1. East Slavic Tribes and Their Neighbors 2

TOPIC 1. PEOPLES AND THE MOST ANCIENT STATES ON THE TERRITORY OF RUSSIA Plan: 1. East Slavic tribes and their neighbors 2. Classes of the Eastern Slavs. The social system of the Slavs 3. Life, customs, beliefs of the Eastern Slavs 1. East-slav tribes and their neighbors. Russia's history goes back to antiquity. The territory of the country in ancient times was inhabited by different ethnic groups and people. Relationships with them influenced the formation of the Russian people, character and the social order, craft and production. About the tribes and peoples who inhabited the Eastern European plain in ancient times, we can judge from archaeological sites, ethnographic studies on toponymy (according to extant geographical names), the surviving written sources. At the turn of III-II Millennium BC on the territories between the Vistula and the Dnepr begins the separation of the tribes of the ancestors of the European people. The Indo-Europeans, the ancient population of the vast territories of Europe and Asia, continuing to move and coalesce on the vast expanses of Eurasia, in the II Millennium BC made in Central and Eastern Europe a special array of the Germans, Balts, Slavs. They all spoke the same language and were percepted for several centuries as one and the same but , of course, as dramatically different from those who settled in India, Central Asia or the Caucasus. Later, in the middle of the II Millennium BC, German tribes and Balts (Lithuanians, Latvians)became isolated and Slavs were a common Balto-Slavic group of people, which began to occupy large space Eastern Europe. Moreover, the Balts are located in Northern areas Eastern Europe, the Germanic tribes moved West and South settled other branches of Indo-Europeans - Greeks, Italians. Focus of the Slavic people was the basin of the Vistula river. From here they moved West to the Oder river, but then they were not allowed to settle in Central and Northern Europe as it was already occupied by the Germanic tribes. Since the second half of the II Millennium BC, the uniformity of the Slavic world begins to be violated. The European tribes learns how to make bronze weapons, organize the horse-guards. This leads to an increase in military activity. An era of wars, conquests, migrations. Peaceful ploughmen and herdsmen are being left the past. At the turn of II and I millennia BC in Europe there is a new community of people. Among them are the ancestors of the Slavs, which are compactly settled in two districts of Europe. First - in the Northern part of Central Europe; in the future there will be Western Slavs and the second in the middle Dnieper; a century later, there will be formed the tribes of the Eastern Slavs, and there is the state of Russia. From the VII century BC began the Greek colonization of the Northern and Eastern black sea region. The ancient Greeks based their town and of the colony at the mouths of rivers, on the coast, in the bays. Greek cities in the Crimea, Olbia, Chersonesus, Feodosiya, Panticapaeum, Panagriya are centers of trade. About 480 BC the Greek colonies on Kerch and Taman Peninsula are United in the Bosporan Kingdom with the capital in Pantikapey (Kerch). The Kingdom became a major exporter to Greece and Asia Minor of bread, fish, cattle, slaves. The heyday of the Greek cities was in the IV - III centuries BC, the numerous remains of their material culture are preserved in the Hermitage. The largest of the Greek state played a considerable role in the life of Eastern Europe, was the Kingdom of Bosporus, the leading city of which was Panticapaeum (modern Kerch near). In the third century BC, these cities are entering a crisis, which intensified raids of the goths. The Huns ravaged the territory in the late fourth century. Few cities continued to exist. Among them the Chersonese, which under Byzantine rule survived until XIV century and had a pretty close relationship with Russia and the Golden

Summarized by © lakhasly.com Horde. Neighbours of the Greek cities were the Scythians, which have long inhabited the black sea and sea of Azov. It was a nomadic warlike people, who failed to subdue even the Persian king Darius. In detail the life and customs of the Scythians described in the V century BC "father of history" by the Greek Herodotus. Already at that time they had a noticeable stratiﬁcation, stood the leaders-kings, priests, military aristocracy. Among the Scythians were the ruling and subordinate tribes. In the second half of I Millennium BC, they formed the government, the Scythian Kingdom, whose capital was the city of Naples in the Crimea. Scythian state was destroyed by the invasion of goths in the third century BC Among the people who inhabited the black sea steppes, a special place historians attribute to the Scythians. They came from Asia, settled on the banks of the black sea, later occupied the middle and southern Dnieper, the lower Don, Kuban and Taman. They had developed animal husbandry, agriculture and crafts. Traded with the Greek. There are still some of the funerary monuments of the Scythian burial mounds remained. The beginning of a new era in southern Russia the Sarmatians appear - bitter rivals of the Scythians. There is little to no knowledge about them, except that in the war with the Scythians took their land. Their language belonged to the Iranian group. Later they gave way to other foreign tribes. Their descendants anthropologists believe to be modern Ossetians. Around the same time with the Sarmatians in the South Russian steppes from the Baltic States it is a Germanic tribe of goths. The mass movement of the Huns from the East to the West in the fourth century BC gave rise to the so- called Great migration of peoples. They roamed between the Volga and the Danube. After the Huns (IV- V centuries.) came the Avars in the mid-sixth century saw the emergence of the Avar Union of nomadic tribes. Themselves Avars were Turks, but they comprised also the Mongolian and Ugro-Finnish tribes. Forming their state - khanate, they occupied the southern region of the Eastern Slavs. Raided the Byzantine Empire, to the Germanic tribes. The Avars entered the struggle with Byzantium, however, in 626 suffered a crushing defeat. At the beginning of the tenth century they were conquered by the Hungarians and disappeared from the historical scene. In the middle of VII century in the southern steppes formed the Bulgarian state - the Union of different tribes, where the main source of wealth of the nobility was the spoils of war. Internal strife quickly led to the disintegration of the state. Part of the Bulgarians led by Khan Asparuh migrated into the Danube, where he took Dobrogea, subjugating the local Slavic tribes. The other part of the Bulgarians led by Khan Basbaum moved northeast and settled in the middle reaches of the Volga and the lower Kama, creating a major state - Volga-Kama Bulgaria (or Bulgaria). In the VII century in the South there were other Turkic people, the Khazars. They have established their own khanate, located in the North Caucasus, Lower Volga region, the Northern black sea region and partly in the Crimea. The Khazars managed to establish its dominance over the East Slavic tribes. Many of them paid them tribute until the end of the NINTH century, Nomadic tribes constitute the largest state at the time in Eastern Europe, the Khazar khanate (which included the Northern black sea region, Crimea, North Caucasus, Lower Volga and the Caspian region) is becoming one of the most powerful Nations. For several centuries they are the most dangerous neighbors of the Eastern Slavs. In X century Empire was defeated by the Russian army. With its fall the movement of the peoples from the East increases. In the southern Russian steppes, there appeared new Asian people: Pechenegs, Cumans and later Tatars. By the end of X century on the East European plain formed the

Summarized by © lakhasly.com government, called at that time Rus or Russian land. It was inhabited by tribes of the Eastern Slavs. Today nobody can say when they appeared in Europe. But at the beginning of the first Millennium, the Slavs were among the European people. Eastern Slavs - one of the three major groups of the ancient Slavs, formed after the collapse of their ethnic and linguistic community. Historians on the basis of the "tale of bygone years" - the chronicle of the early XII century - account for 15 of the East Slavic tribal unions. In VII-VIII centuries the Slavs already there is an intensive process of decomposition of the tribal system. About the settlement of the Eastern Slavs before the formation of the state in the NINTH century, tells the ancient Russian chronicle "Tale of bygone years" (XII century): Thus, from the ancient Chronicles "Tale of bygone years" we know of a major East Slavic tribal groups.In the Middle Dnieper there lived a powerful union of tribes, united by the name glade. The center of Polyansky lands has long been the city of Kiev. In the north of the glades lived Novgorod Slovenes, grouped around the cities of Novgorod and Ladoga. To the northwest were the Drevlyans, i.e., the inhabitants of the forests, whose main city was Iskorosten. Further, in the forest zone, on the territory of modern Belarus, a tribal union of Dryagovites, that is, marsh inhabitants, was formed (from the word "swag" - swamp, quagmire). In the northeast, in the forest thickets between the rivers Oka, Klyazma and Volga, lived Vyatichi, in whose lands the main cities were Rostov and Suzdal. Between the Vyatichi and the glades, in the upper Volga, the Dnieper and the Western Dvina, there were Krivichi, who later penetrated the lands of the Slovenian and Vyatichi. Smolensk became their main city. In the basin of the Western Dvina lived the inhabitants of Polotsk, who received the name from the river Polota, which flows into the Western Dvina. Later, Polotsk became the main city of the inhabitants of Polotsk. The tribes settled along the rivers Desna, Seym, Sula, and lived to the East of the field, called the Northmen or the inhabitants of Seversky land; their main city eventually became Chernigov. On the rivers Sozh and Seim lived Radimichi. To the West of the meadows, in the basin of the bug river, settled volhynians and buzhans; between the Dniester and the Danube dwelt Ulichi and tivertsy, whose lands bordered with Bulgaria. Their level of development was different. A special place was occupied clearing. There is an assumption that it is the land of the field received the name "Rus". One of the tribes living on the Ros ' river, gave the name of tribal Union, the history of which inherit the meadow. But there are other versions. One of them says that the term of non-Slavic origin and Scandinavian verb "to row" refers to the oarsmen and sailors. When borrowing it of the Slavs, he took the form of "Rus". 2. Classes of the Eastern Slavs. The social system of the Eastern Slavs. The main occupation of Eastern Slavs was agriculture (in the North, slash-and-burn system; in the southern regions - fallow system or shifting, i.e., the cultivation of the soil for 2-3 years, followed by a transition to a new area). In addition, the East Slavs were engaged in cattle breeding, hunting, fishery, apiculture. They have successfully developed various crafts: blacksmithing, pottery, construction etc. From the VIII century in the forest-steppe and appears in plow farming. The main agricultural crops were wheat, barley, millet. Breeding was common . The Slavs bred cows, pigs, as draught animals in the South were used the oxen. In the North it were horses. The Slavs were also distributed forest and river crafts. Hunting was given to a greater extent fur-bearing animals than food. The extraction of honey of wild bees' natural hollows called apiculture (bortnichestvo) (bort - a hollow tree). Of the most common crafts were blacksmithing, pottery, and jewelry. On the development of Commerce says the mention in

Summarized by © lakhasly.com the "tale of bygone years" trade route that was used by the ancient Greeks - route "from the Varangians to the Greeks". The Slavs traded mainly furs, honey, bought from the foreign merchants of cloth, jewelry, wine, spices. Gradually around princes formed a militia group loyal fighting companions, friends (the word "Druzhina" comes from the word "friend") of the Prince, a kind of professional soldiers and advisers of the Prince. The selection of the squad was an important stage in the formation of the Slavs of the state. However, in VI-VIII centuries. the most important elements of the political organization of the Slavic tribes was the Council of elders and the Council - General meeting of the free male population of the tribe. The basis of the social system of the Eastern Slavs was in the beginning of the birth, and then a neighborhood community, called the world or the verv' (from the word "rope", which measured the ground). The reason for this was the low level of development of productive forces in the joint work. In the VII - IX century Eastern Slavs were in the process of decomposition of the tribal system, formed a tribal Principality, uniting in unions that consisted of 150-200 tribes. They occupied a large area, i.e. it was already a territorial-political entities. Headed such enterprises leaders, which by their position were above the tribal princes. The leader or Prince was the head of the military squad. 3. Life, customs, beliefs of the Eastern Slavs. Slavs settled mainly along the banks of rivers. They loved to settle on the high ground to housing is not flooded during spring floods. And it is also safer from enemies. In small villages lived from several to several dozen families. The towns were United in the "nest" of 3-4 villages. Home of the Slavs was a pit-house. The floor in this home was 1-1. 5 m below ground level, the walls were wooden, the roof is covered with clay. Inside the house was wattle and daub or stone oven, which was heated in black. Everything inside was simple: a table, bench, beds to sleep on. Tableware and furnishings made of wood. From the skins of fur-bearing animals sewed themselves Slavs coats and hats, wove bast shoes, and later learned to make leather boots. In summer men wore shirts and trousers, women long shirts. In cool weather, and those and others wore raincoats. They also liked accessories and decorations. Manners, of course, were rough and wild. Allowed "abduction", i.e. the abduction of women, polygamy, quarrels and blood feuds between clans. Eastern Slavs adhered to a pagan religion whose roots came from the Paleolithic. In their beliefs there are two areas: the worship of nature and ancestor worship. The Slavs believed in a variety of large and small gods and spirits (of water, devils, hobgoblins, etc.). The Slavs had no temples, and were sacred groves, forests, and other places of the pagan sanctuary, where stood the images of the most revered of the gods. Was not a special class of priests, although the wise men and magicians seem to perform certain functions of the Ministers of these gods and the interpreters of their will. Temples absent, and there were sacred groves, forests, and other places. Did also wooden images of gods, before which are put food, often bringing them to the sacrifice of animals and even people. The main gods were considered: Rod - the Creator and Lord of the universe, Perun - the God of storms and war, Dazhdbog (Jari, khoros) is a deity of the sun, Veles - God of cattle, Svarog - God of fire, Mokosh - the goddess of earth and fertility, and many others. The worship of ancestors was expressed in the worship of various spirits. They were the dead ancestors, who in the view of the Slavs patronized family and subsequently to individual families.