Ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs, different points of view. Settlement of the Eastern Slavs by the 8th century

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Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Education "Nizhny Novgorod Agricultural Academy"

Department of History and Culture

discipline: "History"

on the topic: "Ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs. Eastern Slavs in ancient times. Territory, economy, religion"

Completed by: student of the veterinary faculty of group 15B

Romanov Evgeniy Albertovich

Checked by: Associate Professor of the Department of History and Culture

Kochnova Ksenia Alexandrovna

Nizhny Novgorod - 2016

Introduction

1. Ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs

2. Eastern Slavs in ancient times

2.1 The first written evidence about the Slavs

2.2 Neighbors of the Eastern Slavs

2.3 Cities

2.4 Public relations

3. Territory, economy, religion

3.1 Territory

3.2 Economy

3.3 Religion

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

To understand the processes that led to the formation of a unified Old Russian statehood, it is necessary to imagine the territorial location and dynamics of settlement of the Slavic tribes in the pre-state period, that is, to find out questions of territorial-geographical order: where the “First Slavs” lived, with whom they neighbored, with what natural-geographical conditions faced the paths of subsequent movements of the Slavic tribes. And here an important question immediately arises about the origin of the Slavs - the time and place of their formation in the ancient Indo-European environment.

There were and are many hypotheses on this problem. The ancestral regions of the ancient ethnic communities of the Slavs, which received the names of the “ancestral homelands” of the Slavic tribes, are still defined ambiguously by scientists.

The first who tried to answer the questions: where, how and when the Slavs appeared on historical territory was the ancient chronicler Nestor - the author of The Tale of Bygone Years. He defined the territory of the Slavs, including the lands along the lower Danube and Pannonia. It was from the Danube that the process of settlement of the Slavs began, that is, the Slavs were not the original inhabitants of their land, we are talking about their migration. Consequently, the Kiev chronicler was the founder of the so-called migration territory of origin of the Slavs, known as the “Danube” or “Balkan”. It was popular in the works of medieval authors: Polish and Czech chroniclers of the 13th - 14th centuries. This opinion was shared for a long time by historians of the 18th - early centuries. XX centuries The Danube “ancestral home” of the Slavs was recognized, in particular, by such historians as S.M. Solovyov, V.O. Klyuchevsky and others.

The origin and spread of another migration theory of the origin of the Slavs, which received the name “Scythian-Sarmatian,” dates back to the Middle Ages. It was first recorded by the Bavarian Chronicle of the 13th century, and later adopted by many Western European authors of the 14th - 18th centuries. According to their ideas, the ancestors of the Slavs moved from Western Asia along the Black Sea coast to the north and settled under the ethnonyms “Scythians”, “Sarmatians”, “Alans” and “Roxolans”. Gradually, the Slavs from the Northern Black Sea region settled to the west and southwest.

Another version of the migration theory was given by another prominent historian and linguist, Academician 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 Wends (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 - 3rd centuries). Consequently, here (Lower Vistula), according to A.A. Shakhmatova, was the second ancestral home of the Slavs. Finally, when the Goths left the Black Sea region, part of the Slavs, namely their eastern and southern branches, moved east and south to the Black Sea region and formed tribes of the southern and eastern Slavs here. This means that, following this “Baltic” theory, the Slavs came as newcomers to the land, on which they then created their own state.

There were and are a number of other theories about the migration nature of the origin of the Slavs and their “ancestral homeland”.

Domestic historians, in reflecting this issue, note the complexity of the very process of the origin of the Slavs. In their deep conviction, initially individual small, scattered ancient tribes took shape on a certain vast territory, which then formed into larger tribes and their associations and, finally, into historically known peoples that formed nations. This is the general path of ethnic, cultural and linguistic development of peoples and nations. Consequently, peoples were formed in the course of history not from a single primordial “proto-people” with its “proto-language” through its subsequent disintegration and resettlement from some original center (“ancestral home”), but on the contrary, the path of development mainly went from the original plurality of tribes to their subsequent gradual unification and mutual crossing. At the same time, a secondary process could, of course, occur in individual cases - the process of differentiation of previously established large ethnic communities. During the process of formation of the Slavic ethnos, the tribes gradually and consistently passed through certain stages of their cultural and linguistic development, which determined their ethnic characteristics. The role of resettlement (migration) in this development turns out to be secondary, according to domestic historians.

1. Ethnogenesis of Eastern Slavsn

At the turn of the 3rd - 2nd millennium BC. During the Bronze Age, when the mastery of metal tools and weapons led to the rapid development of Indo-European tribes, they began to separate from each other and speak Indo-European dialects. The tribes that used the Slavic dialect of the Indo-European language then perfectly understood their Indo-European neighbors - the Germanic and Baltic tribes. The Slavic dialect was also close to the Iranian languages spoken by the Indo-Europeans who lived to the southeast of the future Slavs.

But where did these ancestors of the Slavs live, who were their closest neighbors?

It has been established that in the 2nd millennium BC. e. the ancestors of the Slavs, who had not yet divided into separate nations, lived somewhere between the Balts, Germans, Celts and Iranians. The Balts lived to the northwest of the Slavs, the Germans and Celts lived to the west of them, the Indo-Iranian tribes lived in the southeast, and the Greeks and Italics lived in the south-southwest.

In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. we find the ancestors of the Slavs occupying a vast territory of Eastern Europe. Their center still remains the lands along the Vistula River, but their migration already extends to the Oder River in the West and the Dnieper in the East. The southern border of this settlement abuts the Carpathian Mountains, the Danube, the northern part reaches the Pripyat River. Eastern Slavs antiquity economic

By the middle of the 2nd millennium, a process of consolidation of related tribes that had settled in their places into large ethnic groups began to take shape.

From the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. the uniformity of the proto-Slavic world is broken. Bronze weapons appear among European tribes, and horse squads stand out among them. All this leads to an increase in their military activity. The era of wars, conquests, and migrations is coming. At the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. In Europe, new communities are appearing, sometimes consisting of tribes of different languages, and some tribes are influencing others. New groups of Proto-Slavs at this time concentrated in two places.

One of them is located in the northern half of Central Europe and outlines the western part of the Proto-Slavic world and some part of the Celtic and Illyrian tribes. For many years this group received the name Wends.

In the eastern part of the Proto-Slavic world, a group is emerging with its center in the Middle Dnieper region. It is this region that interests us most, since it was here that the Eastern Slavs appeared and the state of Rus' arose.

Here, arable farming became the main occupation of the Proto-Slavs; at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. they are already mastering the smelting of iron from swamp and lake ore. This circumstance dramatically changes their way of life and allows them to more successfully master nature; conduct defensive and offensive wars.

From this time, from the X - VII centuries. BC e., we begin to talk about that branch of the Slavic world, which, after a series of changes and historical cataclysms, is gradually turning into the world of the East Slavic tribes. For several centuries there was a Balto-Slavic community. The Balts occupied the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea, reaching the upper reaches of the Oka, and the ancestors of the Slavs lived further south - from the Middle Dnieper and Pripyat Polesie to the Vistula and Oder basins.

The Balts and Slavs spoke the same language, were close in the traditions of life and economy, and they had common gods. Later, having separated from each other, the Balts and Slavs became cousins. Much in their life and language was reminiscent of an ancient community.

At this time, the contacts and mutual influences of the ancestors of the Slavs with the Northern Iranian tribes were close, from which the Slavs’ constant rivals later emerged - the Scythians and Sarmatians. It is no coincidence that such borrowings from Iranian languages as “God”, “axe”, “cat” (a small pen, stable), etc. appeared in the Slavic language. But for now this is still a single world. He speaks a single Balto-Slavic language, while there is still no division into separate nations.

The first known invasion of steppe nomads to the Dnieper lands dates back to this time. The Cimmerian horse tribes attacked the farmers of the Dnieper region. The confrontation continued for many years.

In the VI - IV centuries. BC e. The eastern lands of the Slavic ancestral home were subject to a new invasion and conquest by the Scythians - Iranian nomadic tribes. The Scythians moved in large masses of horses and lived in wagons.

It was at that time that the tribal formations of the Eastern Slavs were born. In the area of settlement of Scythian farmers, a tribe of Polyans would later appear, which gave rise to Kyiv.

In the period from 400 to 100 BC. e. in the vast territory between the middle reaches of the Oder and Pripyat Polesie and the Dnieper region there was a population that already spoke Slavic.

From the end of the 2nd century. BC e. and until the 5th century. n. e. The heirs of the early Slavs live on this same territory. They place their villages on coastal hills or among swampy lowlands that are difficult for the enemy to pass through. Their houses are wooden, chopped; There is no division into separate rooms yet, there is one room, common. The house is adjacent to small outbuildings and a shed. In the center of the house there is a stone or adobe hearth. In some places there are already stoves made of stones and clay. Among the wooden houses there are also large half-dugouts with fireplaces, where the population may have lived in the cold winter.

Starting from the 2nd century. BC e. these lands experienced a new onslaught of enemies. FROM the lower reaches of the Don, from the Black Sea steppes, nomadic hordes of Sarmatians advanced north into the Middle Dnieper region. And again, the inhabitants of the Dnieper region partly went north, scattered through the forests, and partly moved to the south, where, together with the Scythians, they resisted the invasion.

Peace and tranquility in the Slavic lands in the 2nd - 5th centuries. bore fruit. Since the 5th century. On the lands where the Scythians and Sarmatians had previously ruled, in the Dnieper and Dniester basins, a powerful union of East Slavic tribes called the Ants formed.

Now to the east of the Slavs there was no intermediate route with the steppe. Turkic-speaking tribes approached them closely, becoming their eternal enemy for many centuries.

From the 5th century the rise in the East Slavic lands led to a sharp increase in the Slavic population in the Carpathian regions, forest-steppe and steppe, and the development of powerful social processes. The role of tribal leaders and elders increased, squads formed around them, and property stratification arose in the once united environment. The population, having taken refuge in the northeastern forests, begins to move back to the south, to their ancient ancestral lands, to the regions of the Middle Dnieper, to the Dniester and Bug basins.

All this was the basis for what emerged in the 5th century. powerful movement of East Slavic tribes to the Danube region, to the Balkan Peninsula, to the Byzantine Empire. Warlike, well-armed Slavic squads begin to undertake long-distance, risky military ventures. During this movement to the south, the Slavs created strong military alliances, united their squads, formed huge river and sea flotillas, on which they quickly moved over long distances.

The first decades of the 6th century. became a triumph of Slavic pressure on Byzantium. Byzantine authors report constant raids by the Transdanubian Slavs, as well as Antes, on the possessions of the empire. They constantly cross the Danube, appear in the Byzantine provinces of Thrace and Illyricum, take possession of Greek cities and villages, capture residents and take huge ransoms for them. The Slavic force floods the Danube region and the Northern Balkans, individual streams of this flow reach the territory of ancient Sparta and the Mediterranean shores. Essentially, the Slavs begin colonizing the Byzantine possessions, settling within the empire, and starting their own farming there.

Not having the strength to restrain this unstoppable onslaught by force, the Byzantine authorities bought off the Slavic invasions with territories rich in gifts - gold, expensive woven, precious vessels, and took Slavic leaders into their service.

2. Eastern Slavs in ancient times

2.1 The first written evidence about the Slavs

By the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. Slavs stand out from the Indo-European community. The oldest known habitat of the Slavs in Europe was the lower and middle reaches of the Danube. By the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. The Slavs became so significant in numbers and influence in the world around them that Greek, Roman, Arab, and Byzantine authors began to report on them (Roman writer Pliny the Elder, historian Tacitus - 1st century AD, geographer Ptolemy Claudius - 2nd century. AD Ancient authors call the Slavs “Ants”, “Slavins”, “Vends” and speak of them as “countless tribes”.

· Some of the Slavs remained in Europe. Later they will get a name southern Slavs(Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenians, Bosnians, Montenegrins will descend from them).

· Another part of the Slavs moved to the north - Western Slavs(Czechs, Poles, Slovaks). Western and southern Slavs were conquered by other peoples.

· The third part of the Slavs, according to scientists, did not want to submit to anyone and moved to the northeast, to the East European Plain. Later they will get a name Eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians).

It should be noted that during the era of the great migration of peoples, most tribes strove to Central Europe, to the ruins of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire soon fell (476 AD) under the attacks of alien barbarians. On this territory, the barbarians, having absorbed the heritage of ancient Roman culture, will create their own statehood. The Eastern Slavs went to the northeast, into the deep forest wilds, where there was no cultural heritage. The Slavs went to the northeast in two streams: one part of the Slavs went to Lake Ilmen (later the ancient Russian city of Novgorod would stand there), the other part went to the middle and lower reaches of the Dnieper (another ancient city of Kyiv would become there).

In the VI - VIII centuries. Eastern Slavs mainly settled along the East European Plain.

2.2 Neighbors of the Eastern Slavs

Other peoples already lived on the East European (Russian) Plain. Baltic (Lithuanians, Latvians) and Finno-Ugric (Finns, Estonians, Ugrians (Hungarians), Komi, Khanty, Mansi, etc.) tribes lived on the Baltic coast and in the north. The colonization of these places was peaceful, the Slavs got along with the local population.

In the east and southeast the situation was different. There the steppe adjoined the Russian Plain. The neighbors of the Eastern Slavs were the steppe nomads - the Turks (Altai family of peoples, Turkic group). In those days, peoples leading different lifestyles - sedentary and nomadic - were constantly at war with each other. The nomads lived by raiding the settled population. And for almost 1000 years, one of the main phenomena in the life of the Eastern Slavs would be the struggle with the nomadic peoples of the Steppe.

The Turks on the eastern and southeastern borders of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs created their own state formations.

· In the middle of the 6th century. in the lower reaches of the Volga there was a state of the Turks - the Avar Kaganate. In 625 Avar Khaganate was defeated by Byzantium and ceased to exist.

· In the 7th - 8th centuries. here the state of other Turks appears - Bulgar (Bulgarian) kingdom. Then the Bulgarian kingdom collapsed. Part of the Bulgars went to the middle reaches of the Volga and formed Volga Bulgaria. Another part of the Bulgars migrated to the Danube, where they were formed Danube Bulgaria (later the newcomer Turks were assimilated by the southern Slavs. A new ethnic group arose, but it took the name of the newcomers - “Bulgars”).

· The steppes of southern Rus' after the departure of the Bulgars were occupied by new Turks - Pechenegs.

· On the lower Volga and in the steppes between the Caspian and Azov seas, semi-nomadic Turks created Khazar Khaganate. The Khazars established their dominance over the East Slavic tribes, many of whom paid them tribute until the 9th century.

In the south the neighbor of the Eastern Slavs was Byzantine Empire(395-1453) with its capital in Constantinople (in Rus' it was called Constantinople).

2.3 Cities

Among the Eastern Slavs in the V - VI centuries. cities arose, which was associated with the long-standing development of trade. The most ancient Russian cities are Kyiv, Novgorod, Smolensk, Suzdal, Murom, Pereyaslavl South. In the 9th century The Eastern Slavs had at least 24 large cities. Cities usually arose at the confluence of rivers, on a high hill. The central part of the city was called the Kremlin, Detinets and was usually surrounded by a rampart. The Kremlin housed the dwellings of princes, nobility, temples, and monasteries. Behind the fortress wall, a ditch filled with water was built. Behind the moat there was a market. Adjacent to the Kremlin was a settlement where artisans settled. Individual districts of the settlement, inhabited by artisans of the same specialty, were called settlements.

2.4 Public relations

The Eastern Slavs lived in births. Each clan had its own elder - the prince. The prince relied on the clan elite - the “best husbands”. The princes formed a special military organization - a squad, which included warriors and advisers to the prince. The squad was divided into senior and junior. The first included the most notable warriors (advisers). The younger squad lived with the prince and served his court and household. The warriors from the conquered tribes collected tribute (taxes). Trips to collect tribute were called polyudye. Since time immemorial, the Eastern Slavs have had a custom of resolving all the most important issues in the life of the clan at a worldly meeting - a veche.

3. Territory, economy, religion

3.1 Territory

During the era of the great migration of peoples, the Slavs on the Danube began to be crowded out by other peoples. The Slavs began to split up.

Some of the Slavs remained in Europe. Later they will receive the name of the southern Slavs (later from them will come the Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bosnians, Montenegrins).

Another part of the Slavs moved to the north - the Western Slavs (Czechs, Poles, Slovaks). Western and southern Slavs were conquered by other peoples.

And the third part of the Slavs, according to scientists, did not want to submit to anyone and moved to the northeast, to the East European Plain. Later they will receive the name Eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians).

The Eastern Slavs occupied the territory from the Carpathian Mountains in the west to the Middle Oka and the upper reaches of the Don in the east, from the Neva and Lake Ladoga in the north to the Middle Dnieper region in the south. The Slavs, who developed the East European Plain, came into contact with a few Finno-Ugric and Baltic tribes. There was a process of assimilation (mixing) of peoples. In the VI-IX centuries. The Slavs united into communities that no longer had only a tribal, but also a territorial and political character. Tribal unions are a stage on the path to the formation of statehood of the Eastern Slavs.

In the chronicle story about the settlement of the Slavic tribes, one and a half dozen associations of the Eastern Slavs are named. The term "tribes" in relation to these associations has been proposed by historians. It would be more accurate to call these associations tribal unions. These unions included 120-150 separate tribes, whose names have already been lost. Each individual tribe, in turn, consisted of a large number of clans and occupied a significant territory (40-60 km across).

The chronicle's story about the settlement of the Slavs was brilliantly confirmed by archaeological excavations in the 19th century. Archaeologists noted the coincidence of the excavation data (burial rites, women's jewelry - temple rings, etc.), characteristic of each tribal union, with the chronicle indication of the place of its settlement.

The Polyans lived in the forest-steppe along the middle reaches of the Dnieper. To the north of them, between the mouths of the Desna and Ros rivers, lived the northerners (Chernigov). To the west of the clearings on the right bank of the Dnieper, the Drevlyans “sedesh in the forests.” To the north of the Drevlyans, between the Pripyat and Western Dvina rivers, the Dregovichi (from the word “dryagva” - swamp) settled, who along the Western Dvina were adjacent to the Polotsk people (from the Polota River, a tributary of the Western Dvina). To the south of the Bug River were the Buzhans and Volynians, as some historians believe, descendants of the Dulebs. The area between the Prut and Dnieper rivers was inhabited by the Ulichi. The Tiverts lived between the Dnieper and the Southern Bug. The Vyatichi were located along the Oka and Moscow rivers; to the west of them lived the Krivichi; along the river Sozh and its tributaries - Radimichi. The northern part of the western slopes of the Carpathians was occupied by the White Croats. The Ilmen Slovenes lived around Lake Ilmen.

Chroniclers noted the uneven development of individual tribal associations of the Eastern Slavs. At the center of their narrative is the land of the glades. The land of glades, as the chroniclers pointed out, also bore the name “Rus”. Historians believe that this was the name of one of the tribes that lived along the Ros River and gave the name to the tribal union, the history of which was inherited by the glades.

3.2 Farm

The basis of the economic life of the Eastern Slavs was agriculture. The Slavs, who lived in the forest-steppe and steppe zones, were engaged in arable farming with two-field and three-field crop rotation. The main tools of labor were a plow with an iron tip, a sickle, and a hoe, but a plow with a ploughshare was also used. The Slavs of the forest zone had shifting agriculture, in which forests were cut down and burned, the ash mixed with the top layer of soil served as a good fertilizer. Within 3-4 years a good harvest was harvested, then this area was abandoned. The main tools of labor: an axe, a hoe, a plow, a harrow-harrow and a spade, a sickle, stone grain grinders and hand millstones. They grew barley, rye, wheat, millet, oats, peas, and buckwheat. From garden crops: turnips, cabbage, beets, carrots, radishes, garlic, etc.). Important agricultural industrial crops were flax and hemp. Man in those days identified life with arable land and bread, hence the name of grain crops “zhito”, which has survived to this day. The economic activity of the Slavs was not limited to agriculture: they were engaged in cattle breeding, raising cattle and pigs, horses, sheep, and poultry.

Hunting and fishing were developed. Valuable furs were used to pay tribute; they were the equivalent of money. The Slavs were also involved in beekeeping - collecting honey from wild bees. Intoxicating drinks were prepared from honey.

An important branch of the economy was iron production. It was mined from iron ore, deposits of which were often found in swamps. Iron was used to make plow and plow tips, axes, hoes, sickles and scythes.

Pottery was also a traditional branch of the economy of the ancient Slavs. The main form of tableware among the Slavs throughout the Middle Ages were pots. They were used for cooking, storing food, and as ritual utensils: in pre-Christian times, the dead were burned and the ashes were placed in a pot. Mounds were built at the site of the burning.

3.3 Religion

Like other ancient peoples, like the ancient Greeks in particular, the Slavs populated the world with a variety of gods and goddesses. There were among them the main and the secondary, the powerful, the omnipotent and the weak, the playful, the evil and the good.

At the head of the Slavic deities was the great Svarog - the god of the universe, reminiscent of the ancient Greek Zeus.

His sons - Svarozhichi - the sun and fire, were carriers of light and warmth. The sun god Dazhdbog was highly revered by the Slavs. The Slavs prayed to Rod and women in labor - the god and goddesses of fertility. This cult was associated with the agricultural activities of the population and was therefore especially popular. God Veles was revered by the Slavs as the patron of cattle breeding; he was a kind of “cattle god”. Stribog, according to their concepts, commanded the winds, like the ancient Greek Aeolus.

As the Slavs merged with some Iranian and Finno-Ugric tribes, their gods migrated to the Slavic pantheon.

So, in the VIII - IX centuries. The Slavs revered the sun god Khors, who clearly came from the world of Iranian tribes. From there the god Simargl also appeared, who was depicted as a dog and was considered the god of the soil and plant roots. In the Iranian world, it was the master of the underworld, the deity of fertility.

The only major female deity among the Slavs was Makosh, who personified the birth of all living things and was the patroness of the female part of the household.

Over time, as princes, governors, squads began to emerge in the public life of the Slavs, and the beginning of great military campaigns, in which the young prowess of the nascent state played, the god of lightning and thunder Perun, who became the main heavenly deity, increasingly came to the fore among the Slavs. merges with Svarog, Rod as more ancient gods. This does not happen by chance: Perun was a god whose cult was born in a princely, druzhina environment.

But pagan ideas were not limited to the main gods. The world was also inhabited by other supernatural beings. Many of them were associated with the idea of the existence of an afterlife. It was from there that evil spirits - ghouls - came to people. And the good spirits who protect people were the beregins. The Slavs sought to protect themselves from evil spirits with spells, amulets, and so-called “amulets.” Goblin lived in the forest, mermaids lived near the water. The Slavs believed that these were the souls of the dead, coming out in the spring to enjoy nature.

The Slavs believed that every house was under the protection of a brownie, who was identified with the spirit of their ancestor, ancestor, or schur, chur. When a person believed that he was threatened by evil spirits, he called on his patron - the brownie, chur, to protect him and said “Chur, me, chur, me!”

Births, weddings, and funerals were accompanied by complex religious rites. Thus, the funeral custom of the Eastern Slavs is known to bury along with the ashes of a person (the Slavs burned their dead at the stake, placing them first in wooden boats; this meant that the person sailed into the underground kingdom) one of his wives, over whom a ritual murder was committed; The remains of a war horse, weapons, and jewelry were placed in the warrior’s grave. Life continued, according to the Slavs, beyond the grave. Then a high mound was poured over the grave, and a pagan funeral feast was performed: relatives and associates commemorated the deceased. During the sad feast, military competitions were also held in his honor. These rituals, of course, concerned only tribal leaders.

The whole life of a Slav was connected with the world of supernatural creatures, behind which stood the forces of nature. It was a fantastic and poetic world. It was part of the everyday life of every Slavic family.

Conclusion

There were and are a number of theories about the migration nature of the origin of the Slavs and their “ancestral homeland”.

The main economic activity of the Eastern Slavs was agriculture. Livestock breeding was closely related to agriculture. Other occupations of the Slavs include fishing, hunting, and beekeeping, which had a large share in the northern regions. Industrial crops (flax, hemp) were also grown.

The constantly improving economy of the Eastern Slavs eventually led to the fact that an individual family, an individual house no longer needed the help of their clan or relatives. This is how the right of private ownership, private property, was born.

Under these conditions, the power and economic capabilities of tribal leaders, elders, tribal nobility, and warriors surrounding the leaders increased sharply. This is how property inequality arose in the Slavic environment, and especially clearly in the regions of the Middle Dnieper region.

In many ways, these processes were helped by the development not only of agriculture and cattle breeding, but also of crafts, the growth of cities, and trade relations, because conditions were also created here for the additional accumulation of social wealth, which more often fell into the hands of the propertied, deepening the property difference between the rich and the poor.

The religion of the Eastern Slavs was complex, varied, with detailed customs. Its origins go back to Indo-European ancient beliefs and even further back to Paleolithic times. It was there, in the depths of antiquity, that man’s ideas about the supernatural forces that control his destiny, about his relationship to nature and its relationship to man, about his place in the world around him arose. The religion that existed among different peoples before they adopted Christianity or Islam is called paganism.

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Ethnogenesis and culture of the ancient Slavs

An important aspect remains the culture of the Slavs, which existed at the dawn of their development. They lived in special houses that were built along the banks of rivers.

The ancient Slavs carefully protected their homes. They did this with the help of palisades, ravines, and ditches. After all, the threat of attack always existed.

The first occupations of the ancient Slavs were fishing, and a little later farming and hunting. The man was a breadwinner, a protector. And the woman was assigned the role of keeper of the hearth: she raised children, prepared food, and made clothes.

Over time, the Slavs learned to process metal and make tools and household items from it.

Slavs: ethnogenesis and settlement

The migration of the Slavs was due to the fact that in the third to seventh centuries it was generally massive. This era is appropriately called the Great Migration. By the sixth century, the Slavs had reached the Baltic and Black Seas.

Around the same time, the division of all Slavs into eastern, western and southern occurred. A little later they appeared on the territory of modern Belarus. Already in the eighth century, the Slavs firmly settled in the Balkans, and from the north - in the area of Lake Ladoga. This is how the ethnogenesis and early history of the Slavs are briefly presented.

After dividing into three branches, each of them began its own history. But everywhere there was a tendency towards the formation of tribal unions. For example, among the Western Slavs they are Pomeranians and Polabs. The Eastern Slavs were divided into thirteen tribal unions (Polyans, Krivichi, Northerners and others). And the South Slavic tribes included Bulgarian, Serbian and other tribes.

These unions became a prerequisite for the formation of states, but that’s another story...

Ethnogenesis of the Slavs according to archaeological data

The first recorded archaeological sources date back to the first millennium BC. However, we cannot reliably say that they belong to the Slavs. But the monuments dating back to the fifth and sixth centuries are definitely of Slavic origin.

The problem of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs according to archaeological excavations is the impossibility of classifying them as Slavic with one hundred percent certainty. It is difficult to trace their continuity.

The ancestral home of the Slavs and their ethnogenesis

Most scientists are inclined to believe that the ancestral home of the ancient Slavs was Eastern Europe, as well as Central Europe. It was framed by the Elbe, Vistula, Dnieper and Dniester rivers. It was there that the Proto-Slavs, the predecessors of the Slavs, lived. Of course, there are scientists who hold other points of view, more dubious.

The early history of the Slavs, their ethnogenesis, was always strongly influenced by other peoples, who were often hostile. In addition, natural and climatic conditions played a big role here.

History of Russia [for students of technical universities] Shubin Alexander Vladlenovich

§ 1. ETHNOGENESIS OF THE EASTERN SLAVS

The ancestral home of the Slavs. The ancestors of the Slavs - tribes who spoke Baltoslavic dialects - approximately in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. separated from the speakers of Germanic languages and settled in Eastern Europe. About 500 BC. e. From the single Late Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) language, the Slavic and Baltic tribal dialects themselves emerged. Moreover, the Balts were divided into three large groups: Western (the ancestors of the Prussians, Yatvingians, Galindians, Curonians and Skalves), the middle, or Letto-Lithuanian (the ancestors of the Lithuanians, Samogitians, Aukštaitians, Latgalians, Semigallians and Selovians) and the Dnieper (the ancestors of the chronicle Golyad and others tribes whose names are unknown). In turn, the Slavs in the 4th–10th centuries. also divided into three main dialect areas: southern (ancestors of modern Bulgarians, Slovenians, Macedonians, Serbs and Croats), western (ancestors of Czechs, Slovaks and Poles) and eastern (ancestors of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians). The Southern Slavs settled primarily in the Balkans, the Western Slavs in Central Europe, and the Eastern Slavs in Eastern Europe.

In archeology there is no single point of view regarding the location of the ancestral home of the Slavs. Some scientists find it in the area between the Vistula and Odra rivers, others - the Vistula and Neman rivers, while others believe that the birth of the Slavic ethnic group took place between the Odra and Dnieper. Data from linguistics (primarily toponymy, a discipline that studies geographical names) make it possible to connect the Slavs with the region of Central and Eastern Europe, bounded by the Elbe and Odra rivers in the west, the Vistula basin and the Upper Dniester region to the Middle Dnieper region in the east.

The Proto-Slavs, according to many researchers, just like the Germans and Balts, were descendants of pastoral and agricultural tribes who moved at the turn of the 3rd–2nd millennium BC. e. from the Northern Black Sea region and the Carpathian region to Central, Northern and Eastern Europe.

One can get an idea of the ancestors of the Slavs from the monuments of Trzyniec (third quarter of the 2nd millennium BC, discovered between the Vistula and the Middle Dnieper), Lusatian (XIII-IV centuries BC) and Pomeranian (VI-II centuries BC). BC, territory of modern Poland) archaeological cultures. In addition, some historians associate with the ancestors of the Slavs such archaeological cultures as the Middle Dnieper (mid-III - first quarter of the 2nd millennium BC; Middle and Upper Dnieper), Chernolesk (VIII - early VI centuries BC) , monuments of which were found in the Dnieper region, and late Zarubinets, which existed from the end of the 1st millennium BC. e. in the Pripyat River basin and the Middle Dnieper region.

The first reliable written reports about the Slavs as an independent ethnic group are contained in the work of the Gothic historian Jordan (first half of the 6th century). By the second half of the 7th century. The first mentions of the Slavs belong to Arab authors. The earliest legendary information about the history of the Slavs, which appeared on the pages of ancient Russian chronicles, dates back to approximately the same time. Before this period, foreign sources contain data about peoples called Wends (Venet), Sklavens and Antes. However, this information is so vague that it is not possible to talk about the ethnicity of the peoples mentioned.

The northwestern neighbors of the ancestors of the Slavs were the Germans and Balts, who together with the Slavs formed the northern group of Indo-European tribes. In the southwest, north and northeast of them lived the Finno-Ugric peoples. The southeastern neighbors of the ancestors of the Slavs were the Western Iranian tribes of the Scythians and Sarmatians, the southern ones were the Goths, Thracians and Illyrians, and the western ones were the Celts.

Eastern Slavs: occupations and social structure. The Eastern Slavs inhabited the East European Plain in two directions. Some of the East Slavic tribes settled in the Dnieper basin and from there began to develop the upper reaches of the Volga, the valleys of the Upper Dniester and the Southern Bug. Another group advanced to the northwest, to the area of Lake Ilmen, and subsequently occupied territories as far as Beloozero and the Volga-Oka interfluve.

Eastern Slavs usually settled in forests and along river banks. Their main occupation was agriculture. In the conditions of forest and forest-steppe zones, this was the so-called forest fallow. The land cleared of forest was plowed up and sown for three to four years in a row, and then abandoned for four to five years. During this time, she had time to “rest”, but had not yet become overgrown with forest “into a pillar”. Then they began to open it again. The fallow season was accompanied by slashing: cutting down forests, uprooting stumps and burning fallen trees. The ash of burnt trunks was a natural fertilizer. This made it possible to obtain fairly high yields of grain crops (mainly rye, oats, barley and, to a lesser extent, wheat) in the first two to three years. In second place in importance was cattle breeding (mainly large and small cattle were raised). In addition, the Slavs were engaged in hunting, fishing and beekeeping.

In the middle of the 1st millennium. e. With the development of iron production, the Eastern Slavs entered a period of disintegration of the tribal system. More advanced tools allowed individual families to obtain enough food to live on. As a result, the ties between members of the clan weakened and in its place tribes were formed, the unification of which took place on a territorial basis. The tribe occupied an area of 40–60 km2.

Several dozen East Slavic tribes lived in Eastern Europe. By the 9th century. they united in unions. The glades mastered the Middle Dnieper region, the northerners - the left bank of the Dnieper (northeast of the glades). The streets occupied the territory south of the clearings. The Tivertsy lived in the lower reaches of the Dniester, the White Croats - in the upper reaches of the Dniester, the Drevlyans - to the north-west of the glades. The Volynians lived west of the Drevlyans, in the Carpathian region (this tribal union was also called the Buzhans or Dulebs). The Dregovichi settled between the Pripyat and Dvina rivers. Krivichi - in the upper reaches of the Dvina, Dnieper and Volga. Some of the Krivichi called themselves Polotsk residents - after the name of the Polota River, in the basin of which they lived. The Radimichi occupied the basin of the left tributary of the Dnieper - the Sozh River. The Vyatichi lived in the upper reaches of the Oka, the Ilmen Slovenians lived in the area of Lake Ilmen and the Volkhov River.

Political system of the Eastern Slavs in the 7th–8th centuries. was still at the stage of military democracy: the entire adult population of the tribe participated in solving common problems, and every man was a warrior and had a weapon. In peacetime, leadership functions are in the hands of elders and priests. During the war, power belonged to the leaders (princes).

Around the 9th–10th centuries. The Eastern Slavs began to form a state.

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Concept ethnos in modern science it means a team that naturally formed on the basis of an original behavioral stereotype. Ethnogenesis - the entire process of existence and development of an ethnic system from the moment of its emergence to its disappearance.

According to some. scientists, the Slavs belonged to Indo-European peoples the formation of a linguistic community of which occurred on the Iranian plateau and Western Asia in the 6th - 5th millennia BC. in the conditions of separation of pastoral tribes from the mass of other primitive ones engaged in hunting, fishing and gathering. Most historians, archaeologists and linguists believe that the Slavs were autochthons of Eastern Europe.

In the IV-II millennia BC. they inhabited the forest areas between the Oder and the middle Dnieper, from the Baltic Sea to the Dniester. The main branch of their economy was agriculture.

There is an opinion in science that it was during this period that the formation of the Slavic protocivilization, which was characterized by certain differences in economic and everyday life from neighboring peoples. The most famous monument of the Slavic proto-civilization, according to a number of researchers, is the Trypillian archaeological culture 1. Its range 2 is from South-Eastern Transylvania to the Dnieper. In the middle of the 1st millennium BC. among the Slavs, the spread of iron and the gradual decomposition of the tribal system began. During this period, the economic, everyday, religious, cultural and other features of the Slavic tribes stood out clearly in comparison with other Indo-European peoples, which allows us to conclude about the formation of the Slavic proto-civilization in the 1st millennium BC.

According to Academician B.A. Rybakov, traces of the Proto-Slavic civilization can be largely associated with the Milograd (Black Sea coast from the mouth of the Danube to the Kerch Strait), Zarubinets (around the village of Zarubintsy in the bend of the Dnieper) archaeological cultures.

At the same time, in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. the single Slavic community was divided into two branches: eastern- future Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian peoples and western- Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatians and etc.

Throughout the 1st millennium AD. Eastern Slavs settled on the banks of the Danube, the Balkan Peninsula, and lands along the middle reaches of the Dnieper; reached Asia Minor and Southern Denmark, occupying the island of Rhone (Rügen) in the Baltic Sea.

During the same period, it emerged third, southern branch of the Slavs- Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, Bosnians, isolated on the territory of the Balkan Peninsula.

By the middle of the 1st millennium AD. The territory of settlement of the Eastern Slavs was determined by the following boundaries: in the north - the river. Volkhov, in the south - the river. Dniester, in the west - the river. Western Bug, in the east - the river. Volga.

It was at this time that it arose original East Slavic civilization, having a number of characteristic features:

¨ common economic structure;

¨ socio-political structure in the form of military democracy, implying such an organization of society where power is concentrated in the hands of military leaders, who, however, are still forced to reckon with the remnants of primitive democracy in the form of the power of tribal elders;

¨ common mental principles, expressed in the similarity of myths, legends, everyday behavior, etc. d.

At the same time, along with this most generally accepted concept of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs, many researchers offer their own hypotheses, although they largely coincide with the above, but also have significant differences from it.

Russian historians of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries M.P. Pogodin, M.S. Grushevsky, supporters "autochthonous theory" narrow the boundaries of the ancestral home of the Slavs in the chronological section of the 2nd millennium BC. It is argued that the cradle of all Slavic peoples, where they formed as autochthons 1, were the territories of modern Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

Scientists of the 19th century I.E.Zabelin, D.I.Ilovaisky came to the conclusion that the ancestors of the Slavs could be the Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, who inhabited the steppes between the Don and the Dnieper.

N.Ya.Marr, Soviet historian-linguist, created “the theory of staged development of languages”, which was based on the thesis about the possibility of a language acquiring a qualitatively new state at a certain stage of development, which causes a change in the entire social system within which the given language operates. He believed that the Slavic language groups that arose in the 1st millennium AD. in the territory outlined by the Oder, Dnieper, Danube, Don, was preceded by the Scythian group of languages (1st millennium BC).

Y. N. Tretyakov, came to the conclusion that the ancestors of the Slavs were the northern forest tribes who inhabited the space between the middle reaches of the Oder and the middle reaches of the Dnieper in the 3rd - 2nd millennia BC. On their ethnic basis in the 2nd millennium BC. In the interfluve of the Oder - Vistula - Southern Bug, a proto-Slavic ethnic group - Balto-Slavic tribes - was formed.

A.A.Shakhmatov recognizes that the first Slavic homeland was the Western Dvina basin. But the historian considers Povislenie to be the second homeland of the Slavic ethnic group, which in the 3rd - 2nd centuries. BC. left Bastarna and where in the 2nd century. BC. the Goths came. At the same time the Slavs were drawn into "Great Migration" which forced the Slavs to split into western - Wends - and southern - Sklavins. At the same time, the Antes (glades) emerged and moved to the southeast.

The process of ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs took place in conditions of active ethnic contacts with other ethnic groups. This had a huge impact on the formation of the ancient Russian people.

The neighbors of the Slavs were:

The oldest population of this region were Cimmerians, whose tribes were forced out into Asia Minor by those who came in the 10th - 7th centuries. BC. from the Trans-Volga region by the Scythians, forced out, in their own right, to the Crimea in the 3rd century. AD Sarmatians.

Goths, with whom the Slavs waged a fierce struggle, they created a strong military-tribal alliance in the Northern Black Sea region, which received the name “Kingdom of Germanaric” after its supreme leader. In the 4th century. AD Germanaric was defeated by the Slavs. Then, in the 4th century. AD the Goths and Sarmatians were swept away by hordes of Huns.

(The Slavs built a system of four-row fortifications with a total length of more than 700 km, called the “Serpentine Ramparts”) south of modern Kiev..

Some historians, however, believe that the Slavs (or at least Proto-Slavs) appeared in the Balkans long before the “Great Migration” and even before the Roman conquest. This point of view was held, for example, by V.O. Klyuchevsky (1841-1911), who considered the Danube lands to be the area from which the Slavs began to settle in Europe. In this case, we are most likely talking about the secondary settlement of the territory by Slavic tribes, during which the Danube (southern) Slavs moved to the region of the Carpathian Mountains.

In the 7th century Turkic-speaking Avars subjugated a number of Slavic tribes, but then, under the joint attacks of the Slavs and Byzantium, migrated to the territory of modern Hungary.

Turkic-speaking Bulgarians united in the 7th century. in the Azov-Caspian steppes into the tribal union "Great Bulgaria", after the collapse of which they went to the Danube, as well as between the Volga and Kama rivers.

Turkic-speaking people who came from Asia Khazars created in the 7th century. between the Caspian and Black Seas there is its own state, the Khazar Khaganate. He imposed tribute on many Slavic tribes, but collapsed in the 10th century. under the blows of the Kiev prince Svyatoslav Igorevich.

Hungarians, appeared from the Southern Urals, roamed the southern Russian steppes in the 7th - 10th centuries, and then went to the Danube.

Pechenegs came in the 7th-10th centuries. to Russian lands from the Volga steppes. The Slavic-Russians fought a fierce battle with them and, in the end, defeated the uninvited guests.

Cumans, which also came from beyond the Volga, were the scourge of the Russian people in the 9th-13th centuries. Later, they partially became part of the population of the Golden Horde, and the bulk of them were defeated by the Russians and disappeared among them.

In the north and northeast, our ancestors had the closest communication with the tribes Balts, who lived from the southwestern Baltic to the upper reaches of the Dnieper and Oka, as well as with the Finno-Ugric peoples who lived in the basins of the Onega, Northern Dvina, Oka, and Volga rivers.

Byzantine Empire(IV-XV centuries) and its population appeared in the VI-XIII centuries. the most powerful neighbor of the Slavic tribes, and subsequently of Rus'.

It seems appropriate, highlighting the process of genesis of the Eastern Slavs, to state that there are several hypotheses regarding the origin of the word “Slavs”.

One of them claims that the inhabitants of these tribes, not knowing other languages, in communicating with foreigners called themselves Slovenians who spoke the word, and those who did not understand their language - Germans. According to another hypothesis, representatives of these tribes, when meeting with foreigners, called themselves “people,” and the foreigners heard a combination of “words.” There is also a hypothesis about the belonging of the concept “Slav” to the name of the territory of residence of these people. Russian historian N.M. Karamzin, analyzing the etymology of the word “Slav”, makes the generalization that “the slightest circumstance, completely unknown in the chronicles, sometimes gives birth to a folk name, which historical scholarship cannot explain in any way” 1 .

The origin of the term “Rus” also causes no less debate, which has not subsided since the 18th century.

Academician B.A. Rybakov believes that in the 6th century. in the middle Dnieper region on the river. Ros formed an alliance of Slavic tribes with a center in the city of Roden (Rodnya). This union took the name of one of the united tribes Ros or Rus.

Other scientists considered and still consider the word “Rus” to be Scandinavian in origin and synonymous with the word “Varyags” in the ethnic sense. But S.M. Soloviev and B.D. Grekov emphasized that the name Rus was known on the shores of the Black Sea long before the appearance of Rurik in Novgorod.

V.O. Klyuchevsky and many modern historians believe that Russia was the name of a certain social stratum - the prince’s squad and his immediate circle, originally from the same Scandinavian tribe.

L.N. Gumilev believes that the Slavs were not aborigines of Eastern Europe, but penetrated it in the 8th century, settling the Dnieper region and the Lake Ilmen basin. Before the Slavic invasion, this territory was inhabited by Russians, or dews - “the ethnic group is by no means Slavic.”

Moreover, the historian refers to the evidence of Lkutprand of Cremona, who back in the 10th century. wrote: “The Greeks call Russos the people that we call Nordmannos - according to their place of residence, and placed this people next to the Khazars in the south of Russia”3. L.N. Gumilyov argues that the meager remains of the Russian language - names and toponyms - indicate their German-speaking. The names of the Dnieper rapids by Konstantin Porphyrogenitus are given in Russian: Essupy, Ulvoren, Gelandra, Varouforos, Leanty, Struvun and in Slavic: Ostrovuniprah, Neyasit, Vulniprakh, Verutsi, Naprezi.

In support of his concept, L.N. Gumilyov cites the fact that the household habits of the Slavs and Rus were also different, especially in characteristic little details: the Rus washed themselves before dinner in a common basin, and the Slavs - under a running stream. The Rus shaved their heads, leaving a clump of hair on the crown, the Slavs cut their hair in a circle. , that the authors of the 10th century never confused the Slavs with the Rus. At the same time, the scientist states that “the Rus cannot be considered Scandinavian Varangians, since the latter began their campaigns in the 9th century, and the Rus as an independent ethnic group were known to the authors in the 6th century.” 5.

In progress ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs a whole complex of factors has emerged that have had a long-term influence on the formation and development original Russian civilization, the mentality of the peoples who inhabited it :

¨ The settlement of the territory by the Eastern Slavs, where the cycle of agricultural work was only 4-6 months, in contrast to 8-9 months in Western Europe. As a result, while grain yields in Western Europe increased from the 10th to the 17th centuries. 3.5 times, then in Russia it increased from the 10th to the 19th centuries. only 1.4 times.

¨ The complexity of natural and climatic conditions, which encouraged the Slavs to unite within a community, to conduct collective farming on virgin lands, gave rise to their wary attitude towards various kinds of innovations, changes to the time-tested way of life.

¨ The absence of any influence on the ancient Slavic ethnos of “Roman law” with its primacy of private property, which contributed to the predominance of communal property relations.

¨ A stable, ever-increasing tendency to adhere to the norms of direct communal democracy, the predominance of collectivist values over personal ones, and low social mobility of members of society. Active contacts of the East Slavic ethnic group with nomadic peoples, who also had direct communal democracy, also had an influence here.

¨ Lack of active horizontal connections in Slavic society.

Of course, in the chronological context of the middle of the first millennium AD. the differences in the lives of most Indo-European peoples were not pronounced expressed. But the complex of factors that determined subsequent civilizational changes began to take shape precisely in the 20th century.

Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation

Tolyatti State Institute of Service

Department of Humanities

Examination on the discipline:

"National history"

on the topic: “Ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs.”

Completed by student gr. ENZ – 1 Belov D.Yu.

Checked by Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor A.N. Munin.

Novokuybyshevsk 2003.

Introduction page 3

History of the origin of the Slavic tribes page 4

Theories of settlement of the ancient Slavs p. 7

Economic activities of the Eastern Slavs p. 10

Prerequisites for the formation of the Old Russian state p. 13

Conclusion page 15

References page 16

Introduction.

The origin of the Slavs is one of the difficult questions in the history of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, as well as in the history of the origin of the state of Kievan Rus. Numerous studies by historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnographers and linguists do not provide a complete and accurate answer to this question; of the many versions on this problem, none can be considered completely reliable.

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 Slavic peoples belong to the ancient Indo-European unity, which included such peoples as Germanic, Baltic, Roman, Greek, Indian, etc., spread in ancient times over the space from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

At the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries, linguist I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay put forward an assumption about the origin of the ethnonym Slavs. In his opinion, the name Slavs first arose among the Romans, who captured many slaves on the eastern borders of the Slavic state, the second half of whose name ended in -slav: Vladislav, Sudislav, Miroslav, Yaroslav, etc. The Romans turned this ending into a common name for any slave in general (in late Latin slave - sclavas), and later for the people who supplied the majority of these slaves. This theory was subsequently greatly developed by German nationalist scientists, who used it to belittle the importance of the Slavic peoples in the history of early medieval Europe. However, this theory has many weaknesses. For example, the fact is that the Roman Empire, which had existed for many centuries, waging constant wars, during which it took a huge number of captives - slaves, suddenly paid special attention to the captive Slavs, and all slaves began to be called by their name. Further, it is impossible, according to V.P. Kobychev, to explain how all Slavic peoples, in particular the eastern ones, who were never under direct or indirect rule of the Romans, accepted the offensive term. In addition, the author of the hypothesis himself proceeds from the fact that the root -slav is primordially Slavic, therefore, the Slavs had no need to borrow this word from anyone - it was already in wide circulation among them.

Currently, the Slavic peoples include Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Gascons, Slovenes. Despite the seemingly fragmented and scattered nature of the Slavic peoples, they still represent a single whole.

History of the origin of the Slavic tribes.

The area of settlement of the Slavic tribes was Central and Eastern Europe. As archaeologists suggest, the Proto-Slavic tribes were the most ancient tribes - carriers of the archaeological culture, the so-called Corded Ware. They were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding and in the middle of 3-2 millennia BC. settled in vast areas between the Dnieper in the east, the Karatami in the south, the Odra in the west and the Baltic Sea in the north. In the second half of the 1st millennium BC. and in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. the forest-steppe zone of this territory was inhabited by tribes known from the culture of the burial fields. They, as a rule, burned the dead, and buried the ashes in the ground in special clay vessels - urns in cemeteries. They lived in a primitive communal system in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. already knew plow farming and the potter's wheel ( Chernyakhovskaya culture), which indicates, on the one hand, the beginning of the separation of crafts from agriculture, and on the other, the beginning of the decomposition of the tribal system. Archaeologists believe them early Slavic tribes.

The Slavic people are considered relatively young in history. Under his own name, he was first mentioned in written sources only from the 6th century (Pseudo-Caesarius, around 525). The main formative force of the Proto-Slavic people should be considered the spontaneous unification of more or less related tribes. Although, undoubtedly, natural reproduction and colonization of new spaces played an equally important role.

As B.A. Rybakov points out, at the turn of the 3rd-4th millennium BC. In the northern half of Europe (from the Rhine to the Dnieper), pastoralism intensified, and property and social inequality quickly emerged. Cattle become a symbol of wealth (in old Russian " cowgirl" - treasury), and the ease of alienation of herds leads to wars and inequality of tribes and leaders, thereby violating primitive equality. The struggle for herds and pastures that began everywhere led to the widest settlement of pastoral tribes not only in Central, but also in Eastern Europe up to the Middle Volga. Resettlement was carried out by separate, independently acting tribes.

It is important to note that at the time of settlement (the first half of the 2nd millennium) there was no Slavic, Germanic, or Baltic community; all the tribes mixed and changed neighbors as they gradually moved.

In the 15th century, after settlement ceased, the entire zone of European deciduous forests and forest-steppes was occupied by Indo-European tribes. Such a settled life was accompanied by the development of various kinds of connections between neighboring tribes and the emergence of languages related to each other.

There were no strong economic and cultural ties between the early Slavic tribes, and a process of ethnic differentiation was constantly occurring. In the course of it, towards the end of the Bronze Age and during the early Iron Age, culturally unique groups of tribes arose, including in the east - tribes Podneprovsky cultures, and in the west - tribes Lusatian culture. This marked the beginning of the formation of the Eastern and Western Slavs.

In the middle of the 1st millennium AD. On the vast territory of Eastern Europe, from Lake Ilmen to the Black Sea steppes and from the Eastern Carpathians to the Volga, East Slavic tribes formed. Historians count about 15 such tribes. Each tribe was a collection of clans and then occupied a relatively small isolated area. In the 8th-9th centuries, the map of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs looked like this: the Slovenes (Ilinsky Slavs) lived on the shores of Lake Ilmen and Volkhov; Krivichi with Polotsk residents - in the upper reaches of the Western Dvina, Volga and Dnieper; Dregovichi - between Pripyat and Berezina; Vityachi - on the Oka and Moscow Rivers; Radimichi - on the Sozh and Desna; northerners - on the Desna, Seim, Sula and Seversky Donets; Drevlyans - in Pripyat and in the Middle Dnieper region; glade - along the middle reaches of the Dnieper; Buzhans, Volynians, Dulebs - in Volyn, along the Bug; Tivertsy, Ulich - in the very south, near the Black Sea and the Danube.

The Eastern Slavs lived surrounded by numerous neighbors. To the west of them lived the Western Slavs, to the south - the Southern Slavs. In the northwest, the Baltic lands were occupied by the ancestors of modern Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians. Many Finno-Ugric tribes lived in the northeastern forests and taiga - Mordovians, Ves, Karelas, Chuds. In the east, in the region of the Middle Volga, the state of Volga Bulgaria was formed. These Bulgarians were a Turkic people related to the Chuvash and Caucasian Balkars. The owners of the southern steppes were nomadic Turks, Avars, and Khazars. In the 9th century, the Pechenegs appeared there, and in the 11th century, the Polovtsians came to the steppes. In the Middle Danube region (the territory of modern Hungary), Hungarian tribes settled in the 9th century - they came there from the Urals through the southern Russian steppes and found a new homeland there.

By the 8th century AD East Slavic tribes gradually formed a new ethnic community, which is somewhat conventionally called the Old Russian nationality. Moreover, some Eastern Slavs were closer in origin to southern or western tribes than to each other. “The Tale of Bygone Years” contains, for example, an indication that the Radimichi and Vyatichi were descendants of the “Poles”, i.e. Western Slavs. The Ilmen Slovenians, the ancestors of the Novgorodians, also descended, as some scientists believe, from the Western (Polabian and Pomeranian) Slavs, and not from those tribes that lived in the younger regions of the East European Plain.

The relative uniformity of climatic and landscape conditions, the absence of serious natural barriers in the vastness of the East European Plain, as well as the undoubted similarity of culture, language, and beliefs, created objective preconditions for the political interaction of the East Slavic peoples.

There are speculations about the origin of the names of some tribes.

Name " Tivertsy", perhaps comes from the name of the fortress of Tura (Tvra, Turris), in which Emperor Justinian 1 housed one of the Ant tribes, apparently the ancestors of the Tiverts. The name of Tours, of course, is in some way connected with the ancient name of the Dniester Tiras, which is mentioned by Herodotus. Consequently, the Tivertsy (or Turks) were a Dniester tribe.

Concerning streets, in different chronicles their name is read differently (Ulichi, Uluchi, Uglichi, Ulutich, Lyutich, Luchan). Some researchers prefer the form "Uglichi", which they derive from the Russian word for "angle" and suggest accordingly that the homeland of the "Uglichi" was in the southern part of Bessarabia, known as the "Corner" between the Prut and the lower Danube. According to others, the name “uluchi” may come from the Russian word “luka”. In this regard, we can recall the bend of the Black Sea coast between the mouths of the Dnieper and Dniester.

The tribal name of the Polyans (like the Drevlyans) may have been given to them, or adopted by them as an indication of the nature of the country in which they originally lived. The name “Polyane” means “field (steppe) people,” and “Drevlyane” means “tree” (forest) people. On the other hand, the names "Polyanin" and "Drevlyanin" may refer to the previous political connections of each of these two tribes. We know that it was called from the Gothic tribes grevtungi, which exactly corresponds to the Slavic name “glade”; name of another Gothic tribe, Tervingi, has the same meaning as “Drevlyans”, we can assume that during the time of Gothic rule - in the third and fourth centuries - the ancestors of the Polans were subordinate to the Grevtungs, and the Drevlyans - to the Tervingians.

According to the Tale of Bygone Years, the Vyatichi and Radimichi tribes were descendants of two brothers - Radim and Vyatok (Vyatko). Perhaps the names of these mythical brothers are of Ossetian origin: “Radim” is from the word “rad” (“order”, “line”), and “Vyatok” is the Ossetian jaetaeg (“leader”).

According to V. Chivilikhin, the East Slavic tribes retained their names until the 10th-12th centuries: Drevlyans - 990, Slovenes - 1018, Krivichi - 1127, Dregovichi - 1183, Vyatichi - 1197.

Theories of settlement of the ancient Slavs.

Most researchers continue to look for the ancient homeland of the Slavs north of the Carpathian Mountains, somewhere in the space between the Oder, Vistula and Dnieper rivers.

One of the important arguments of supporters of Eastern orientation is zoobotanical theory, which bases its arguments on a study of the names of representatives of flora and fauna contained in Slavic languages. In accordance with their linguistic conclusions, supporters of this theory are looking for the ancestral home of the Slavs outside the distribution of trees such as beech, cherry, white maple, larch, namely, between the Vistula, Western Bug, Pripyat, the Carpathians and the middle reaches of the Dnieper.

The weaknesses of this theory are the possibility of borrowing one or another zoobotanical term and the variability and mobility of the boundaries of flora and fauna (for example, as a result of climate change in Europe, the boundaries of beech growth have advanced hundreds of kilometers from west to east over the past 2–3 thousand years).

Adherents of the western location of the Slavic ancestral home (Kostrzewski, Kozłowski, Czekanovski, Ler-Splawiński, etc.) look for it mainly in the area between the Vistula and Oder rivers. Their views are based on the theory that the Proto-Slavic archaeological culture belongs to the Lusatian culture, which existed from 1300 to 300 BC. This is justified by the fact that the Slavs and the bearers of the Lusatian culture have the same places of settlement, the form and methods of building houses, funeral rites (burning of corpses), and most importantly by the fact that otherwise for the Slavs in Europe of the 1st millennium BC. there is no place to settle at all, bearing in mind that they are one of the significant and numerous peoples of this continent. The classical areas of the Lusatian culture are the two old Slavic areas located north of the Sudetenland, between the Elbe in the west, the upper Oder in the east and the Warta in the north; these are the Lusatian region and Silesia. Here the Lusatian culture is represented by burial grounds and settlements. Typical are large burial grounds with hundreds of burials, most often in the form of flat ones, i.e. shallow graves not marked on top by a mound embankment with an urn containing the ashes of a burned deceased.

Participation in the study of the settlement of the ancient Slavs is relatively new. linguistics. Linguists have determined:

The separation of Proto-Slavic tribes from related or neighboring Indo-European tribes occurred about 4000 - 3500 years ago;

The neighbors of the Slavs from the Indo-European peoples were the Germans, Baltic, Iranians, Daco-Thracians, Celts, etc.;

Judging by the designations of landscape elements common to all Slavic peoples, the Proto-Slavs lived in the zone of deciduous forests and forest-steppe, where there were glades, lakes, swamps, but there was no sea; where there were hills, ravines, watersheds, but no high mountains.

However, here we should pay attention to the fact that natural areas that meet these linguistic definitions are located in Europe more widely than the Slavic ancestral homeland might be assumed. The Proto-Slavs occupied only part of the space that was reflected in their ancient dialects.

The most famous versions of the spread of the Slavs are:

Vistula is the Oder version, in which the region extending north of the Carpathians is recognized as the homeland of the Slavs. But when determining its boundaries, the opinions of scientists differ greatly. The Czech scientist Shofarik drew the border of the Slavic ancestral home in the west from the mouth of the Vistula to the Neman, in the north - from Novgorod to the sources of the Volga and Dnieper, in the east - to the Don. Further, in his opinion, it went through the lower Dnieper and Dniester, along the Carpathians to the Vistula and along the watershed of the Oder and Vistula to the Baltic Sea.

According to academician A.A. Shakhmatov, the ancestral home of the Slavs is located in the basin of the western Dvina and lower Neman, from where the Slavs later moved to the Vistula, and then settled in different directions.

Polish archaeologist A. Gardavniy, as well as a number of Ukrainian archaeologists, established that the Tishnetsk culture of the 15th – 12th centuries BC, characteristic of the territory of Poland, spread to the area east of the Vistula, right up to the Dnieper, partially moving to its left bank .

Thus, the question of the exact boundaries of the ancestral home of the Proto-Slavs has not been finally resolved.

The most proven (according to M.I. Artamonov) is the location of the western border of the Proto-Slavic territory. It is carried out “from the sea along the Oder to the Warta River and further along this river and along the Vistula River to the Sala River. In the north, the Proto-Slavs neighbored the ancestors of the Lithuanians - the “Ugric-Finns”; the Pripyat River served as their border. In the east, the Slavs reached the Dnieper and even extended beyond it, capturing at least part of the Desna River basin.

And yet, more arguments can be given in favor of the hypothesis about the western, or rather, southwestern (Carpathian-Danubian) ancestral home of the Slavs than in favor of their eastern Dnieper-Pripyat ancestral home. Such arguments can be found in V.P. Kobychev’s book “In Search of the Ancestral Homeland of the Slavs”:

The coincidence of the tribal names of the Polabian, Pomeranian and other Western Slavs with the oldest ethnic names known in this territory from the turn of the first centuries AD, which are classified as East Germanic peoples. But it is known that individual tribes received names depending on the natural features of the region, because of this they could coincide among peoples of different language systems, but in the case under consideration we have an almost complete coincidence of the ethnic map of two different eras, separated from each other by an interval of more than at 500 years old.

The second argument is related to tononymy(the science of geographical names), which proves that people, staying in a particular territory, give names to various geographical objects, which are then passed on from generation to generation. It was found that the territory of the upper part of the Vistula, Oder and partly Elbe and Dnieper river basins is full of hydronymic repetitions, which indicates the linguistic homogeneity of the population that created them. The tononymy of the western part of the Slavic lands, including the region of the Carpathian Mountains within Romania, is striking with such ancient names as Brda, Vda, Gvda, Vkra with a combination of several consonants characteristic of Slavic languages.

The northern and northeastern borders ran along the dividing line between the Slavs and the Letto-Lithuanian tribes somewhere in the region of the northern spurs of the Carpathian Mountains, deviating south in the east, and going north towards the Baltic Sea in the west.

Economic activities of the Eastern Slavs.

Natural and climatic conditions contributed to the formation of successful economic activity of the Slavs: deep rivers, fertile soils, dense forests full of animals and birds, and a moderate, even climate. These conditions played a significant role in the development of the economy of the ancient Slavs. In the southern fertile lands, people were engaged in agriculture, in the southeastern steppes - nomadic cattle breeding, in the northern and northwestern regions - hunting, extraction of fur of valuable breeds of animals, beekeeping (collecting wild bees' honey and wax).

First of all, the Slavs are not a nomadic people, but a sedentary one. The sedentism of the Slavs must be understood in the sense that their main capital consisted not in herds and herds, but in the land, and the economy was based on the exploitation of the land. But this settled way of life was not durable, since, having exhausted the arable land in one place, the Slavs easily left their home and looked for another. Thus, the Slavic villages had a very mobile character.

The type of Slavic house in the steppe zone was different from that in the forest zone. In the steppe it was a frame structure covered with clay (Ukrainian hut). In the forest zone it was a log structure (Russian hut).

Archaeological excavations of settlements indicate that the main occupation of the Eastern Slavs in the 2nd-5th centuries was agriculture; they sowed millet, rye (zhito), wheat, flax and other crops. Used for agricultural work Ralo - primitive wooden plow with an iron tip ( tipper), hoe, sickle, rake, scythe. Later a plow with an iron blade appeared.

Agriculture was carried out in folded(fallow) or slash-and-burn form.

Relog involved the use of the same plots for several years in a row, after which it was not cultivated for approximately 20-30 years until natural fertility was restored. This system existed mainly in steppe and forest-steppe regions.

Cutting the system was used most often in the northern forest regions, where trees were first cut down (slashed), and when they dried out, they were burned so that the ash would serve as a fertilizer for the soil. But this system required a lot of physical labor from people who had to unite into large work teams. Only the tribal community could do this.

The clan community in the form of a large patriarchal family was usually located in the form of a settlement, which was called yard(yard, settlement, stove). It was a separate economic unit with collective ownership of land, tools and products of labor. Production and consumption within the clan community were joint. The size of land plots was determined only by how much land each member of the clan could develop.

The widespread spread of the plow and the transition from hoe to arable farming significantly increased the culture of agriculture and its productivity. The Slavs cultivated wheat, barley, rye, millet, peas, and buckwheat. We have received evidence of the use by our ancestors of pits - storage facilities that could hold up to 5 tons of grain. The Slavic export of grain in the 2nd-4th centuries is evidenced by the Slavs’ borrowing of the Roman grain measure - quadrantala, which later became with them quadruple(26.26 l) and reached in our metrology until 1924. If the export of grain to the Roman Empire stimulated the development of agriculture, then the local market contributed to the emergence of a new method of grinding grain - in flour mills with millstones. Appeared two-field, and then three-field, that is, the annual rotation of various crops and fallow. Horses were bred not only for military cavalry, but also for use as draft animals along with oxen. The development of production factors led to the decomposition of the consanguineous community and its transition in the 6th-8th centuries to a neighboring, rural community.

This transition meant that the individual family became the main economic unit. At the same time, the cultivation of the land could already be carried out by small groups that settled according to the principle of neighborhood, and not kinship. The estate, livestock, and housing became private property, which meant the complete disintegration of the clan community. Dvorishcha(ovens) gave way to settlements called village, and the community itself began to be called rope("world"). Communities were governed by the authority of elected elders, the so-called this evening. The verves merged into volosts, which were already political communities.

Each family or group of relatives made everything they needed for themselves. In small clay ovens - domnitsa or in pits, iron was smelted from local ores. The blacksmith forged knives, axes, ploughshares, arrow and spear tips, and swords from it. Women sculpted pottery, wove linen, and sewed clothing. Wooden dishes and utensils, as well as products made from birch bark and bast, were in great use. They bought only what could not be obtained or made locally. The most common product was salt, because its deposits were not found everywhere. They also traded copper and precious metals from which they made jewelry. They paid for everything with marketable and valuable goods that played the role of money: furs, honey, wax, grain, livestock.

In everyday life, the Slavs widely used the so-called ritual calendar, associated with agricultural magic. It marked the days of the spring and summer agricultural season from seed germination to harvest; The days of pagan prayers for rain in 4 different periods were especially highlighted. The indicated 4 periods of rain were considered optimal for the Kiev region in agronomic manuals of the late 19th century, which indicates that the Slavs of the 4th century had reliable agrotechnical observations.

The winter month during which the forest was cut down was called section(from the word “cut” - to chop). Months followed dry And berezol, during which the forest was dried and burned. The month of harvest was called sickle, and the month of threshing is Sunday(from “harm” - to thresh). The fact that the names of the months among the ancient Slavs are associated with agricultural work indicates the paramount importance of agriculture in their economy.

And although in the neighboring community the main agricultural lands remained in joint ownership for a long time, they were already divided into plots - allotments, which were transferred to community members for use for a certain time. And forest lands, reservoirs, hayfields and pastures remained in joint ownership. For a long time, various types of work remained, the implementation of which required united labor: laying roads, uprooting forests, etc.

Land plots were now cultivated by members of a separate family with their own tools, and the harvest also belonged to this family. Thus, this economic unit no longer had to participate in forced equality in the production and distribution of products. This led to property stratification within the neighboring community, the emergence elders, tribal nobility, patriarchal families, future large land owners - feudal lords.

Prerequisites for the formation of the Old Russian state.

With the development of trade traffic along Russian rivers to the Black Sea and Caspian markets, large cities began to emerge in the land of the Slavs. Scandinavian sagas familiar with Russia call her “ Gardarik", i.e. country of cities. Such large cities were: Kyiv - among the Polyans, Chernigov - among the northerners, Lyubech - among the Radimichi, Smolensk and Polotsk - among the Krivichi, Novgorod - among the Ilmen Slavs, and other similar cities served as gathering points for merchants and storage places for goods. The protection of goods in warehouses and on roads required armed force, so military forces were formed in cities squads or partnerships, which included free and strong people ( knights) of different nationalities, most often Varangians. At the head of such squads were usually Varangian leaders - kings(in Slavic konung - prince). The squad consisted of two parts: junior and senior. The younger part (" juveniles") was also called " youths», « grids" The older part was called " princely men,” this included the most distinguished military leaders. The kings either traded themselves, guarding their goods with weapons, or were hired to serve in cities and protected cities and city trade caravans, or, finally, they seized power in cities and became city rulers princes. And since the city was usually subordinate to the surrounding volost, in this case an entire principality was formed. Such Varangian principalities were founded, for example, by Askold and Dir in Kyiv, Rurik in Novgorod, Rogvolod in Polotsk. Sometimes princely power arose among the Slavic tribes and independently of the Varangian kings: for example, the Drevlyans had their own local prince named Mal.

The appearance of cities, and with them trading foreigners and military squads in Rus', shook the old tribal way of life more than the settlement in new places. People who gathered in cities from different places left their tribal unions and united in their affairs and occupations in other communities: they became warriors, joined trading companies, and became urban industrialists. Instead of a patriarchal union of relatives, social classes arose in our sense of the word: military, commercial, industrial people, who no longer depended on tribal rulers, but on city authorities - princes and masters.

Changes also occurred in the lives of people who remained in the volosts on their arable lands and lands. In the previous patriarchal times, each clan and even each family, living in a special courtyard, had its own separate household. Each one plowed the land and hunted for himself, built his own forest, dressed and put on his own shoes and fabrics; everyone made all the necessary tools for themselves. Nothing was bought from the outside and nothing was sold to the outside. Only what was needed for the whole family or clan was stocked and prepared for future use. Such a farm is called " natural" When trade developed in Rus' and cities grew, city markets began to demand goods, most of all honey, wax and furs, which were the main items of Russian export. Under the influence of demand from the cities, they began to be mined not only for themselves, but also for sale: from an item of household consumption, they were turned into goods and exchanged for other valuables or sold for money that was not known before; capital began to form. Instead of subsistence farming began monetary.

At the same time, the elders were actively attacking the community. They no longer wanted to return their lands, which they received on an equal basis with other community members, to joint ownership. Thus, there arose fiefdom(“fatherland”, “grandfather”), or large farms that were inherited from father to sons and were the full property of the given family. On the other hand, these noble people began to gradually annex the land plots of other community members, especially the impoverished ones, who could not pay off debts with rich patrimonial owners. They often annexed the lands of ordinary community members not only for debts, but also by force, forcing them to pay taxes in kind ( tribute) and perform certain duties. The process of turning patrimonial owners into large landowners, and impoverished community members into feudal dependents, is called fumbling.

Conclusion

This is how the type of life of our ancestors gradually changed. From the patriarchal clan and tribal life, the Slavs gradually moved to a communal structure and united under the influence of the main “oldest” cities into volosts or principalities, in which people were no longer united by family relations, but by civil and state relations. Over time, individual urban and tribal volosts and principalities came together and united under one state authority. Then the united Russian state began; but at first it was not distinguished by internal cohesion and homogeneity. When the famous Prince Oleg took tribute from the Greeks, he took it not only for himself, but also for the city.

In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about the theory of the origin of the name “Rus”. One of the explanations for the origin of this term put forward by historians is associated with the name of the Ros River, a tributary of the Dnieper, which gave the name to the tribe on whose territory the Polyans lived. According to the so-called Slavic schools tried to prove that Rus' has always been Slavic. Representatives Norman schools They are looking for the nationality of Rus' both in the Scandinavian north and in the remnants of those Germanic tribes that lived in the first centuries of our era near the Black Sea.

The original opinion of A.A. Shakhmatov is also adjacent to the Norman school: “Rus' is the same Normans, the same Scandinavians; Rus' is the oldest layer of Varangians, the first immigrants from Scandinavia, who settled in the south of Russia before their descendants began to settle in the less attractive forested and swampy north.” Among the Slavs, the name “Rus” meant, first of all, the Varangians - the Scandinavians, whom the Finns called ruotsi. The name “Rus” also passed on to the Slavic squads that acted together with the Varangian Rus, and little by little it was assigned to the Slavic Dnieper region.

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