Ancient peoples on the territory of Russia began the resettlement and settlement of lands long before the advent of statehood. That is why the first and greatest prince of Russia - Rurik - made a huge amount of effort to create a single state, native to many peoples.
The first attempts to study the ancient Russian people
The main feature of the study of the Slavic population is that there is a continuous dynamics of the movement of interethnic ties. What does it mean? Studying the main peoples of Russia, it is important to comprehensively explore this issue. For example, focusing on the inhabitants of the Central region, you need to pay attention to the nationalities of Eastern Europe and Siberia.
All studies of the pre-revolutionary system were aimed at studying the united Russian people. Moreover, the influence of other nationalities, if not excluded from science, was indirectly mentioned, however, not as a leading issue, but only as a formality. The only officially recognized fact is that Finno-Ugric tribes gradually flowed into the indigenous peoples of Russia.
Only at the beginning of the twentieth century did Russia begin to be considered as a historically multinational state. It is impossible to hide the fact that such conclusions were made under the influence of European scientists. Over time, the works of Orthodox authors began to be published, telling that the indigenous peoples of Russia are developing under the influence of the most ancient biblical sources. “The Russian population is people with a divine recognition of ancient Kiev origin,” - one of the church leaders, A. Nechvolodov, interpreted the story. He ranked the Scythians, Huns and other, separately existing peoples, as a formation.
It was in the twentieth century that such a direction of historical thought as Eurasian theory appeared.
Popular sources: how was everything?
A few centuries before the beginning of our era, a great historical event took place: instead of bronze, iron began to be actively used. The widespread distribution of iron ore gave not only the ubiquity of the raw materials used, but also the strength of the manufactured tools.
During this period, a gradual cooling of the climate takes place, accompanied by an increase in the number of fertile lands favorable for livestock breeding, the vital activity of microorganisms developing in the water environment changes, which positively affects the composition of rivers, lakes, streams, and so on.
With the advent of iron ore, ancient peoples in Russia began their active development. The number of tribes using iron as their main material has increased. During this period, ancient Russia was characterized by the resettlement of the ancestors of the Slavic people, Latvians, Estonians, Lithuanians, northeastern Finno-Ugric tribes, as well as other small communities that inhabited the space of Central Russia and Eastern Europe.
The “Iron Coup” increased the level of agriculture, accelerated the clearing of forests for planting, and facilitated the hard field work of the plowmen. The ancient peoples of Russia, whose names are unknown to history, gradually began to exhibit distinctive features from the general mass of the population. The formation of each nation occurs under the influence of sedentary development of livestock and agriculture. Moreover, settling in different parts of the world, Slavic peoples passed on household skills to foreign-speaking neighbors - measures, miracles, Karelians, and so on. This fact explains a large number of words in the Estonian language of Slavic origin related to the subject of agriculture.
First fortifications
The first prototypes of cities where the peoples and ancient states of Russia lived and formed, existed in the first millennium BC. A similar trend is observed both in Northern Europe and in the Urals - the visual border of the settlement of Slavic peoples.
Isolation by forest expanses contributed to the destruction of the tribal communal way of life. Now, the ancient peoples on the territory of Russia lived in cities or strongholds, which significantly weakened the kinship ties of the once large and powerful community. Gradually, the resettlement forced the peoples to leave their habitat and slowly move in a southeast direction. The abandoned cities were called fortifications. Thanks to such settlements and buildings, the history of Russia from ancient times has many facts and scientific knowledge. Now scientists can judge the everyday life of people, their upbringing, education and work. During the construction of cities, the first signs of stratification of society appear.
The origin of the Slavs as a separate ethnic group
Many scholars are of the opinion that most Slavs are of Indo-European origin. Thus, the most ancient people in Russia originally inhabited not only the territory of the modern state, but also most of Eastern Europe and southern countries up to modern India.
The common origin of several peoples gives a community of modern languages. Despite the different developmental beginnings, in the languages ​​of neighboring foreign states you can find a huge number of words similar in meaning and pronunciation. Today, Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Romance, Indian, Iranian and other language families are considered related.
Assimilation of the Slavs
Not a single nation has survived as a pristine ethnic group . During the period of active settlement of the Slavs , assimilation took place with neighboring tribes and communities.
The history of the state and peoples of Russia is silent about further facts of the development of nationality. In this regard, for centuries, scientists, scientists put forward a variety of hypotheses. For example, the first chronicler Nestor believed that the Slavic people originally lived on the border of Central and Eastern Europe, and later this ethnic group occupied the Danube river basin along with the Balkan Peninsula.
Scientists - representatives of the bourgeoisie put forward an erroneous theory that an insignificant part of the territory of the Carpathians is the ancestral home of the Slavs.
The peoples of Russia: briefly about the Slavs of the second millennium BC
The sages of antiquity considered the Slavs the greatest people in the history of the past, present and future. The facts that the people of Slavic origin were formed under the influence of Ants, Venets, Wends and so on survived to our times.
The Greeks defined the territory of the Slavs as follows: in the west - to Elba; in the north - to the Baltic Sea; in the south - to the Danube River; in the east - to the Diet and the Oka. Moreover, ancient Greek travelers, thinkers and scientists were not limited to these data. In their opinion, the Slavic peoples living in Russia could settle far to the southeast, thanks to the vast and fertile forest-steppe zone. It was the sedentary lifestyle in the rich forests of the country, active hunting and fishing, gathering herbs and berries that served as the reason for the mixing of the Slavs with the Sarmatians.
According to Herodotus, a people known as Scythians lived in Eastern Europe. It is worth noting that this definition was understood not only as Slavic tribes, but also many other ethnic groups.
What is rich in northeastern Europe?
Ancient peoples in Russia are not limited to mentioning people of Slavic origin. The second place in the number of tribes and resettlement within the borders of the state is occupied by Lithuanian-Latvian groups.
This people belonged to the tribes of the Finno-Ugric language family: Finns, Estonians, Maris, Mordovians, and so on. Indirect national peoples of Russia led a lifestyle similar to the Slavic tribes. Moreover, related languages ​​contributed to the active strengthening of the above ethnic communities.
A distinctive feature of Latvians and Lithuanians was that they devoted most of their time and attention to horse breeding rather than farming. At the same time, the construction of reliable settlements-fortifications was carried out. Judging by the stories of travelers, Herodotus called the Lithuanian-Latvian groups Tissageti.
Ancient Russia: Scythians and Sarmatians
One of the few representatives of the Iranian language family who left only a trace in history are the Scythians and Sarmatians. Presumably these peoples occupied the territory of southern Russia right up to Altai.
The Scythian and Sarmatian communities possessed many similarities with other tribes, but they never constituted a single political principle. As far back as the fifth century BC, social stratification took place on the territory of the settlement of the tribes, as well as wars of conquest. Scythians gradually conquered the Black Sea tribes, made many trips to the Balkan Peninsula, Asia, Transcaucasia.
Amazing legends go about the wealth of the Scythians. An immense amount of gold was laid in the royal tombs. In this regard, we can trace a fairly strong stratification of society, as well as the power of the elite class.
An interesting fact is that the Scythians were divided into several tribal groups. For example, in the valley of the eastern Dnieper lived nomadic variations of nationality, in turn, the Scythians-farmers inhabited the western side of the river. The royal Scythians traveling between the Dnieper and the Lower Don stood out as a separate group. Only here you can meet the richest mounds and powerfully fortified settlements.
The history of Russia since ancient times also provides for surprisingly dynamic alliances of Scythian-Sarmatian tribes. Gradually, such mergers gave rise to the statehood of the slave system. The first state of this nationality was formed by Sindi tribes, the other as a result of the Thracian wars.
The most durable Scythian state was formed in the third century BC, its center was the Crimea. In place of modern Simferopol, the main character of all legends was located - a city with the beautiful name Naples - the capital of the Scythian kingdom. It was a powerful center, fortified with stone walls and equipped with huge storage of grain.
The Scythians both engaged in farming and paid a special attention to cattle breeding. In the first centuries BC, craft activity was actively developing among the tribes . The vibrant and extraordinary culture of the Scythians is still being studied by historians. This people gave an immense amount of ideas for painting, sculptures and other artistic creations. Today, museums store echoes of ancient life.
There is an opinion that the Scythian tribes were not completely destroyed from the face of the earth. The presence of a crisis in the
slaveholding society is obvious, but the likelihood of assimilation with the Slavic tribes is very high. The origin of many words of the modern Russian language speaks about this fact. If the Slavs used the “dog”, along with this expression, the Scythian-Iranian “dog” is used; pan-Slavic “good” is equated with Scythian-Sarmatian “good” and so on.
Scythians should not be considered direct descendants of the Slavic people, but echoes of an ancient wonderful culture are still present.
Black Sea coast: Greek roots
The peoples that existed on the Black Sea coast, several centuries BC, were captured by the Greek robber squads. For decades, policy cities with an ancient Greek culture have developed here. Developed slave relations.
Ancient Russia has gained a huge amount of invaluable experience from Greek life. Particularly developed in this part of the state were agriculture, capture and salting of fish, winemaking, and processing of wheat brought from Scythian lands. Distribution and popularity received a ceramic craft. In addition, the experience of trading with overseas states was adopted. Valuable Greek jewelry came into use by the Scythian kings and was recognized along with local wealth.
Cities formed on the territory of the former Greek polises adopted the high level of culture of this people. Countless temples, theaters, sculptures and murals adorned the everyday life of the Greeks. Gradually, the cities were filled with barbarian tribes, which, oddly enough, revered the ancient Greek culture, preserving the monuments of art, as well as studying the writings of philosophers.
The ancient population of Russia: the peoples of the Bosporus kingdom
The Northern Black Sea region began development in the fifth century BC. It formed the only major slave state called Bospor - modern Kerch. A large political formation lasted only 9 centuries, after which it was destroyed by the Huns in the fourth century BC.
The peoples of the Northern Black Sea Region assimilated with the Greeks gradually settled along the territory of the Kerch Peninsula, the lower reaches of the Don. They occupied the Taman Peninsula. The active development of peoples was noted in the eastern part of the state, and the aristocracy, who interacted with rich representatives of the Greek population, gradually stood out from the union of tribes.
The first impetus for the destruction of statehood was the revolt of the slaves led by Savmak. During this period, Ancient Russia was filled with fragmentation and rebellion. Gradually, the Black Sea region was completely captured by the Getae and Sarmatians, and subsequently almost completely destroyed.
The formation of the rich Russian history of modern Russia took place not only under the influence of the peoples living in the Central region. Representatives of other nationalities also had a significant impact. Today it is impossible to determine exactly whether the Slavs were an independently developing people or whether someone from outside influenced their formation. It is this issue that modern historical science is called to resolve.