The worldview of the medieval Slavs was closely connected with the natural forces around them. The ancient Russian gods personified the forces of nature. In addition to deities, in folk beliefs there were many other fantastic creatures such as goblin, mawok, demons, coastlines, banniks and others. Some of them have survived with Russian folk beliefs to the present day.
The universe of the ancient Slavs
Today, we know very little about the worldview of the Eastern Slavs. Incomparably less than about similar beliefs of many Western and Eastern peoples. This happened due to the lack of our ancestors' own written language for quite a long period. There are simply no narrative sources that give an idea of the views of the ancient Russian tribes. To a certain extent, other sources tell about this: stone idols, religious temples, textual references of a later time, and so on. A general idea of the Universe as seen by the Eastern Slavs can be given by the famous Zbruch idol, found in the river of the same name in Ukraine. This two-meter statue has four sides and three levels, each of which personifies the Universe: underground (worlddark beings), earthly (the world of people) and heavenly (the world of gods). As already mentioned, the object of worship for the Russians was the natural element itself, in which they saw divine providence.
Etymology of divine names
The very names of the gods of the Eastern Slavs indicate their functions and the natural forces for which they are responsible: Rod was the progenitor of all gods and, in general, of all life on earth; Dazhbog - a god who gives sunlight and abundant fertility; Mara is the goddess of evil and night, personifying the death of all living things in late autumn. Her antagonist was the spring goddess Lada. Often, the ancient Russian names of deities were a local version of very similar gods from other European mythologies. So, Perun was one of the incarnations of the god of thunder, very popular among the Indo-European peoples. Mara was associated by various authors with the Roman deities Cecera and Mars. Some historians derive the name Veles from the B altic god of the kingdom of the dead, Vyalnas.
Baptism of Russia
The turning point for paganism was the reign in the second half of the 10th century of Kyiv Prince Vladimir. The ancient Russian gods simply ceased to meet the conditions of the developing world. Powerful neighbors of Russia (Byzantium, Catholic
coalitions, Arab Caliphate) by this time were monotheistic states. The ancient Russian gods, however, did not contribute to the internal consolidation of the country, and, consequently, hindered its strengthening and development. A few years before the adoptionChristianity, Vladimir attempted the spiritual unification of the Russian lands. The most popular ancient Russian gods were collected at the Kiev temple in the form of six idols (Khors, Perun, Dazhdbog, Stribog, Mokosh, Semargl). However, it soon became clear that the reform would not give the desired results. And close contacts with powerful neighbors, primarily with Byzantium, pushed the prince to accept the Greek version of Christianity in 988. It should also be noted that not only mythological creatures managed to exist in the new system. Many ancient Russian gods eventually turned into Orthodox saints in local Christianity.
