There are many blank spots in the history of the Slavs, which allows numerous modern "researchers" to put forward the most fantastic theories about the origin and formation of the statehood of the Slavic peoples on the basis of speculation and unproven facts. Often even the concept of "Slav" is misunderstood and is regarded as a synonym for the concept of "Russian". Moreover, there is an opinion that the Slav is a nationality. These are all delusions.
Who are the Slavs?
Slavs make up the largest ethno-linguistic community in Europe. Within it there are three main groups: Eastern Slavs (i.e. Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians), Western (Poles, Czechs, Lusatians and Slovaks) and Southern Slavs (among them we will name Bosnians, Serbs, Macedonians, Croats, Bulgarians, Montenegrins, Slovenes). A Slav is not a nationality, since a nation is a narrower concept. Separate Slavic nations formed relatively late, while the Slavs (or rather, the Proto-Slavs) stood out from the Indo-European community one and a half thousand years BC. e. Several centuries passed, and ancient travelers learned about them. At the turn of the eras, the Slavs were mentioned by the Romans.historians under the name of "Venedi": from written sources it is known that the Slavic tribes waged wars with the German ones.
It is believed that the homeland of the Slavs (more precisely, the place where they formed as a community) was the territory between the Oder and the Vistula (some authors claim that between the Oder and the middle course of the Dnieper).
Ethnonym
Here it makes sense to consider the origin of the concept of "Slav". In the old days, peoples were often called by the name of the river on the banks of which they lived. The Dnieper in ancient times was just called "Slavutich". The very root "glory" may go back to the common word for all Indo-Europeans kleu, meaning rumor or fame. There is another common version: "Slovak", "Tslovak" and, ultimately, "Slav" is simply "a person" or "a person who speaks our language." Representatives of the ancient tribes of all strangers who spoke an incomprehensible language were not considered people at all. The self-name of any people - for example, "Mansi" or "Nenets" - in most cases means "man" or "man".
Economy. Social order
Slav is a farmer. The ancestors of the Slavs learned to cultivate the land back in those days when all Indo-Europeans had a common language. In the northern territories, slash-and-burn agriculture was practiced, in the south - fallow. Millet, wheat, barley, rye, flax and hemp were grown. They knew garden crops: cabbage, beets, turnips. The Slavs lived in the forest and forest-steppe zones, so they were engaged in hunting, beekeeping, and also fishing. They also raised cattle. The Slavs made high-quality weapons, ceramics, and agricultural tools for those times.
In the early stages of development, the Slavs had a tribal community, which gradually evolved into a neighboring one. As a result of military campaigns, nobility emerged from the community members; the nobility received land, and the communal system was replaced by a feudal one.
General history of the Slavs in antiquity
In the north, the Slavs coexisted with the B altic and Germanic tribes, in the west - with the Celts, in the east - with the Scythians and Sarmatians, and in the south - with the ancient Macedonians, Thracians, Illyrians. At the end of the 5th century A. D. e. they reached the B altic and Black Seas, and by the 8th century they reached Lake Ladoga and mastered the Balkans. By the 10th century, the Slavs occupied lands from the Volga to the Elbe, from the Mediterranean to the B altic. This migratory activity was due to invasions of nomads from Central Asia, attacks by German neighbors, as well as climate change in Europe: individual tribes were forced to look for new lands.
History of the Slavs of the East European Plain
Eastern Slavs (ancestors of modern Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians) by the 9th century AD e. occupied lands from the Carpathians to the middle reaches of the Oka and the Upper Don, from Ladoga to the Middle Dnieper. They actively interacted with the local Finno-Ugric peoples and B alts. Already from the 6th century, small tribes began to enter into alliances with each other, which marked the birth of statehood. At the head of each such alliance was a military leader.
The names of tribal unions are known to everyone from the school history course: these are the Drevlyans, and the Vyatichi, and the northerners, and the Krivichi. But the Polans and the Ilmen Slovenes were perhaps most famous. The former lived along the middle reaches of the Dnieper and founded Kyiv, the latter lived on the banks of Lake Ilmen and built Novgorod. The “path from the Varangians to the Greeks” that arose in the 9th century contributed to the rise and, subsequently, to the unification of these cities. Thus, in 882, the state of the Slavs of the East European Plain - Rus.
High Mythology
Slavs cannot be called an ancient people. Unlike the Egyptians or Indians, they did not have time to develop a developed mythological system. It is known that the cosmogonic myths of the Slavs (that is, the myths about the origin of the world) have much in common with the Finno-Ugric ones. They also contain an egg, from which the world is “born”, and two ducks, by order of the supreme god, bringing silt from the bottom of the ocean to create the earth's firmament. At first, the Slavs worshiped Rod and Rozhanitsy, later - the personified forces of nature (Perun, Svarog, Mokosh, Dazhdbog).
There were ideas about paradise - Iria (Vyria), the World Tree (Oak). The religious ideas of the Slavs developed along the same lines as those of other peoples of Europe (after all, the ancient Slav is a European!): from the deification of natural phenomena to the recognition of the one God. It is known that in the 10th century A. D. e. Prince Vladimir tried to "unify" the pantheon, making Perun, the patron saint of warriors, the supreme deity. But the reform failed, and the prince had to pay attention to Christianity. Forced Christianization, however, could not completely destroy pagan ideas: they began to identify Elijah the Prophet with Perun, and Christ and the Mother of God began to be mentioned in the texts of magical conspiracies.
Inferior mythology
Alas, the myths of the Slavs about gods and heroes were not written down. On the other hand, these peoples created a developed lower mythology, the characters of which - goblin, mermaids, ghouls, mortgages, banniki, barns and noonmen - are known to us from songs, epics, proverbs. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, peasants told ethnographers how to protect themselves from a werewolf and negotiate with a water man. Some remnants of paganism are still alive in the popular mind.
