, when the Goths left the Black Sea region, part of the Slavs, namely the eastern and southern branches, moved east and south to the Black Sea region and formed the tribes of the eastern and southern Slavs here. This means that, following this “Baltic” theory, the Slavs came as strangers to the land, on which they then created their states.
There were and are a number of other theories about the migration nature of the origin of the Slavs and their “ancestral homeland”. This is the “Asian” one, this is the “Central European” one (according to which the Slavs and their ancestors turned out to be newcomers from Germany (Jutland and Scandinavia), settling from here throughout Europe and Asia, right up to India), and a number of other theories.
Obviously, according to the migration theory, the Slavs were depicted in chronicles as a relatively late newcomer population in the territory they occupied (VI - VIII centuries), i.e. the authors of this theory did not consider them permanent inhabitants of those lands where the Slavs had been known since ancient times.
2. Autochthonous
Definition:
Autochthonous(from the Greek autochthon - local) - a biological species that lives in the place in which it originated.
This theory was recognized in Soviet historiography. Czech researchers had a similar view in the 50-70s, who were followers of the authoritative scholar on Slavism - L. Niederle.
They believed that the Slavs formed over a vast territory, which included not only the territory of modern Poland, but also a significant part of modern Ukraine and Belarus. According to this point of view, the Eastern Slavs were autochthonous inhabitants of their land. Similar views have been expressed by some Bulgarian and Polish scientists.
More about the view of Soviet historiography:
Initially, separate small scattered ancient tribes over a certain vast territory, which then formed into larger tribes and their associations and, finally, historically famous peoples, forming 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 (assimilation). In this case, of course, a secondary process could also occur in some cases: the differentiation of large ethnic communities that had already formed earlier.
4. The concept of ethnogenesis of the Slavs according to B. A. Rybakov
B. A. Rybakov - Soviet archaeologist and historian, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1991; academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1958). One of the most influential figures in Soviet historiography. He created major works on archeology, history, and culture of the Slavs and Ancient Rus'. His scientific activity began with excavations of Vyatiche mounds in the Moscow region. He conducted large-scale excavations in Moscow, Veliky Novgorod, Zvenigorod, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl Russky, Belgorod Kiev, Tmutarakan, Putivl, Alexandrov and many others. He completely excavated the ancient Russian castles of Lyubech and Vitichev, which made it possible to reconstruct the appearance of a small ancient Russian city. Hundreds of future historians and archaeologists learned the “excavation craft” at these excavations. Many students of B. A. Rybakov became famous scientists, in particular S. A. Pletnyova, an expert on the nomadic peoples of the Steppe, the Khazars, the Pechenegs and the Polovtsians.
Today, his concept of the origin of the Slavs is one of the most influential in Russian science. He outlined his views in his works: “Ancient Rus'. Tales. Epics. Chronicles” (1963), “The Paganism of the Ancient Slavs” (1981), “The Paganism of the Ancient Slavs” (1981), etc.
From a relatively small union of Slavic tribes of the Middle Dnieper region (the origins of this union go back to the time of Herodotus), Rus' grew to a huge power that united all the East Slavic tribes, as well as a number of Lithuanian-Latvian tribes of the Baltic states and numerous Finno-Ugric tribes of north-eastern Europe.
Kievan Rus was preceded by a thousand years of slow life of scattered Slavic, Finno-Ugric and Latvian-Lithuanian tribes, gradually and imperceptibly improving their economy and social structure in the vast expanses of forest-steppe and forests of Eastern Europe.
Slavic peoples belong to the ancient Indo-European unity, including such peoples as Germanic, Baltic (Lithuanian-Latvian), Romanesque, Greek, Celtic, Iranian, Indian ("Aryan") and others, spread in ancient times over a vast area from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian and from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean seas. Four to five thousand years ago, the Indo-Europeans had not yet occupied all of Europe and had not yet populated Hindustan; the approximate geometric center of the original Indo-European massif was the northeastern part of the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor. Those tribes from which the Proto-Slavs were formed through gradual consolidation lived almost on the edge of the Indo-European spaces, north of the mountain barrier that separates Southern Europe from Northern Europe and stretches from the Alps to the east, ending in the east with the Carpathians. As the researcher notes, the main formative force in the process of ethnogenesis is the spontaneous integration of more or less related tribes. But, of course, there was also natural reproduction, filiation of tribes, and colonization of new spaces. The filiation of tribes compacted the ethnic massif, filled the gaps between the old “mother” tribes and, of course, contributed to the strengthening of this massif, but it was not the reproduction of one single tribe that created the people.
At the turn of III-II millennia BCIn the northern half of Europe (from the Rhine to the Dnieper), pastoralism is intensifying, and property and social inequality is rapidly emerging. Large cattle becomes a symbol of wealth (in the old Russian language “skotnitsa” means treasury), and the ease of alienation of herds leads to wars and inequality of tribes and their leaders. Primitive equality was violated.
The discovery of copper and bronze led to intertribal trade, which intensified internal processes of differentiation. Archaeologically this era is designated "globular amphorae culture"sharply different from previous, more primitive cultures. The struggle for herds and pastures that began everywhere led to the widespread settlement of shepherd tribes (“Corded Ware Culture”) not only throughout Central, but also throughout Eastern Europe up to the Middle Volga.
All this happened to the tribes who were the ancestors of the Balts, Slavs and Germans. Resettlement was carried out by separate, independently acting tribes. This can be judged by the extraordinary diversity and striping of pastoral terminology in Eastern Europe.
At the time of settlement - the first half of the 2nd millennium - there was still no Slavic, Germanic, or Baltic community; all the tribes mixed and changed neighbors in the process of slow movement.
Approximately to the 15th century BCresettlement stopped. The entire zone of European deciduous forests and forest-steppes was occupied by these Indo-European tribes, different in their place of previous residence. A new, already settled life began, and gradually agriculture began to take first place in the economy. In the new geographical situation, new neighbors began to establish connections, level out the characteristics of tribal dialects and create for the first time in a large space new languages related to each other: in the western part it was called Germanic, in the middle part - Slavic, and in the northeastern part - Latvian. Lithuanian The names of the peoples appeared later and are not associated with this era of primary consolidation of related tribes around three different centers: western (Germanic), eastern (Baltic) and middle (Slavic).
The ancestral home of the Slavs in the heyday of the Bronze Age should be located in a wide strip of Central and Eastern Europe. This strip extended from north to south: the western half was supported from the south by European mountains (Sudetes, Tatras, Carpathians), and in the north it reached almost to the Baltic Sea. Eastern half The proto-Slavic land was limited from the north by Pripyat, from the south by the upper reaches of the Dniester and Southern Bug and the Ros basin. The eastern borders are less clear: the so-called Trzynieckathe culture here covered the Middle Dnieper and the lower reaches of the Desna and Seim.
The Slavs lived in small villages located in two orders. The economy was conducted on the basis of four branches: agriculture, cattle breeding, fishing and hunting. Thus, the Slavs began at the turn of our era resettlement from the ancestral homeland.And now in the new regions colonized by the Slavs there is already a different one, new form names with a patronymic basis: “radimichi” (“descending from Radim”, “subject to Radim”), “vyatichi”, “bodrichi”, etc.
Over the course of the 2nd-1st millennia BC, the ethnic picture of Europe changed not only in connection with the colonization of the Slavs or Celts (moving from west to southeast), but also in connection with the creation of new centers of gravity.
An extremely important element of progress was the discovery of iron.
If in the Bronze Age tribes that did not have deposits of copper and tin were forced to bring metal from afar, then with the discovery of iron they became extremely rich, since then they used swamp and lake ore, which was available in abundance in all Slavic lands with their numerous swamps, rivers and lakes. Essentially, the Slavs moved into the Iron Age from the Stone Age.
The fracture was quite significant. It was also reflected in the ancient Slavic epic about the warrior blacksmiths forging a giant plow weighing 40 pounds and defeating the evil Serpent attacking the Slavs. The epic image of the Serpent meant the Cimmerian nomads of the 10th-8th centuries BC, who attacked the Slavic regions of the Middle Dnieper.
The beginning of the 1st millennium BC should be considered the time when the Slavic tribes of the Middle Dnieper region began their historical existence, defended their independence, built the first fortresses, first encountered the hostile steppe cavalry of the Cimmerians and emerged from these defensive battles with honor. It is not without reason that the creation of the primary forms of the Slavic heroic epic, which survived until the beginning of the 20th century, can be dated to this time (the last detailed records were made by Ukrainian folklorists in 1927-1929).
By the time the Scythians arrived in the southern Russian steppes, by the 7th century BC, the Slavs of the Middle Dnieper region had already traveled a long historical path, reflected both in archaeological materials and in myths and heroic epics. Myths preserved in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian fairy tales (and first recorded by the “father of history” Herodotus in the 5th century BC) tell about three kingdoms, of which one is Golden, about the Sun King (remember Vladimir the Red Sun), named of which all the people inhabiting these kingdoms are named.
The information reported by Herodotus about Scythia is extremely important for us. By Scythia, this attentive writer and traveler understood a huge and to a certain extent conventional space in Eastern Europe, which he defined as a square; the southern side of the square rested on the Black Sea.
This space is inhabited by different tribes speaking different languages, leading different economies and not subordinate to a single king or any hegemonic tribe. Actually, the Scythians, who gave the conventional name to the entire square, are described by Herodotus as steppe cattle breeders, wandering in wagons, alien to agriculture, and not knowing settled settlements. They are contrasted with the inhabitants of the forest-steppe Middle Dnieper region - farmers who export grain to Olbia, who annually celebrate in the spring the festival of the sacred plow, given to people by the god of heaven. In relation to these “Dnieper-Borysphenites”, Herodotus makes a precious note, saying that the Greeks mistakenly classify them as Scythians, while they have a self-name - “chipped off”.
The three kingdoms of the Skolots on the Middle Dnieper and in the neighboring forest-steppe (all of them within the boundaries of the ancient Slavic ancestral home) correspond well to the three main groups identified by Ukrainian archaeologists among the antiquities of the Scythian time. Archaeological materials explain to us the mistake of Greek traders who transferred the common name of Scythians to the Slavic Slavs: in the material culture of the Slavic farmers (“Scythian ploughmen”) many Scythian features can be traced.
The long proximity of this part of the Slavs with the Scythian-Sarmatian Iranian world also affected the language: in the East Slavic languages there are many words of Scythian origin: “axe” (in Slavic “axe”), “dog” (in Slavic “dog”), etc.
The social system of the Middle Dnieper Slavs, one and a half thousand years before Kievan Rus, was on the threshold of statehood. This is evidenced not only by the mentions of the Skolot “kingdoms” and “kings” by Herodotus, but also by the equestrian features of the buried warriors and the huge “royal” mounds in the Kiev region, and the imported luxury of the Slavic nobility.
Slavism of the Scythian timewas not uniform, and no single “archaeological uniform” can be found for it. If the forest-steppe Slavic tribes of the Skolot-Dniepryans received many features of the Scythian culture, then next to them, in the forest zone on the northern outskirts of the Slavic ancestral home, lived next to the Balts (Latvian-Lithuanian tribes) Herodotus’ “neurs” (Milograd archaeological culture), who were inferior in many respects to their southern neighbors, the “Scythian plowmen.”
In the 3rd century BC, the Scythian power in the steppes fell under the onslaught of the more primitive Iranian nomadic tribes of the Sarmatians. The Scythians found themselves cut in two by a stream of new nomads: some of them went south, to the Crimea, and some moved north, to the forest-steppe, where they were assimilated by the Slavs (maybe it was then that Scythian words penetrated the Slavic language?).
The new owners of the steppes - the Sarmatians - behaved completely differently than the Scythians: if the Slavs coexisted more or less peacefully with the Scythians for 500 years and we have no data on serious hostile actions, then the Sarmatians behaved aggressively. They cut trade routes, destroyed Greek cities, attacked the Slavs and pushed the zone of agricultural settlements to the north.
By the turn of our era, the Sarmatians were rampant throughout the entire thousand-mile expanse of the Black Sea steppes. It is possible that the Sarmatian raids and the captivity of the agricultural population were stimulated by the Roman Empire, which, in its widest conquest (from Scotland to Mesopotamia), needed huge contingents of slaves for a wide variety of purposes - from ploughmen to rowers in the fleet.
The Sarmatian onslaught, which lasted for several centuries, led to the decline of the Slavic lands and the departure of the population from the forest-steppe to the north, into the forest zone. It was at this time that patronymic names of tribes such as Radimichi or Vyatichi began to appear in new places of settlement.
Here, in dense forests, protected from invasion by the impenetrable expanses of swamps, new Slavic tribal centers begin to emerge, leaving hundreds of cemeteries, where burials were performed according to the burning ritual, described in detail by the chronicler Nestor.
The earliest information from ancient authors about the Vened Slavs dates back to the first centuries of our era. Unfortunately, they give us very little information about the Eastern Slavs, obscured from the view of ancient writers by the Sarmatians, who had already reached the Middle Danube, and by the forests in which the Slavs, who had settled from the borders of their ancient homeland, hid.
A new and very bright period in the history of the Slavs is associated both with the gradual overcoming of the results of the Sarmatian raids, and with new events of the European history in the first centuries AD. Much in the history of the Old World is connected at this time with the growing power of the Roman Empire. Rome had a strong influence on the Germanic tribes and part of the West Slavic on the Rhine, Elbe and Oder. Roman legions captured Greek cities in the Northern Black Sea region and used them as markets for the purchase of local bread and fish.
The ties of Rome with the peoples of Eastern Europe especially strengthened under the emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajan (98-117 AD), when the Romans conquered all of Dacia and forced its population to speak “Roman” Latin. The empire became a direct neighbor of the Slavic lands, where, thanks to this proximity, export agriculture was revived again, and on a large scale.
In the "Trojan Ages"The Slavs of the Middle Dnieper region (the northern forest-steppe half of the so-called Chernyakhov archaeological culture) experienced a new and very noticeable rise. Crafts developed, a potter's wheel, iron smelters, and rotary millstones appeared. The Slavic nobility widely used imported luxury items: lacquered tableware, jewelry, various items everyday life A situation was revived close to that which existed before the Sarmatian invasion, during the heyday of the neighboring Scythian power. One of shopping centers on the Dnieper was the site of the future Kyiv.
In connection with export agriculture, routes to the south, to the Black Sea, were restored. Roman road maps mention the Wends in the lower reaches of the Danube, and in the middle of the 3rd century military sea campaigns are often mentioned, in which, along with the Goths (the southern coastal part of the Chernyakhov culture), some “Scythians” also took part, in which, in all likelihood, it follows see the southeastern part of the Slavs. Socially, the Dnieper Slavic tribes again reached the pre-state level at which they were in Scythian times. It is possible that in the 2nd-4th centuries, before the invasion of the Huns (about 375), statehood had already arisen among the southern part of the Eastern Slavs, who occupied the same fertile forest-steppe spaces where the “kingdoms” of Skolot farmers were once located .
5. Formation of statehood of the Eastern Slavs. Formation of the ancient Russian state - Kievan Rus
The formation of the Old Russian state was influenced by many internal, external, social, economic, and political aspects.
First of all, it is necessary to take into account the events that took place among the Slavs in the 8th - 9th centuries. The development of agriculture led to the emergence of food surpluses.
In North-Eastern Europe, unfavorable weather conditions negatively affected the development of agriculture, people were more engaged in fishing, so there could be no talk of surplus products that developed foreign trade.
The next stage in the development of the Old Russian state was that now large families that had succeeded in arable farming and were fully self-sufficient in food were transformed into agricultural families. Basically, it consisted only of relatives, but differed from the tribal community. All land for plowing was divided into plots, food products were used by separate large seven, which owned items for cultivating the land and livestock. This divided families by property status, but not by social status. Since labor productivity was still not high. Archaeologists, excavating settlements of those times, came across monotonous dugouts with identical household items.
The political prerequisites for the development of the Old Russian state include the complication of relations within the tribe and clashes between them. They accelerated the emergence of the power of princes, increased their authority as those who could protect the tribe from strangers and as those who could judge various disputes between family members. The strongest tribe, as a rule, chose its leader, and intertribal associations were formed. They became "tribal kingdoms". Thanks to all this, the prince tried to turn his power into hereditary one and tried to ensure that it did not depend on the decisions of the participants in the veche. He increasingly defended his own interests, rather than the interests of his fellow tribesmen. The development of pagan ideas of the Slavs of those times contributed to the strengthening of the powers of the prince. Often the prince of the tribe was successful in his military affairs and in governing the tribe. Thanks to this, his fellow tribesmen endowed him with great powers, made him responsible for the entire tribe, saw in him a guarantee of prosperity, and equated his person to a tribal amulet. The situation that developed over time contributed to the creation of state relations and abolished communal relations.
Historians attribute the influence of the Khazars and Normans, under which the Slavs were, to the external prerequisites for the development of the Old Russian state. Their intention to control the trade routes that connected the West, South and East accelerated the formation of princely squad organizations that were drawn into trade. When princes took tribute, they first of all preferred silver and expensive consumer goods. They exchanged captured people from merchants for this goods. Thus, they increasingly subjugated the tribes to their power and became richer. Contact with more advanced societies entailed the adoption of several socio-political modes of life. It is not for nothing that for a long period of time the princes in Rus' were styled kagans, following the example of the Khazar Khaganate. The Byzantine Empire for a long period was the ideal of a state and political system. At that time, in the Lower Volga there was a powerful state called the Khazar Kaganate. It was protection from the attacks of nomads for the Eastern Slavs. All these raids slowed down their progress, interfered with peaceful work and, ultimately, slowed down the emergence of the “embryo” of statehood. These events directly or indirectly influenced the preconditions for the formation of the Old Russian state.
6. The main stages of the formation of the Old Russian state
On the firstDuring the formation of the Old Russian state in the 8th and mid-9th centuries, the formation of intertribal alliances and principalities took place. In the 9th century, the polyudya system appeared - the collection of tribute in favor of the prince, which at that time was largely voluntary in nature and was considered compensation for administrative and military services.
At the 2nd stage(2nd half of the 9th - mid-10th century) The Old Russian state was formed faster, thanks to the active intervention of the Varangians and Khazars. The Tale of Bygone Years describes the invasions of northern European warriors who forced the subject tribes to pay tribute. These chronicle data are the basis of the “Norman theory” of the emergence of the Old Russian state, developed in the 18th century. Proponents of the theory attributed it to the Varangians who gave their name - "Ancient Rus'". Some Normanists believed that the Slavs were behind in development and could not create history on their own.
Third, and the final stage of the formation of the Old Russian state begins with Princess Olga. She took revenge on the Drevlyans for her beloved husband, established a clear amount of tribute, and in order to collect it, she arranged “graveyards”, which were a support. The policy of the son of Svyatoslav (964-972), who was famous for his victory over Khazaria, which ended in real failure, required great strength to carry out external conquests.
The next important stage that completed the formation of the Old Russian state was Vladimir’s replacement of the princes with his sons, who were called upon to defend Christianity and strengthen the power of their father locally.
Thus, Vladimir turned Rus' into the possession of the Rurikovichs. The consolidation of power allowed him to organize the population of the entire country to form powerful defensive lines in the south and resettle here some of the Vyatichi, Krivichi, and Slavs. At this stage, the people perceive the Grand Duke not as a protector, but as the head of state who guards its borders.
By the end of the 10th century, the basic principles of the existence of the Old Russian state were formed. This is the power of the princely family; a simple state apparatus headed by the squad and the prince's governors; tribute collection system; the territorial principle of settlement, which displaces the tribal one; acceptance of Christianity.
Thanks to the emergence of the state, a culture was formed, and one ideological system of society was emerging.
7. Norman and anti-Norman theories of the emergence of statehood in Ancient Rus'
Norman theory - one of the most important controversial aspects of the history of the Russian state. For for long years It was the Norman version of the emergence of statehood in Ancient Rus' that firmly existed in Russian historical science as a completely accurate and infallible theory.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was subjected to both well-founded and not very justified criticism from professional historians and philologists, as well as various kinds of amateur amateurs. In the second half of the 20th century, anti-Norman patriots already received official support from the authorities and the state, which launched a fight against cosmopolitanism and “foreign influences” in various spheres of life of Soviet society. In connection with political events in Russia at the end of the 20th century, the positions of the anti-Normanists were again seriously shaken. Some domestic scientists advocated a return to the Norman version, in favor of which new arguments were given, partly supported by material sources and archaeological data. And the point has not yet been made on this issue.
Norman theory
Undoubtedly, the main source of the emergence of the theory of Normanism was an article in the Tale of Bygone Years (PVL), dated 6730 (translated into the modern calendar - 862 AD):
The Norman theory includes two well-known points:
1.The Norman Varangians actually created a state on the Slavic lands, which the local population was unable to do;
2.The Varangians had a huge cultural influence on the Eastern Slavs.
What is the basis for the conclusion that “Rus” is the name of one of the Scandinavian peoples who came along with Rurik and united the scattered lands into the Russian state. Thus, the Scandinavians created the Russian people, gave them statehood, culture, and subjugated them to themselves.
It is impossible to say exactly when exactly the Norman theory originated. However, already in the 16th century it existed. It is believed that the thesis about the origin of the Varangians from Sweden was first put forward by the Swedish king Johan III in diplomatic correspondence with Ivan the Terrible. The king, pursuing certain foreign policy goals, tried in this way to hint at the distant relationship of the Rurikovichs with the Swedish royal dynasty. It is interesting to note that the first anti-Normanist was the foreigner Herberstein, who, having familiarized himself with the content of the Norman theory, in 1549 expressed the idea that the Russians invited not the Germans or Scandinavians (Varangians), but the Western Slavs-Prussians, whose civilization actually died in the 12th century under the pressure of the Danes and Anglo-Saxon peoples.
The first clashes between Normanists and anti-Normanists in Russia
In Russia, the ideas of Normanism were first promoted by German historians Gerard Friedrich Miller and Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer, who were invited to St. Petersburg in 1725. Academician G. S. Bayer (died 1738) should be considered the founder of Normanism as a scientific theory in Russia. It was he who substantiated this theory and brought new evidence in its favor: he found the news of the Bertin Chronicle about the “ambassadors of the people of Ros” in 839; pointed out the Scandinavian nature of the Russian names of the Dnieper rapids; connected the Scandinavian “varings” with the “Varangians” of Russian chronicles and the “barangas” of Byzantine chronicles, etc.
Actually, the beginning of the dispute between Normanists and anti-Normanists should be considered the speech of Academician G.F. Miller “On the origin and name of the Russian people” (1749), which caused a sharp rebuff from M.V. Lomonosov. It must be said that before this historical speech, the only Russian academician was not interested in ancient history, and his objections to Miller contained much more emotion than references to real historical sources.
Lomonosov then saw in the Norman theory, first of all, a hint of the backwardness of the Slavs and their unpreparedness to form a state. He felt “offended for the state” and the patriotic scientist wrote his “Ancient Russian History”, in which he proposed a different, non-Scandinavian identification of the Varangians. Lomonosov argued that there was no “great darkness of ignorance” in Rus', that Rus' had its own history even before it began to have “common sovereigns,” and traced its beginning to the ancestors of the Russians - the mythical Ants. He argued that Rus' as a state and Russian culture were created not by foreigners, the Varangians, but by the Slavs themselves. These Slavs were the indigenous population of the area between the Danube and Dniester rivers up to the spurs of the Carpathians. And Rurik was from the Polabian Slavs, who had dynastic ties with the princes of the Ilmen Slavs. This, according to Lomonosov, was the reason for his invitation to reign.
Lomonosov's voice was never heard by his contemporaries. He found himself in a decisive minority, and the first battle was decided in favor of Normanism. The arguments of the Russian scientist, although worthy of attention, had not yet been sufficiently developed, and all subsequent historiography considered this version only as one of the first anti-Norman theories, weakly supported by any facts and sources.
In the conditions of the dominance of foreign temporary workers at the Russian court (Minikhov, Bironov, etc.), it was simply unsafe to speak out against Normanism. It is not surprising that for almost the entire 18th century, historians directed their efforts toward finding new reinforcements for Normanism, the avalanche of which gradually grew, suppressing any dissent.
All further works - Frehn, Strube de Pirmont, Stritter, Tuyman, Krug, etc. - were aimed at substantiating the Norman theory. Schlözer, with his classic work Nestor, further established the authority of this theory in scientific world.
The dominance of the Normanists led the first Russian historian V. N. Tatishchev to also take an unclear position, simultaneously accepting the Slavic Western origin of Rurik and insisting that the “Varangians” were Finns who came from beyond Lake Ladoga. N.M. Karamzin was not a hesitant, but a completely convinced Normanist. The first largest historical work accessible to the general public - “The History of the Russian State” by N.M. Karamzin - continued to spread exclusively the ideas of Normanism and “Westernism” in Russian educated society.
Anti-Normanism of the early 19th century
It cannot be said that already in the 19th century absolutely everyone agreed with the Norman theory, which received support at the state level. However, anti-Normanists at that time were unable to present any acceptable concept of the origin of the state in Rus' and support it with clear conclusions.
Already at the beginning of the 19th century, there were also foreigners - Storch (1800), Evers (1814) and others who objected to the Norman theory and collected solid material against it. Evers's work in particular gave a lot. He opposed the absurd assumption that the northern Slavs, having driven out the Varangians, again invited them. He refuted arguments regarding the understanding of the name of Rus' from roots like “ruotsi”, “Roslagen”, etc. He objected to the derivation of ancient Russian names only from Scandinavian roots. He insisted on the existence of the name Rus in the Black Sea region, etc. Unfortunately, Evers’s positive data in favor of the Slavic theory were destroyed by false assumptions that the Kiev princes were from the Khazars, that Askold and Dir were Hungarians, that the “Volokhs” from the chronicle were these are Bulgarians, etc. In addition, Evers’ work was published in German and was not widely disseminated even in scientific circles.
Other anti-Normanists derived the beginnings of statehood among the Slavs from the Prussians, Huns, Goths, Khazars and even the Egyptians. The most ridiculous theories and assumptions arose. With such a variety of options, society, even realizing all the shortcomings of Normanism, could not take the side of completely ridiculous theories.
There was one more circumstance that made Russian society wary of the Slavic theory of the origin of Rus'. In the 1840s, the religious and philosophical movement of Slavophilism, which was partly of a political nature, took shape and rapidly gained strength. Slavophiles proposed the concept of a special path for Russia, different from the West, denied the benefits of Europeanization, talked about the saving role of Orthodoxy as a Christian doctrine, and declared the uniqueness of forms social development Russian people in the form of a community and an artel. Not everyone could agree that the Russians were and should follow their own, almost isolated, path. Thus, a political theory was also mixed up with the Slavic theory of the origin of Rus', which was denied by many enlightened people.
The works that appeared in favor of the Slavic theory of Maksimovich (1837), Renelin (1842) were poorly substantiated and not convincing enough. I. S. Savelyev (“Mukhamedan Numismatics”, 1846) openly admitted that even in the 40s of the 19th century, Russian historiography in matters of the origin of Rus' never left the influence of its German teacher Schlözer, continuing to agree with him even in those issues that were much better studied by his Russian students and followers.
The Normanists of this period were also not asleep. M. Pogodin and E. Kunik published major works in 1844-46, in which they continued to develop the Norman theory. E. Kunik used previously unknown Arab and Byzantine sources and interpreted their data exclusively in favor of Normanism. But he also felt that the positions of Normanism were not strong and, for convincing purposes, he even resorted to, so to speak, psychological evidence. For example, he divided peoples into sea and land peoples. And, of course, he classified the ancient Slavs as peoples who had “phobia of water.” In the end, Kunik put forward the “Gothic” theory of the origin of Rus' - direct evidence that the existing theory did not satisfy him.
After E. Kunik and M. Pogodin, the initiative in the dispute again passes to the Normanists - state historians of the 1840s Belyaev, Kavelin, Solovyov and others.
Conclusion
The leading role in the study of the ethnogenesis of the Slavic people is played by historical evidence, information from linguists, and archaeological finds. The key issues in this topic are the question of autochthony or alienation of the Slavic peoples and the periodization of Slavic, Old Russian culture. Often the “beginning” of Rus' is considered to be 1 thousand AD. e., in turn, there is scientific evidence of the earlier formation of the Slavic ethnic group and ancient Russian culture and statehood.
In this vein, the concept of B. A. Rybakov is very indicative. According to his research, the Slavs were the indigenous population of Eastern Europe. The primary geographic core of the formation of Ancient Rus' was the region of the Middle Dnieper (from the Desna to the Ros River, from the Vistula to the Volga, from the Baltic to the Black Sea).
The ethnogenesis (origin) of the Slavs goes back to the ancient Indo-European cultural and linguistic unity. 3 thousand BC e - the time of formation of the culture and language of the ancestors of the Slavs. In this vein, the following periods can be distinguished:
)end 3 - first half of 2 thousand BC. e. - era of development of Proto-Slavic culture:
Trypillian culture, development of the “globular amphorae” culture;
)mid 2 thousand BC e. - the era of the development of pre-Slavic culture, the development of plow farming (Trzyniec culture);
) turn 2 - 1 thousand BC. e: progressive development of the Eastern Slavs (Chernolesskaya culture)
)1 thousand BC e. - “Slavs of the Scythian time” (3rd century BC - Zarubintsy culture)
) Turn of 1 thousand BC e - 1 thousand n. e. - Chernyakhov culture (“Trojan Ages”): trade, construction of ancient settlements.
)1 thousand n. e. - resettlement of the Slavs from their ancestral homeland. Actually the history of the Old Russian land.
Thus, the process of formation of the Slavic cultural community has a long history, starting its countdown in 3 - 2 thousand BC. e. Over the course of thousands of years, a single super-union of Slavic peoples was formed. By 1 thousand AD e. there is a gradual withdrawal of tribes from their original ancestral home. In the VIII-IX centuries. the period actually begins Slavic history, the formation of medieval ancient Russian culture. At the same time, the Slavs were divided into three branches: southern, western and eastern. The southern Slavs include the current Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, etc., the western Slavs include Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, peasants, the eastern Slavs include Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.
Literature
· Kobychev V.P. In search of the ancestral home of the Slavs. M., 1973.
· Sedov V.V. Origin and early history of the Slavs. M., 1982.
· Sedov V.V. Eastern Slavs in the VI - XIII centuries. M., 1982.
· Sedov V.V.Old Russian people. Historical and archaeological research. M., 1999.
· Gumilyov L.N. Ancient Rus' and the Great Steppe. M., 1989.
· The Tale of Bygone Years.
· #"justify">· Rybakov B. A. Paganism of the ancient Slavs. M.: Nauka, 1980. El. Resource: #"justify">· Rybakov B. A. The Birth of Rus' #"justify">· Eger O. The World History, volume 2, Middle Ages - M., 2000.
· Alekseeva T.I. Ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs according to anthropological data. - M., 1973.
Tutoring
Need help studying a topic?
Our specialists will advise or provide tutoring services on topics that interest you.
Submit your application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.
The complexity of studying issues of ethnogenesis and ancient history Slavic tribes lies, first of all, in the lack of reliable written sources. The earliest written sources mentioning Slavic tribes are Byzantine sources dating back to the mid-6th century: they speak of the Antes and Sklavins tribes, who could be the ancestors of the Eastern Slavs. Byzantine historians relied in their data on Roman authors of the 1st - 2nd centuries. AD, who mentioned the tribes of the Wends as the ancestors of the Slavs, and thus pushed the Proto-Slavs back to the time of the existence of the Ancient Roman Empire.
But at the same time, there is no indication of which ethnic group - people - the listed tribes belong to, as well as information about the history of these peoples, their movements and their historical homeland. In the earliest of the actually known Slavic sources - the Tale of Bygone Years, created by the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor in the 12th century - the narrative relating to ancient Slavic history is largely mythological in nature. Linguistic data allows us to talk about the separation of the Proto-Slavic ethnos from the Indo-European language family over a wide time range: from the 2nd millennium BC. until the first centuries AD
At the same time, they establish a linguistic connection with other peoples of the Indo-European language family, who spoke Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, Armenian, Greek, Italic, Celtic, Germanic, Baltic and other languages. The community of peoples is established at the level of terminology related to production activities, social sphere and religion, which allows us to talk about a similar organization public life. The distribution area of the language group is very wide - from Asia to the north of Western Europe. Individual peoples, including, possibly, the Slavs, settled in the Bronze Age (3rd - 1st millennium BC) in Central Europe.
The study of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs is one of the most difficult problems of archeology. Currently, archaeological research has made it possible to identify a number of strictly Slavic archaeological cultures that became widespread in Central and Eastern Europe starting from the 5th century. AD As for earlier cultures, the question of whether their carriers can be classified as representatives of the Slavs or their ancestors is still controversial. So, the problem of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs is connected with establishing the origin, history of formation and habitat of the ancient Slavic tribes. In historical science, several points of view have developed regarding the history of the origin of the ancient Slavs.
The most substantiated are two concepts. According to the migration concept, the Slavs are migrants who moved to the East European Plain from another territory. Within this approach, several points of view have emerged. The so-called “Danube” concept was outlined by Nestor in the Tale of Bygone Years, where the Danube territories were indicated as the ancestral home of the Slavs: as a result of an attack by the warlike “Volokh” tribes, the Slavs were forced to migrate from the territory of the Danube to the Dnieper region. This chronicle version was developed in the works of such outstanding Russian historians of the 19th century as N. M. Karamzin, S. M. Solovyov, V. O. Klyuchevsky, who argued that the Eastern Slavs moved from the Danube and settled in the East European ( Russian) plain in the V - VI centuries. n. e.
Later, Academician O.N. Trubachev, relying on linguistic research, also defended the point of view about the separation of Proto-Slavic tribes from the Indo-European community in the northern Balkans in the Danube region during the Bronze Age and their subsequent resettlement to the territory of the East European Plain. Within the framework of the “Baltic” version, reflected in the studies of M.V. Lomonosov, A.G. Kuzmin, the Slavs are also considered as migrants, but the lands of the ancient Balts are called their homeland. At a later time, linguist scientists (for example, V.N. Toporov) built their evidence on the basis of the proximity of the Baltic and Slavic languages. According to these scientists, in relation to the Baltic language, the Slavic language is later or, moreover, represents a proto-Baltic southern peripheral dialect. Accordingly, it was concluded that the Slavs, as a people, formed in territory close to the habitats of the Baltic tribes, and subsequently migrated to the east.
Along with the migration concept, there is also an autochthonous concept of the origin of the East Slavic ethnic group. Soviet historian academician B.A. Rybakov, based on archaeological data, argued that the Slavs as an ethnic group were formed on the territory of Eastern Europe and are its original population. At the same time, he explained the emergence of disagreements in the definition of the Proto-Slavic territory (the ancestral home of the Slavs) - the Danube or the Baltic - by the fact that the Proto-Slavs settled in a very wide band in Central and Eastern Europe: from the Sudetes, Tatras and Carpathians to the Baltic Sea and from Pripyat to the upper reaches of the Dniester and Southern Buga. Archaeological scientists who share this point of view consider some archaeological cultures discovered on the territory of Eastern Europe, including Russia, and dating back to the 1st millennium BC, as actually Slavic, thereby emphasizing the autochthony of the Slavs in relation to this territories. In the context of the autochthonous concept, Belarus, the northern and central parts of Ukraine, and southwestern Russia are called likely places of ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs. The fact of residence in the 5th - 6th centuries should be considered unequivocally established. AD Slavic tribes in the territory from the upper and middle Vistula to the middle Dnieper. Similar conclusions are confirmed by archaeological data. In the territory of settlement of the Slavic tribes, the continuity of successively changing archaeological cultures dating back to the 5th-6th centuries can be traced.
In the last decades of the 20th century. During archaeological excavations, monuments were discovered that allow us to speak about the time of the appearance of the Slavs in Eastern Europe earlier than the 5th - 6th centuries. In the 80s XX century monuments of the so-called Kyiv type of the late 2nd - 4th centuries, discovered in the Middle Dnieper region and the basin of the left tributaries of the Dnieper, Desna and Seim (Kursk region), right up to the sources of the Seversky Donets, were identified and classified as a special culture. Many scientists (for example, R.V. Terpilovsky, N.S. Abashina, etc.) point to the direct continuity of the Kyiv archaeological culture with the above-mentioned Slavic cultures of the V - VI centuries. In the VI century. AD On European territory, Slavic migrations became widespread.
The Slavs settled the Danube lands, Moesia, Thrace, Thessaly, to the possessions of ancient Sparta and the islands of the Mediterranean Sea. From the Baltic basin, the Slavs moved in a western direction, towards the Elbe River (Slavic Laba), and in an eastern direction - towards Lake Ilmen. It was during this period that the division of the ancient Slavic tribes into three main branches took place: western (Middle Danube and the region between the Oder and Elbe: Slovaks, Czechs, Poles, Lusatian Serbs), southern (Balkans: Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Bulgarians) and eastern Slavs (east and north of the East European Plain: Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians). In addition to determining the historical homeland of the Slavs and the period of formation of the Slavic ethnos, it is important to identify the features of the formation of the ethnos itself and its anthropological history. Data from paleoanthropology and genetics indicate the ethnic unity of the Slavic tribes living in Eastern Europe in the 5th - 6th centuries. and at a later time.
The Slavic ethnic group was formed based on the merger of two branches of the Caucasian race: southern (Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians) and northern (Belarusians and Russians). The peoples closest to the Slavs are the descendants of the Balts - Lithuanians and Latvians. In addition, representatives of other ethnic communities took part in the ethnogenesis of the Slavs - Finno-Ugric (northern territories), Celtic peoples (Western Slavs), Scythians (northern Black Sea region), Thracians (Balkans), etc. Since the formation of the nationality and as their habitat expanded, the Slavic tribes came into contact with neighboring tribes, which had a varying degree of influence on the formation of the ethnic group, its way of life, language, and culture. According to many scientists, the tribes and peoples that took part in the formation of the Old Russian people include, in addition to the Balts and Finno-Ugric peoples, the Scythians (8th century BC - 3rd century AD), Sarmatians (III - IV centuries AD), Huns (IV centuries AD), Khazars (IV - V centuries), Bulgarians (V - VIII centuries), Avars (VI - VII centuries), Hungarians ( VII - X centuries), Pechenegs (VIII - X centuries), Polovtsians (IX - XIII centuries).
Towards the end of the 6th century, at the time of the consolidation of the ancient Slavs in the newly occupied territories, the formation of the main unions of Slavic tribes began. According to the Tale of Bygone Years, there were over ten such unions. Most self-names of tribes are associated with the places and conditions of their habitat. So, on the vast plains of the Dnieper region lived the glades; in the forests - the Drevlyans; those who settled along the Dvina and its tributary Polota - Polochans; The Slavs who lived in the swampy area between the Pripyat and Dvina received the name Dregovichi (possibly from dreg - swamp); the name of the Buzhan tribe came from the Bug River.
Among the East Slavic tribes, the Slovenes are also known, who founded Novgorod on Lake Ilmen; northerners living along the Desna; Vyatichi, settled along the Oka; Tivertsy (lower Dniester), Radimichi (Sozh River basin), Krivichi (upper reaches of the Dvina, Dnieper and Volga), etc. Various Slavic tribes developed their own dialect, features of the organization of social life, economic activity, everyday and spiritual culture. First of all, living conditions had a great influence on economic activity: cattle breeding developed on open plains and steppe spaces, hunting and beekeeping (collecting wild honey) developed in forest areas, and fishing near rivers. Crafts - pottery, blacksmithing, as well as home industries - carpet weaving, canvas making and tailoring, saddlery and furriers - were widely developed. However, the main type of economic activity was still agriculture.
The most common cultivated crops were grains (rye, oats, barley, buckwheat), legumes (peas, beans). Hemp and flax were also grown. The Slavs were also familiar with garden crops: turnips, cabbage, carrots, beets, radishes. The Slavs had a fairly developed agricultural culture, own techniques and farming methods. Shifting agriculture developed in the steppe areas: the plot was used for 2-3 years, then abandoned.
In forest and forest-steppe areas, slash-and-burn agriculture prevailed: the area was first cleared of trees by cutting down, uprooting and burning the forest. Ash from burnt trees contributed to increased soil fertility. After 2-3 years of use, the plot was also abandoned and a new one was cleared for crops. In the 7th century n. e. the Eastern Slavs developed a two-field crop rotation system, providing for the division land plot into two halves and use them alternately. By the end of the 8th century. The two-field system was almost universally replaced by a three-field crop rotation system, in which there was an alternation of fallow, winter and spring crops, which contributed to a slower depletion of the soil.
According to some data, from the 8th century. The Slavs practiced manuring the soil, which helped increase agricultural productivity. The Slavs used a fairly wide arsenal of agricultural tools for various purposes: ralo, hoe, spade, harrow, sickle, rake, scythe, millstone. In the VIII - IX centuries. a plow with an iron ploughshare appeared, and in forest areas - a plow. Both the plow and the plow, with minor changes, existed in Russian agricultural culture until the twentieth century. Cattle were used as draft power.
The transition to more advanced farming systems, the use of the plow and plow made it possible to increase the productivity of agricultural production, contributed to the intensification of labor and the emergence of surpluses, which, in turn, directly affected the level of economic development of the agricultural economy of the Eastern Slavs. The basis of the social organization was the community (rope) - an association of people based on the joint conduct of economic activities. Community traditions, which survived until the twentieth century, became one of the fundamental foundations of Russian culture and civilization, which was explained not only by the mentality and peculiarities of religious views, but also by completely objective reasons: the severity and large volume of agricultural work, which required the efforts of a large team, the need ensure proper distribution and use of land.
The community acted as the main administrative unit: the most important legal, military-political and economic issues were resolved at community meetings. Initially, the clan community dominated everywhere, which was an association of large patriarchal families based on consanguinity, which was characterized by the equality of all its members, the presence of communal property, joint economic activities and equal distribution of labor products. As the habitat expands, the number of community members increases, and, most importantly, agricultural labor intensifies, the clan community declines: small families gain more and more independence. By the end of the 8th century. The tribal community was replaced by a neighboring community, uniting the households of small families. Members of the neighboring community jointly owned hayfields and forest lands, and arable lands were divided between individual peasant farms. Small families conducted independent economic activities and independently disposed of the products of their labor. Subsequently, family property became the basis for the formation of private property. The uneven development of individual small farms, one way or another, contributed to the stratification of community members and the emergence of groups of the wealthiest and poorest members of society. As a result, a ruling stratum is formed, which was initially replenished by representatives of the clan nobility involved in the management of individual tribes. The political system of the pre-state period of Slavic history evolved from communal (veche) traditions to a regime of military democracy.
If at the initial stage the management of the affairs of the tribe was carried out by a general meeting of its members - the veche - then subsequently the leadership role began to be concentrated in the hands of individuals - elders, leaders. Military democracy implied the presence of warlords at the head of the East Slavic tribes, i.e. princes, whose main task was to organize the protection of the lands of the community and its inhabitants from external enemies. The princes led the squad, i.e. military detachments consisting of free community members. The power of the prince was initially nominal and did not go beyond the functions of a military leader.
At the same time, leaders were elected or replaced by the entire society. Frequent conflicts between tribes over land, constant attacks by neighboring tribes on Slavic lands contributed to the increasing role and importance of the prince and his squad. The need to divert from agricultural work to conduct combat operations had a negative impact on labor efficiency, so the combatants gradually broke with agricultural production and became, as it were, professional military men. Over time, the squad turned into a specialized military detachment, reporting directly to the prince. Taking advantage of the dominant political situation, the leaders occupied vast, most fertile lands, also enriching themselves through aggressive campaigns against neighboring tribes.
Princes and warriors formed a military-service nobility, which gradually turned into the politically and economically dominant social stratum (later class, estate). Over time, the princes began to perform not only military, but also administrative and judicial functions in a particular tribe and its settlements. The Slavs formed both permanent and temporary settlements on free lands. The main type of dwelling is a semi-dugout with log or often reed roofs. As a rule, for safety reasons, the Slavs built their homes on islands, along high river banks. From the 8th century The Eastern Slavs developed fortified settlements - “grads” (from “to fence”, “to fence”), which became the basis for the emergence of the first cities. Among the most ancient Slavic cities mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years are Kyiv, Pereyaslavl, Chernigov, Smolensk, Lyubech, Novgorod, Polotsk, etc. The presence of a large number of cities explains one of the names of the East Slavic lands - Gardarika (country of cities), which was common among the Scandinavian tribes IX - XII centuries. The first cities were not only fortified fortresses, behind whose walls the population took refuge during raids, but also centers of handicraft production and cultural life.
As a rule, they concentrated tribal nobility, military squads, artisans, and traders, which contributed to the further stratification of society. Dwellings in cities are wooden houses, more durable and solid than rural huts. The few streets were improved: wooden flooring was laid on the ground, allowing free movement in wet weather. Cities became centers of international trade. Due to its geographical location East Slavic lands were the crossing point of the most important trade routes.
The most important of them was widely known since the 6th century. the great water trade route from the “Varangians to the Greeks” - the route from Scandinavia to Byzantium, which passed through almost the entire territory of settlement of the East Slavic tribes and established a connection between the Eastern Slavs and the Greek Black Sea colonies, and through them with Byzantium. The path went from north to south, from the Baltic (Varangian) Sea along the Neva River to Lake Ladoga, then along the Volkhov River and Lake Ilmen, from there along the Lovat River, then through small rivers and portages to the upper reaches of the Dnieper and further along the Dnieper to the Black Sea. The trade turnover on this route was enormous: from Scandinavian countries they exported iron ore, walrus ivory, whale skin products, and weapons; from Western European countries - luxury goods and wine; from the Baltic states - amber; from Byzantium - wines, spices, jewelry and glassware, fabrics, books, art objects. Another international river route “from the Varangians to the Persians,” passing along the tributaries of the upper Volga and further along this river to the lands of the Volga Bulgars and through the Khazar Kaganate to the Caspian Sea, established connections with Central Asia and the Arab world. Slavic tribes were suppliers of a variety of furs (“soft gold”), flax, honey, wax, leather, resin, bread, handicrafts, and weapons.
It must be emphasized that trade routes played an important role not only in the process of strengthening international trade relations, but also contributed to cultural exchange between two civilizational centers - East and West - enriching Russian culture with elements of these two different archetypal complexes, which subsequently largely determined the originality of and the uniqueness of Russian civilization itself. The features of the material and spiritual culture of the East Slavic tribes were largely explained by their living conditions. In addition to the actual ethnic specificity in clothing, hats, appearance dwellings, one can trace the influence of the peoples with whom the Slavs were in contact. A similar situation has developed in linguistic culture, in which there are elements of various language groups.
The characteristic features of the organization of social life in a community (patriarchal structure, traditional forms of legal proceedings and law, etc.) bring the Slavs closer to other peoples who were at the level of the tribal system. At the same time, the East Slavic tribes had a spiritual culture, distinguished by a unique mythology, religious views, and folklore. The religion of the Eastern Slavs was paganism, which implied polytheism and the presence of many cults.
The natural cult, expressed in the deification of the forces of nature, was most clearly manifested. Among the many deities, the most revered were the god of fire and sky - Svarog, the god of thunderstorms - Perun, the god of the sun - Yarilo, the god of the wind - Stribog. The peculiarities of economic activity explain the widespread development of the cult of Rod and women in labor - the god and goddesses of fertility, Veles - the god of cattle breeding, Mokosha - the goddess of fertility and weaving. In honor of the most revered gods, various rituals were performed, including sacrifices. Each of the East Slavic tribes had its own patron god, the most revered of the entire pantheon.
In addition to the natural cult, a special cult of ancestors, a funeral cult, has developed in Slavic culture. Slavic religious culture reflected animism (belief in spirits), which, combined with a natural cult, contributed to the emergence of a number of small spirits and deities that inhabited a certain natural environment: water goblins, goblins, mermaids. Some spirits performed protective functions (brownie), others represented evil spirits (ghouls). Totemism - the belief in animal ancestors - became widespread. Animals and birds such as bear, horse, swan, eagle, and falcon were especially revered.
Images of animals were used to ward off evil spirits and have been preserved to this day on coats of arms. Fetishism, based on the endowment of supernatural powers in inanimate objects, expressed primarily in the traditions of idolatry, became widespread. At places of religious worship - temples - wooden or stone idols (idols) were installed - images of deities who were addressed during religious rites. Magic and rituals associated with it were also widely developed in the Slavic environment, including healing, protective, love, etc. The annual cycle of pagan holidays was built on the solar-economic principle: the main holidays were timed to coincide with the main positions of the sun - the winter and summer solstices, the spring and autumn equinoxes, which corresponded to the main cycles of agricultural work.
The priesthood as a special closed social stratum did not develop in Slavic culture: “sorcerers” played a significant role in the organization and conduct of the cult. knowledgeable people are magicians. The head of the pagan cult was the leader, and then the prince. In the early stages of their existence, the Eastern Slavs did not have an established written system, so oral tradition remained the main form of transmission of cultural information. The Slavs developed their own mythology, which revealed the peculiarities of the worldview and worldview of the people. Song and narrative genres were widely developed. So, the East Slavic tribes in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. represented an established ethnic community, distinguished by a unique economic, material and spiritual culture.
Domestic history: Cheat sheet Author unknown
3. THE PROBLEM OF ETHNOGENESIS OF THE EASTERN SLAVS
Ethnogenesis– the entire process of existence and development of an ethnic system from the moment of its emergence to its disappearance.
A significant number of archaeological sites of the Stone Age have been discovered on the territory of Russia. According to scientists, the Slavs could belong to the Indo-European peoples, the formation of a linguistic community of which took place on the Iranian Plateau and in Western Asia in the 6th–5th millennium BC. e. In addition, it is believed that the Slavs as a species formed in Eastern Europe in the 4th–2nd millennium BC. e. They inhabited the forest areas between the Oder and the middle Dnieper, from the Baltic Sea to the Dniester. The main branches of their economy were agriculture and cattle breeding. The most famous monument of the Slavic proto-civilization is the Trypillian archaeological culture, covering the space from South-Eastern Transylvania to the Dnieper.
In the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. The spread of iron began among the Slavs. The gradual decomposition of the tribal system dates back to this period. It was then that the everyday, religious and cultural characteristics of the Slavic tribes clearly stood out in comparison with other Indo-European peoples, which allows us to conclude that in the 1st millennium BC. e. Slavic proto-civilization. Around this time, the single Slavic community was divided into three branches: eastern (the future Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian peoples), western (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, etc.) and southern (Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, etc.).
In the II century. n. e. German Gothic tribes came to the northern Black Sea region from the lower reaches of the Vistula. Under their leadership, a military-tribal union was formed here, which included part of the Slavic tribes. From the end of the 4th century. the tribes of Eastern Europe were involved in large migration processes - the so-called Great Migration. The Turkic nomads - the Huns - who invaded from Asia defeated the Goths, and the latter went to Central and Western Europe. During the V–VIII centuries. The Slavs settled vast areas in Eastern, Central and South-Eastern Europe. By this period, the territory of settlement of the Eastern Slavs was determined by the following boundaries: in the north - the Volkhov River, in the south - the Dniester River, in the west - the Western Bug River, in the east - the Volga River. It was at this time that a distinctive East Slavic civilization emerged, characterized by a common economic structure, socio-political structure in the form of military democracy, common characteristics of behavior, rituals, etc.
Difficult natural and climatic conditions encouraged our ancestors to unite within a community and run a collective economy. In social terms, these circumstances led to adherence to the norms of direct communal democracy, the predominance of collectivist values over personal values, and low social mobility of society members. The historical example of Byzantium with effective autocratic power, the construction of society on the basis of rigid vertical connections, and total state control over all spheres of social life became, to a certain extent, a model for Russian statehood.
From the book History of Russia. From ancient times to the 16th century. 6th grade author Kiselev Alexander Fedotovich§ 5. LIFE OF THE EASTERN SLAVS Classes. Most East Slavic tribes were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. Hunting, fishing and other crafts played an important but secondary role. The forest-steppes of the Middle Dnieper region are the area of development of the ancient
From the book Course of Russian History (Lectures I-XXXII) authorIsolation of the Eastern Slavs Studying the beginning of our history, we have now seen how the Slavs stood out from the ethnographic mass with vague tribal identities that once inhabited eastern Pontic Europe. In the 7th century, when one’s own generic
From the book Slavs. Historical and archaeological research [With illustrations] author Sedov Valentin VasilievichLinguistics and the problem of ethnogenesis of the Slavs Linguistics indicates that the language of the Slavs belongs to? Indo-European family, which also includes Baltic, Germanic, Italic, Celtic, Greek, Armenian, Indo-Iranian, Albanian, and also common in ancient times
From the book Eastern Slavs and the Invasion of Batu author Balyazin Voldemar NikolaevichDrinks of the Eastern Slavs An outstanding expert on the history of food products, drinks and world cuisine, V.V. Pokhlebkin, wrote that in Rus' the main raw materials for the production of drinks were natural forest products: berry juices (lingonberry, raspberry, cranberry,
From the book A Short Course in Russian History author Klyuchevsky Vasily OsipovichLife of the Eastern Slavs Tribes. Mythology. Family relationships. During the 7th and 8th centuries, the eastern branch of the Slavs, concentrated on the northeastern slopes of the Carpathians, gradually flowed to the northeast and east. In the new places of residence, the life of the migrants changed in
From the book Pre-Mongol Rus' in chronicles of the V-XIII centuries. author Gudz-Markov Alexey ViktorovichUnion of the Eastern Slavs To understand the process of formation of the East Slavic community of the early Middle Ages, let us turn to the map of the distribution of the Prague-Korchak and Prague-Penkov archaeological cultures of the 5th–7th centuries. Monuments of the named cultures, and first of all
From the book The Origin and Early History of the Slavs [With illustrations] author Sedov Valentin VasilievichThe importance of toponymy in the study of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs. Attempts to use toponymic materials to localize the Slavic ancestral home were made by many researchers. It has been established that of all geographical names for ethnohistorical conclusions the most
From the book History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 20th century author Nikolaev Igor MikhailovichLife and occupations of the Eastern Slavs For a long time, the Slavs maintained a patriarchal tribal life. Each tribe consisted of clans - a collection of related families that lived together, owned common property and were governed by elders. Tribal elders
From the book Slavic Antiquities by Niderle LuborGods of the Eastern Slavs Along with the gods already mentioned, the cult of which was widespread among all the Slavs or most of it, individual Slavic peoples had other gods that had local significance and were not attested at all among the other Slavs. Such
From the book The Best Historians: Sergei Solovyov, Vasily Klyuchevsky. From the origins to the Mongol invasion (collection) author Klyuchevsky Vasily OsipovichLife of the Eastern Slavs Tribes. Mythology. Family relationships. During the 7th and 8th centuries, the eastern branch of the Slavs, concentrated on the northeastern slopes of the Carpathians, gradually flowed to the northeast and east. Life of displaced people at new places of residence
author Kerov Valery Vsevolodovich3. Occupations of the Eastern Slavs 3.1. Agriculture. The Eastern Slavs, exploring the vast forest and forest-steppe spaces of Eastern Europe, brought with them an agricultural culture. Swidden (slash-and-burn) agriculture was widespread. On those freed from the forest in
From the book A Short Course in the History of Russia from Ancient Times to the Beginning of the 21st Century author Kerov Valery Vsevolodovich5. Religion of the Eastern Slavs 5.1. Beliefs. The worldview of the Eastern Slavs was based on paganism - the deification of the forces of nature, the perception of the natural and human world as a single whole. The origin of pagan cults occurred in ancient times - in the era
From the book Native Antiquity author Sipovsky V.D.Neighbors of the Eastern Slavs In the neighborhood of the Eastern Slavs in the 9th century. There were several foreign tribes living there. In the east, along the Volga, near the Caspian Sea, there lived the Khazars, a people of Turkish-Tatar origin. Although the Khazars already had cities (for example, Itil, at the mouth of the Volga), but still
From the book Ancient Chinese: Problems of Ethnogenesis author Kryukov Mikhail VasilievichThe problem of the ethnogenesis of the ancient Chinese in historical science Although certain aspects of this problem were touched upon by many Chinese historians in ancient times and the Middle Ages, as such it arose only in modern times: traditional Chinese historiography originated in
Ethnogenesis is the initial stage of the emergence of a people and the further formation of its anthropological, ethnographic, linguistic characteristics.
Eastern Slavs - Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians.
Most of Europe and a significant part of Asia have long been inhabited by Indo-European tribes. The Slavs are part of the Indo-European language family. This Indo-European language family already existed around the 4th millennium BC. e. There were constant migrations of various tribes. During this movement, the Slavs were divided into three branches - eastern, western and southern. The Eastern Slavs were located on the territory of modern Eastern Europe. Disputes about the origin of the Eastern Slavs are still going on.
The Slavs were not the first inhabitants; at least 4 nationalities lived before them:
Scythians - had a developed culture and statehood (in the 1st millennium BC, the ancient Greeks wrote about various peoples of the northern Black Sea region, calling them “Scythians” (but does not mean that all of them were Scythians));
The ancient Greek colonists were neighbors of the Scythians;
Sarmatians - nomadic people from Asia;
Finno-Ugrians are a people who came from Siberia.
At the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. e. the Romans wrote about “barbarians,” among whom could also be the ancestors of the Slavs.
In the 4th-7th centuries AD e. There was a great migration of peoples, among whom were the Slavs.
In the 5th-7th centuries AD e. The Slavs occupied lands from the Elbe River (lava) in the West to the Dnieper River in the East. From the Baltic in the north to the Mediterranean in the south.
The historical community of the Eastern Slavs, who gave rise to the Old Russian state, was formed on the territory of the Dnieper region.
Neighbors are Baltic (modern Lithuanians and Latvians), Finno-Ugric, Finnish tribes (Estonian, Finnish).
In the steppes of the northern Black Sea region lived nomadic pastoralists - Turkic tribes.
Neighboring states: Byzantium (medieval Greece), Khazaria ( Khazar Khaganate; control over the Great Silk Road; Khazaria was in the lower reaches of the Volga and Don), Volga Bulgaria (Kazan).
The Eastern Slavs consisted of 15 large tribes (Polyans, Dvevlyans, Krivichi, Slovenes - the most developed). Each tribe had its own internal organization, tribal leaders. Kyiv became a major Polyana center.
Main occupations of the Eastern Slavs:
Forestry (assigning type of economy);
Agriculture (arable) Most of The forests were covered with forests, so trees had to be cut down, stumps uprooted and burned. When the soil became unsuitable, they moved to another. This is a slash-and-burn farming system. They plowed with a plow, plow, and harrow, then harvested the grain with sickles. Grain crops – wheat, millet, barley, buckwheat, rye, oats.
Animal husbandry (cows, goats, sheep, pigs, horses)
Domestic crafts (blacksmithing), and also engaged in beekeeping, fishing and hunting;
Weaving (goat wool, sheep wool, linen.)
The main religion is paganism (beliefs that arose at the stage of tribal relations; it is characterized by the animation of the surrounding world, the worship of the forces of nature and ancestors). There are 2 main cults - the cult of nature and the cult of ancestors. The Slavs were distinguished by their love of freedom.
In the 9th century, Varangians (mercenary warriors) appeared in the land of the Eastern Slavs. Version - people from Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea coast.
As the Eastern Slavs settled over large areas, blood ties began to disintegrate. In the 9th century, the clan community turned into a neighborly one, where unity was maintained not by family ties, but by economic ones. Severe natural conditions determined the longevity of the neighboring community, since often large amounts of work had to be done in a short time.
In Slavic communities there are tribal nobility (1-2%), warriors, and elected leaders. This stage of development of society is military democracy.
At this time, elements of the future statehood are emerging. Pre-state stage of social development.
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 appeared (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 related to the ancient Sarmatian language environment and is translated “outlying” 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 Jordanes, 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. Power was received by his young son Viterich 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 Ants 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.
This text is an introductory fragment. 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 Earth, 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 movements are sometimes co-present so bizarrely 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 Bonwech 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 cooperation 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 the microcosm (the life of one individual) to the 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 Bonwech 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, the majority
