The history of Russian statehood begins from the time when ten Slavic tribes began to settle in the northern and central parts of the East European Plain ten centuries before the beginning of a new era. 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 many related languages known as Slavic languages (they all belong to the Indo-European language family). Little is known about the Slavs before they are mentioned in the Byzantine records of the VI century BC. e., while most of what we know about them until this time, scientists have obtained through archaeological and linguistic research.
Main places of residence
Slavic tribes began to develop new territories in the VI-VIII centuries. Tribes diverged in three main areas:
- to the south - the Balkan Peninsula,
- to the west - between the Oder and the Elbe,
- to the east and northeast of 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 are evil and good spirits that personify various natural forces: Yarilo - the Sun, Perun - thunder and lightning, etc.
When the Eastern Slavs mastered the East European Plain, changes in their social structure occurred - tribal alliances appeared, which later became the basis of future statehood.
Ancient peoples in Russia
The oldest of the distant northern peoples of Eurasia were Neolithic wild reindeer hunters. Archaeological evidence of their existence dates back to the 5th millennium BC. Small-scale reindeer husbandry is believed to have developed 2,000 years ago.
In the IX-X centuries, the Vikings (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, the Turkic people, controlled the south of the central region.
Another 2,000 years BC. e., both in the north and in the territory of modern Moscow, and in the east, in the region of the Urals, there were tribes that grew raw grains. Around the same time, tribes in the territory of modern Ukraine also engaged in agriculture.
The spread of ancient Russian tribes
Many peoples gradually migrated to where the eastern part of Russia is now located. 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, fishers, shepherds and hunters. By 600, the Slavs had become the dominant ethnic group on 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 created villages along all the major rivers of the territory of present 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 Mongolian 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 flourished 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);
- Southern Slavs (mainly tribes from Bulgaria and the 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 (Volyn);
- Drevlyan;
- Dregovichi;
- dulebov;
- Krivichi;
- polochan;
- glade;
- radimichi;
- Slovene
- tivertsy;
- streets;
- Croats
- bodrichey;
- vislyan;
- zlichan;
- puddles;
- buttercups;
- 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 Ancient Russia migrated from the territory of modern Russia to the southern Balkans more than 1,000 years ago and captured the Christian communities founded by Roman colonists.
Philologists and archaeologists argue that the Slavs very long ago settled in the Carpathians and in the region of modern Belarus. By 600, as a result of linguistic separation, the southern, western, and eastern branches appeared. Eastern Slavs settled on the Dnieper River in the territory that now belongs to Ukraine. Then they spread north to the northern Volga Valley, east of modern Moscow, and to the west - to the basins of the Northern Dniester and Western Bug, to the territory of modern Moldova and to the south of Ukraine.
Later, the Slavs adopted Christianity. These tribes were scattered over a large territory and suffered from the invasions of nomadic tribes: the Huns, Mongols and Turks. The first large Slavic states were the Western Bulgarian state (680-1018) and Moravia (beginning of the 9th century). In the IX century, the Kiev state was formed.
Old Russian mythology
Very few mythological materials have survived: until the 9th-10th centuries. n e. among Slavic tribes, writing was not yet distributed.
One of the main gods of the Slavic tribes of Ancient Russia was Perun, who is associated with the Baltic god Perkuno, as well as with the Norwegian god Thor. Like these deities, Perun is the god of thunder, the supreme deity of 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 childbirth. Also, the Slavs had the goddess of winter and death - Morena, the goddess of spring - Lela, the goddess of summer - Alive, the gods of love - Lel and Polel, the first was the god of early love, the second - the god of mature love and family.
The 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 10th century BC e. there was a process of gradual cultural divergence, which gave rise to many closely related, but mutually exclusive languages, classified as part of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family.
Currently, there are a large number of Slavic languages, in particular, Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Polish, Serbian, Slovak, Russian and many others. They are common 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 is very little. They are mainly preserved in later works of folklore, represented by proverbs and sayings, riddles and tales, labor songs and legends, legends.
These tribes of Ancient Rus possessed some knowledge of nature. For example, thanks to the slaughter system, the East Slavic agricultural calendar appeared, divided on the basis of agricultural cycles into the lunar months. Also, Slavic tribes in the territory of Ancient Rus possessed knowledge about animals, metals, and actively developed applied art.