The history of Russian statehood begins from the time when, ten centuries before the beginning of a new era, numerous Slavic tribes began to settle in the northern and central parts of the East European Plain. They were engaged in hunting, fishing and agriculture. Those who lived in the steppe were engaged in animal husbandry.
Who are the Slavs
The term "Slavs" refers to an ethnic group of people who have centuries of cultural continuity and who speak a variety of related languages known as Slavic languages (all belonging to the Indo-European language family). Little is known about the Slavs before their mention in Byzantine records of the 6th century AD. e., while most of what we know about them until that time, scientists have received through archaeological and linguistic research.
Main residences
Slavic tribes began to develop new territories in the VI-VIII centuries. The tribes diverged along three main lines.destinations:
- southern - Balkan Peninsula,
- western - between the Oder and the Elbe,
- east and northeast Europe.
Eastern Slavs are the ancestors of such modern peoples as Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. The ancient Slavs were pagans. They had their own deities, they believed that there were evil and good spirits that personified various natural forces: Yarilo - the Sun, Perun - thunder and lightning, etc.
When the Eastern Slavs explored the East European Plain, there were changes in their social structure - tribal unions appeared, which later became the basis of future statehood.
Ancient peoples on the territory of Russia
The oldest of the distant northern peoples of Eurasia were Neolithic hunters of wild reindeer. Archaeological evidence of their existence dates back to the 5th millennium BC. Small-scale reindeer husbandry is believed to have developed as early as 2,000 years ago.
In the 9th-10th centuries, the Varangians (Vikings) controlled the central part and the main rivers of the eastern territory of modern Russia. East Slavic tribes occupied the northwestern region. The Khazars, a Turkic people, controlled the south central region.
As far back as 2,000 BC. e., both in the north and in the territory of modern Moscow, and in the east, in the Ural region, there lived tribes who grew raw grain. Around the same time, the tribes on the territory of modern Ukraine were also engaged in agriculture.
Distributionancient Russian tribes
Many peoples gradually migrated to what is now the eastern part of Russia. The Eastern Slavs remained in this territory and gradually became dominant. The early Slavic tribes of Ancient Russia were farmers and beekeepers, as well as hunters, fishermen, shepherds and hunters. By 600, the Slavs had become the dominant ethnic group in the East European Plain.
Slavic statehood
The Slavs withstood the invasions of the Goths from Germany and Sweden and the Huns from Central Asia in the 3rd and 4th centuries. By the 7th century they had established villages along all the major rivers in what is now eastern Russia. In the early Middle Ages, the Slavs lived between the Viking kingdoms in Scandinavia, the Holy Roman Empire in Germany, the Byzantines in Turkey, and the Mongol and Turkish tribes in Central Asia.
Kievan Rus arose in the 9th century. This state had a complex and often unstable political system. The state prospered until the 13th century, before its territory was sharply reduced. Among the special achievements of Kievan Rus is the introduction of Orthodoxy and the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures. The disintegration of Kievan Rus played a decisive role in the evolution of the Eastern Slavs into the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples.
Slavic tribes
Slavs are divided into three main groups:
- Western Slavs (mainly Poles, Czechs and Slovaks);
- South Slavs (mostly tribes from Bulgaria and former Yugoslavia);
- East Slavic tribes (primarily Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians).
The Eastern branch of the Slavs included numerous tribes. The list of names of the tribes of Ancient Russia includes:
- Vyatichi;
- Buzhan (Volhynians);
- Drevlyane;
- Dregovichi;
- Dulebov;
- Krivichi;
- polochan;
- meadow;
- Radimic;
- Slovenian;
- Tivertsev;
- street;
- Croats;
- peppy;
- Vislyan;
- zlichan;
- Lusatian;
- lutiches;
- Pomeranian.
The origin of the Slavs
Little is known about the origin of the Slavs. They inhabited areas of eastern central Europe in prehistoric times and gradually reached their present limits. The pagan Slavic tribes of Old Russia migrated from what is now Russia to the southern Balkans over 1,000 years ago and took over the Christian communities founded by Roman colonists.
Philologists and archaeologists say that the Slavs settled in the Carpathians and in the region of modern Belarus a long time ago. By 600, as a result of linguistic division, the southern, western and eastern branches appeared. Eastern Slavs settled on the Dnieper River in what is now Ukraine. Then they spread north to the northern Volga valley, east of modern Moscow, and west to the northern Dniester and Western Bug basins, to the territory of modern Moldova and to southern Ukraine.
Later the Slavs adopted Christianity. These tribeswere scattered over a large territory and suffered from the invasions of nomadic tribes: the Huns, Mongols and Turks. The first major Slavic states were the Western Bulgarian state (680-1018) and Moravia (beginning of the 9th century). In the 9th century, the Kievan state was formed.
Old Russian mythology
Very few mythological materials have survived: until the 9th-10th centuries. n. e. writing was not yet widespread among the Slavic tribes.
One of the main gods of the Slavic tribes of Ancient Russia was Perun, who is associated with the god of the B alts Perkuno, as well as with the Norse god Thor. Like these deities, Perun is the god of thunder, the supreme deity of the ancient Russian tribes. The god of youth and spring, Yarilo, and the goddess of love, Lada, also occupied an important place among the deities. Both of them were gods who died and were resurrected every year, which was associated with the motives of fertility. The Slavs also had the goddess of winter and death - Morena, the goddess of spring - Lelya, the goddess of summer - Alive, the gods of love - Lel and Polel, the first was the god of early love, the second was the god of mature love and family.
Culture of the tribes of Ancient Russia
In the early Middle Ages, the Slavs occupied a large territory, which contributed to the emergence of several independent Slavic states. From the tenth century BC. e. there was a process of gradual cultural divergence that gave rise to many closely related but mutually exclusive languages classified as part of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family.
Currentlythere are a large number of Slavic languages, in particular, Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Polish, Serbian, Slovak, Russian and many others. They are distributed from central and eastern Europe to Russia.
Information about the culture of the East Slavic tribes of Ancient Russia in the VI-IX centuries. there are very few. Basically, they were preserved in the later recorded works of folklore, represented by proverbs and sayings, riddles and fairy tales, labor songs and legends, legends.
These tribes of Ancient Russia had some knowledge about nature. For example, thanks to the slash-and-burn farming system, the East Slavic agricultural calendar appeared, divided on the basis of agricultural cycles into lunar months. Also, the Slavic tribes on the territory of Ancient Russia possessed knowledge about animals, metals, actively developed applied arts.
