There are many white spots in the history of the Slavs, which makes it possible for numerous modern “researchers” to put forward the most fantastic theories about the origin and formation of Slavic peoples’ statehood based on speculation and unproven facts. Often even the concept of "Slav" is misunderstood and is seen as a synonym for the concept of "Russian". Moreover, there is an opinion that the Slav is a nationality. These are all misconceptions.
Who are the Slavs?
The Slavs make up the largest ethnolinguistic community in Europe. Inside it there are three main groups: Eastern Slavs (i.e., Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians), Western (Poles, Czechs, Luschians and Slovaks) and Southern Slavs (among them we will name Bosnians, Serbs, Macedonians, Croats, Bulgarians, Montenegrins, Slovenes). Slav is not nationality, since a nation is a narrower concept. Separate Slavic nations formed relatively late, while the Slavs (or rather, the Pre-Slavs) stood out from the Indo-European community for one and a half thousand years BC. e. Several centuries passed, and ancient travelers learned about them. At the turn of the epochs, the Slavs were mentioned by Roman historians under the name "Wends": from written sources it is known that Slavic tribes waged wars with the Germanic.
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 argue that between the Oder and the middle reaches of the Dnieper).
Ethnonym
It makes sense to consider the origin of the very concept of "Slav." In olden times, peoples were often named after the river on whose banks they inhabited. The Dnieper in ancient times was just called “Slavutich”. The root of “glory” itself, perhaps, goes back to the word kleu common to all Indo-Europeans, meaning rumor or fame. There is one more widespread version: “Slovak”, “Tslovak” and, ultimately, “Slav” - this is just “a person” or “a person who speaks our own way”. Representatives of ancient tribes of all strangers who spoke in an incomprehensible language were not considered people at all. The self-name of any people - for example, “Mansi” or “Nenets” - in most cases means “person” or “man”.
The economy. Social order
A Slav is a farmer. The ancestors of the Slavs learned to cultivate land back in those days when all Indo-Europeans had a common language. Slash-and-burn farming was practiced in the northern territories, and fallow was practiced in the south. 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 and flight-hunting, as well as fishing. They also raised livestock. The Slavs made high-quality weapons for those times, ceramics, and agricultural tools.
In the early stages of development, the Slavs had a clan community, which gradually evolved into a neighboring one. As a result of military campaigns, the nobles stood out from the community; the nobility received land, and the communal system was replaced by a feudal one.
Total history of the Slavs in ancient times
In the north, the Slavs coexisted with the Baltic 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 AD e. they reached the Baltic and Black Seas, and by the 8th century reached Lake Ladoga and mastered the Balkans. By the 10th century, the Slavs occupied land from the Volga to the Elbe, from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. This migration activity was caused by invasions of nomads from Central Asia, attacks by German neighbors, as well as climate change in Europe: individual tribes were forced to seek 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 the 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 local Finno-Ugric peoples and Balts. Already from the 6th century, small tribes began to enter into alliances with each other, which marked the emergence 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 Vyatichi, and northerners, and Krivichi. But perhaps the glade and the Ilmen Slovenes were most famous. The former lived along the middle course of the Dnieper and founded Kiev, the latter lived on the shores 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, the unification of these cities. So in 882, the state of the Slavs of the East European Plain - Russia, arose.
Higher mythology
Slavs can not be called an ancient people. Unlike the Egyptians or Indians, they did not manage to develop a developed mythological system. It is known that the cosmogonic myths of the Slavs (i.e., myths about the origin of the world) have much in common with the Finno-Ugric. They also have an egg from which the world is “born”, and two ducks, on the orders of the supreme god, bring silt from the bottom of the ocean to create an earthly firmament. At first, the Slavs worshiped the Sort and Rozhanitsy, later - the personified forces of nature (Perun, Svarog, Mokoshi, Dazhdbog).
There were ideas about paradise - Iria (Vyriya), World Tree (Oak). Religious ideas of the Slavs developed in the same way as other European nations (after all, the ancient Slav is a European!): From the deification of natural phenomena to the recognition of one God. It is known that in the 10th century BC. e. Prince Vladimir tried to “unify” the pantheon, making Perun the protector of soldiers, the supreme deity. But the reform failed, and the prince had to pay attention to Christianity. Forced Christianization, however, could not completely destroy the pagan beliefs: Elijah the prophet was identified with Perun, and Christ and the Virgin were mentioned in the texts of magic conspiracies.
Lower mythology
Alas, the Slavic myths about the gods and heroes were not recorded. But these peoples have created a developed lower mythology, the characters of which - gobbies, mermaids, ghouls, mortgages, bath-houses, ovinniks and midday - are known to us from songs, epics, proverbs. At the beginning of the 20th century, peasants told ethnographers how to protect themselves from the werewolf and negotiate with the waterman. Some remnants of paganism are still alive in popular consciousness.