In the VIII-IX centuries, in the interfluve of the Volga and Oka rivers and in the upper Don, an alliance of tribes came, headed by the elder Vyatko; after his name, this people began to be called "Vyatichi". The chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" writes in this regard: "And Vyatko is sede with his kin after Otse, from him I was nicknamed Vyatichi."
Migration of peoples
The first people in the upper reaches of the Don appeared several million years ago, in the Upper Paleolithic. The hunters who lived here knew how to make not only tools of labor, but also statuettes amazingly carved from stone, which glorified the Paleolithic sculptors of the Upper Don region. For many millennia, various peoples lived on our land, among which are the Alans, who gave the name to the Don River, which means "river"; wide open spaces were inhabited by Finnish tribes, who left us a legacy of many geographical names, for example: the rivers Oka, Protva, Moscow, Sylva.
In the 5th century, the migration of the Slavs to the lands of Eastern Europe began. In the VIII-IX centuries, in the interfluve of the Volga and Oka rivers and in the upper Don, an alliance of tribes came, headed by the elder Vyatko; after his name, this people began to be called "Vyatichi". The chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" writes in this regard: "And Vyatko is sede with his kin after Otse, from him I was nicknamed Vyatichi." The settlement map of the Vyatichi in the XI century can be viewed here.
Life and customs
Vyatichi-Slavs received an unflattering description of the Kiev chronicler as a rude tribe, "like animals, everything is unclean with poison." Vyatichi, like all Slavic tribes, lived in a tribal system. They knew only the genus, which meant the totality of relatives and each of them; the clans constituted a "tribe". The popular assembly of the tribe elected a leader who commanded the army during campaigns and wars. It was called old Slavic name"prince". Gradually, the prince's power increased and became hereditary. Vyatichi, who lived among boundless woodlands, built log huts, similar to modern ones, small windows were cut through them, which were tightly closed with latches during cold weather.
The land of the Vyatichi was vast and famous for its riches, an abundance of animals, birds and fish. They led a closed semi-hunting, semi-agricultural life. Small villages of 5-10 yards, as the arable land was depleted, were transferred to other places where the forest was burned, and for 5-6 years the land gave a good harvest until it was depleted; then it was necessary to move again to new areas of the forest and start all over again. In addition to farming and hunting, the Vyatichi were engaged in beekeeping and fishing. At that time, beaver rutting existed on all rivers and streams, and beaver fur was considered an important item of commodity exchange. Vyatichi bred cattle, pigs, horses. Food for them was prepared with scythes, the length of the blades of which reached half a meter, and the width - 4-5 cm.
Vyachny temporal ring
Archaeological excavations in the land of Vyatichi have opened numerous craft workshops of metallurgists, blacksmiths, locksmiths, jewelers, potters, stone cutters. Metallurgy was based on local raw materials - bog and meadow ores, as elsewhere in Russia. Iron was processed in forges, where special forges with a diameter of about 60 cm were used. Jewelry business reached a high level among the Vyatichi. The collection of foundry molds found in our area is second only to Kiev: 19 foundry molds were found in one town of Serensk. Craftsmen made bracelets, signet rings, temple rings, crosses, amulets, etc.
The Vyatichi carried on a lively trade. Trade relations were established with the Arab world, they went along the Oka and Volga, as well as along the Don and further along the Volga and the Caspian Sea. At the beginning of the 11th century, trade with Western Europe was being established, from where the objects of artistic handicraft came. Denarii displace other coins and become the main means of monetary circulation. But the Vyatichi traded with Byzantium the longest - from the 11th to the 12th centuries, where they brought furs, honey, wax, armourers 'and goldsmiths' products, and in return received silk fabrics, glass beads and vessels, bracelets.
Judging by the archaeological sources, Vyatka fortified settlements and settlements of the 8th-10th centuries. and even more so XI-XII. centuries were settlements of not so much tribal communities as territorial, neighboring ones. The finds indicate a noticeable property stratification among the inhabitants of these settlements of that time, about the wealth of some and the poverty of other dwellings and graves, about the development of crafts and trade exchange.
It is interesting that among the local settlements of that time there are not only settlements of the "urban" type or obvious rural settlements, but also very small in area, surrounded by powerful earth fortifications of the settlement. Apparently, these are the remains of the fortified estates of local feudal lords of that time, their kind of "castles". In the Upa basin, similar fortress estates were found near the villages of Gorodna, Taptykovo, Ketri, Staraya Krapivenka, and Novoye Selo. There are such in other places of the Tula region.
About significant changes in the life of the local population in the IX-XI centuries. the ancient annals tell us. According to the "Tale of Bygone Years" in the IX century. Vyatichi paid tribute to the Khazar Kaganate. They continued to remain his subjects in the 10th century. The initial tribute was collected, apparently, by furs and households ("from the smoke"), and in the 10th century. already required a monetary tribute and "from the Rala" - from the plowman. So the chronicle testifies to the development of arable farming and commodity-money relations at this time among the Vyatichi. Judging by the chronicle data, the land of the Vyatichi in the VIII-XI centuries. was an integral East Slavic territory. For a long time, the Vyatichi retained their independence and isolation.
Religion
The Vyatichi were pagans and kept the ancient faith longer than other tribes. If in Kievan Rus the main god was Perun - the god of the stormy sky, then among the Vyatichi - Stribog ("Old God"), who created the universe, the Earth, all gods, people, vegetation and animal world... It was he who gave people blacksmith tongs, taught how to smelt copper and iron, and also established the first laws. In addition, they worshiped Yarila, the sun god, who rides across the sky in a wonderful chariot drawn by four white golden-maned horses with golden wings. Every year on June 23, the holiday of Kupala, the god of earthly fruits, was celebrated, when the sun gives the greatest strength to plants and medicinal herbs were collected. The Vyatichi believed that on the night of Kupala, trees move from place to place and talk to each other with the noise of branches, and whoever has a fern with him can understand the language of each creation. Lel, the god of love, who appeared in the world every spring to unlock with his flower keys the bowels of the earth for the exuberant growth of herbs, bushes and trees, for the triumph of the all-conquering power of Love. The goddess Lada, the patroness of marriage and family, was sung by the Vyatichi.
In addition, the Vyatichi worshiped the forces of nature. So, they believed in a devil - the owner of the forest, a creature of a wild species that was taller than anyone tall tree... Goblin tried to knock a man off the road in the forest, lead him into an impenetrable swamp, slums and destroy him there. At the bottom of a river, lake, in the pools, there lived a water man - a naked, shaggy old man, master of waters and swamps, of all their riches. He was the lord of the mermaids. Mermaids are the souls of drowned girls, evil creatures. Coming out of the water where they live on a moonlit night, they try to lure a person into the water by singing and charms and tickle him to death. The brownie, the main owner of the house, enjoyed great respect. This is a little old man, similar to the owner of the house, all overgrown with hair, an eternal bustle, often grumpy, but at heart is kind and caring. Ded Moroz, who shook his gray beard and caused crackling frosts, was an unassuming, harmful old man in the view of the Vyatichi. Father Frost frightened children. But in the 19th century, he turned into a kind creature who, together with the Snow Maiden, brings gifts for the New Year. Such were the way of life, customs and religion of the Vyatichi, which made them little different from other East Slavic tribes.
Vyatichi sanctuaries
the village of Dedilovo (former Dedilovskaya Sloboda) - the remains of the holy city of the Vyatichi Dedoslavl on the Shivoron River (a tributary of the Upa), 30 km. to the South-East of Tula. [B.A. Rybakov, Kievan Rus and Russian principalities of the 12-13th centuries, M., 1993]
Venev toponymic knot - 10-15 km from Venev in the South-Eastern sector; the village of Dedilovskie vyselki, the village of Terebush, the village of Gorodenets.
Vyatichi burial mounds
On the Tula land, as well as in the neighboring regions - Oryol, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan - there are known, and in some cases, explored groups of mounds - the remains of pagan cemeteries of ancient Vyatichi. The mounds near the village of Zapadnaya and with. Dobry Suvorovskiy district, near the village of Triznovo, Shchekinskiy district.
During the excavations, the remains of cremations were found, sometimes of several different times. In some cases they are placed in an earthen urn vessel, in others they are stacked on a cleared area with a ring ditch. In a number of burial mounds, burial chambers were found - wooden log cabins with a plank floor and a covering of split members. The entrance to such a domina - a collective tomb - was laid with stones or boards, and therefore could be opened for subsequent burials. In other burial mounds, including those located nearby, there are no such structures.
Establishing the features of the funeral rite, ceramics and things discovered during excavations, their comparison with other materials helps to at least to some extent make up for the extreme scarcity of written information that has come down to us about the local population of that distant time, about the ancient history of our region. Archaeological materials confirm the information of the chronicle about the ties of the local Vyatichi, Slavic tribe with other related tribes and tribal unions, about the long-term preservation of old tribal traditions and customs in the life and culture of the local population.
Conquest by Kiev
In 882, Prince Oleg created a united Old Russian state. The freedom-loving and warlike tribe of the Vyatichi long and stubbornly defended independence from Kiev. They were headed by princes elected by the national assembly, who lived in the capital of the Vyatik tribe, the city of Dedoslavl (now Dedilovo). The strongholds were the fortress cities of Mtsensk, Kozelsk, Rostislavl, Lobynsk, Lopasnya, Moskalsk, Serenok and others, which numbered from 1 to 3 thousand inhabitants. Under the command of the Vyatka princes was a large army, in the first ranks of which were recognized strong men and brave men, boldly exposing their bare breasts to arrows. All their clothes were made of canvas pants, tied tight with belts and tucked into their boots, and their weapons were wide axes, so heavy that they fought with both hands. But how terrible were the blows of battle axes: they cut through even strong armor and split helmets like clay pots. Warriors-spearmen with large shields formed the second line of fighters, and behind them were archers and javelin throwers - young warriors.
In 907, the Vyatichi are mentioned by the chronicler as participants in the campaign of Prince Oleg of Kiev against Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium.
In 964, the Kiev prince Svyatoslav invaded the easternmost Slavic people... He had a well-armed and disciplined squad, but he did not want a fratricidal war. He held talks with the elders of the Vyatichi. The chronicle about this event reports briefly: “Svyatoslav went to the Oka River and the Volga and met the Vyatichi and said to them:“ To whom are you giving tribute? ”They answered:“ Khazars. ”Svyatoslav removed the power of the Khazar Kaganate from the Vyatichi, they began to pay tribute his.
However, the Vyatichi soon left Kiev. The Kiev prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich also fought twice with the Vyatichi. The chronicle says that in 981 he defeated them and imposed tribute - from each plow, just like his father took it. But in 982, according to the chronicle, the Vyatichi rose up in war, and Vladimir went to them and won a second time. Having baptized Russia in 988, Vladimir sent a monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery to the land of the Vyatichi in order to introduce the forest people to Orthodoxy. Gloomy bearded men in bast shoes and women wrapped up to their eyebrows in headscarves respectfully listened to the visiting missionary, but then unanimously expressed bewilderment: why, why should the religion of their grandfathers and fathers be changed to faith in Christ? that dark corner of the endless Vyatka forests at the hands of fanatical pagans.
It is noteworthy that in the epics about Ilya Muromets, his moving from Murom to Kiev on a "straight road" road through the Vyatka territory is considered one of his heroic deeds. Usually they preferred to go around it in a roundabout way. With pride, as a special feat, Vladimir Monomakh also speaks of his campaigns in this land in his "Teaching", dating back to the end of the 11th century. It should be noted that he does not mention either the subjugation of the Vyatichi by him, or the imposition of tribute. Apparently, they were ruled at that time by independent leaders or elders. In the "Teaching" Monomakh crushes Khodota and his son out of them.
Until the last quarter of the XI century. the chronicles do not name a single city in the land of the Vyatichi. Apparently, she was essentially unknown to the chroniclers.
Rise of Hodota
In 1066, the proud and rebellious Vyatichi again rose up against Kiev. They are headed by Khodota and his son, who are well-known adherents of the pagan religion in their region. Vladimir Monomakh is going to pacify them. His first two campaigns ended in nothing. The squad passed through the woods without meeting the enemy. Only during the third campaign Monomakh overtook and defeated the forest army of Khodota, but his leader managed to escape.
By the second winter Grand Duke prepared differently. First of all, he sent his scouts to the Vyatka settlements, occupied the main ones and brought in all supplies there. And when frost hit, Khodota was forced to go to warm up in the huts and dugouts. Monomakh overtook him in one of the winter quarters. The guards knocked out everyone who came to hand in this battle.
But the Vyatichi ratified and rebelled for a long time, until the governors intercepted and bandaged all the ringleaders and executed them in front of the villagers with a fierce execution. Only then did the land of the Vyatichi finally become part of the Old Russian state. In the XIV century, the Vyatichi finally left the historical scene and were no longer mentioned in the chronicles.
Capital of Vyatichi
The following is known about the capital of the state: “In the 7th-10th centuries on the Oka and the upper Don there was a Vyatichi state, independent of Kievan Rus. The center of this state, the ancient Russian city of Kordno, historians see near the modern village of Karniki, Venevsky region. described how the squad collected tribute from the population. "
Source - http://www.m-byte.ru/venev/
"Dark Ages" of our region
At the end of the 1st millennium AD, Slavic tribes begin active migration to the north. They completely absorb the Dyakian culture - part of the Finnish tribes are pushed to the north, and most of assimilated. According to V.V. Sidorov, assimilation in our region was painless, since the Slavic element penetrated the local Finno-Ugric environment long before the main wave of Slavic migration. Its traces can be traced in the interaction of the Jenev and Ressetin cultures, in the traces of the Fatyanovo culture (referred to the Trypillian Slavic world), in the possible formation of a separate Kashira culture, where there was an active process of cultural exchange between the Slavs, Balts (an ethnos that arose, in his opinion, not without influence Slavic world) and the Finno-Ugric tribes of the Dyakovites (in the period from the 5th to the 2nd century BC).
This was probably the first wave of Slavic migration in our region. It is quite understandable that in the absence of any semblance of roads, migration proceeded along the rivers and, above all, along the Oka. From the upper reaches of the river to our region of the middle course of the Oka and further to the north and northeast. This well-trodden path was preserved in the subsequent stages of Slavic migration. It can be assumed that in our region at the end of the 1st millennium BC and in 1st millennium AD, there was a kind of polyethnos that emerged from the merger of the Finno-Ugric, Baltic and Slavic tribes. It is the existence of this polyethnos that can explain the mysterious, still scientifically inexplicable, disappearance of Dyakov's settlements in the 5th-7th centuries A.D.
The version of the formation of a new polyethnos under the pressure of the first wave of Slavic migration is very interesting and may become an explanation for the “disappearance” of the Dyakovites, who simply disappeared into the Balts and Slavs. Although in this case it is not completely clear what happened in our region from the 5th to the 8th centuries, when no traces of the Dyakovites are found, but according to chronicle and archaeological information, slavic tribe Vyatichi have not appeared in the Oka basin yet?
What happened in these 200-300 years, which scientists call the "dark ages"? There are no answers yet, which means that new archaeological finds in our region are still waiting for their researcher, which, perhaps, will open the veil of secrecy over this issue.
In our time, there is no longer any doubt that the partial penetration of the Slavs into the Oka River basin is noticeable already from the end of the 4th century (after the invasion of the Huns) and intensified from the middle of the 6th century (after the invasion of the Avars).
Climate change and migration encouraged the Slavs. From the end of the 4th century, a rather sharp cold snap set in in Europe. The 5th century was especially cold, when the lowest temperatures in the last 2000 years were observed. The great Slavic migration began.
The strength of the Slavs lay in the fact that they were not tied to one landscape zone and with equal success were engaged in economic activities in the dense European forests and in the fertile feather-grass steppes. The Slavic economy was based on slash-and-burn agriculture, which, in combination with hunting, fishing and forestry, became the basis of the economy. This allowed the Slavs to settle in any free or sparsely populated lands. And our land, as we have already shown by the example of the “disappearance” of the Dyakian tribes, was just relatively free. The first Slavic intelligence officers appreciated these advantages.
When did the Big People come?
Only in the 8th century did the Vyatichi, carriers of the Romny-Borshevsk archaeological culture, appear on the Oka. Where do they come from? - a question still open. The author of "The Tale of Bygone Years" Nestor, explaining the name "Vyatichi", will call them the direct descendants of a certain Vyatka ("and Vyatko sat down with his family on the Oka, from him the Vyatichi were nicknamed"). At the same time, speaking about this legendary tribal prince, he reports that together with his brother Radim (from whom the Radimichi descended), they came from the "Poles", that is, were immigrants from the territory of modern Poland, more precisely, they came from the territories occupied by the Polish Slavic tribes.
It is likely that the Vyatichi Wends came to the Oka, to our land, along the "amber path" beaten by merchants. They walked for a long time, with stops of a hundred years in the Dnieper region (VI-VIII century), leaving traces of their stay there and absorbing the features of the Volyntsevsk, and later the Romny-Borshevsk culture of the local Slavs. Nestor also hints at the common and interpenetrating ethno-cultural roots of the East Slavic tribes, noting in the "Tale of Bygone Years": "And there are glades in the world, and the Drevlyans, and the north, and Radimichi, and Vyatichi and Croatians." But at the same time, Nestor emphasizes that the Radichimichi and Vyatichi came from the west, from the land of the Poles (that is, at that time from the country of the Wends), to the land of the primordial inhabitants of the Dnieper - the Glades and Drevlyans. ("Polyanom living about himself, like a rkokhom, being from the Slovenian clan and dabbling in the glade, and the Derevlyans from the Slovenian and dying Drevlyans; Radimichi bo and Vyatichi from the Lyakhov").
Going further, they absorbed the Vyatichi and the Moschinskaya culture of the Baltic tribes, which they met in the 7th-8th centuries in the upper reaches of the Oka, moving from there from the left bank of the Dnieper. They took the semicircular form of the construction of ramparts for fortified settlements and the construction of burial mounds with ring fences from the Moshintsy. At the same time, in the barrow, together with the deceased, the Vyatichi began to bury horses and weapons, as the Balts did. The Vyatichi also adopted the custom of decorating themselves with neck torcs and rings. And, finally, at the end of the 8th - the beginning of the 9th century, Vyatichi came to our region. Sparsely populated and almost untouched. With excellent places for the construction of typical Vyatichi settlements - on the high banks of rivers and ravines. Without bloodshed, the Vyatichi assimilated the local population from the first Slavs, who mixed with the Finno-Ugrians and Balts. It is no coincidence that the first settlements of the Vyatichi in our region were located on the site of the former Dyakov's settlements - on the settlement 2 and settlements 1, 4 and 5 Koltovo, on the village of Lidskoye, as well as on the left bank of the Oka on the settlements of Smedovo II and Smedovo III.
The basis of the Vyatichi economy was agriculture and hunting. The first settlers started life in a new place with the construction of a hut or dugout, and after the first harvest they put up a log house with a poultry cage. They drowned the huts in black. After that, a cattle shed, a barn, a barn and a threshing floor appeared. Relatives of the first settlers settled next to the first peasant estate - "in a chink". Small agricultural villages were often temporary in nature and were relocated to other places as the small slash arable land was depleted. The Vyatichi preferred to hunt for the beaver, which then lived in abundance on all rivers and streams of the modern territory of the Kashira region. Ermine, squirrel and marten furs were an important item of trade with neighboring Finnish and Baltic tribes. In addition to farming and hunting, the Vyatichi were engaged in beekeeping and fishing. The natural conditions of our region gave the Vyatichi the opportunity to conduct an active and successful economy. Pottery, blacksmithing and other crafts were additional sources of existence for the Pook Slavs.
The earliest traces of the Vyatichi stay in our region date back to the end of the 8th - the beginning of the 9th century. This is confirmed by the finds of ceramics characteristic of the Romny-Borshevsk culture, made in the Kashira region and in the adjacent territories. It is similar to the one found by T.N. Nikolskaya in the early layers during excavations of the Vyatichi city of Serensk (Kaluga region).
Modeled rough utensils of this type were found in our settlement 1 in Koltovo (Koltovo 2) and at settlement 4 (Koltovo 8).
The early layers of the cultural layer of Detinets Kolteska (fortified settlement 1), settlements 1 and 5 Koltovo, also give reason to talk about the appearance of Vyatichi here in the late 700s - early 800s. n. NS. Vyatichi lived in the VIII-X centuries in the area of the present village. Ledovo, in the village of Lidskoe (Lida village); and also not far from the borders of the modern Kashirsky district on the left bank of the Oka in the village of Kordon (Serpukhovsky district); at the P'yanaya Gora tract near the current Malyushina dacha; in the village of Luzhniki (all - Stupinsky district). Archaeologists have found here molded thick-walled ceramics of the Romny type - molded pots, rough, with a bumpy surface, with grains of impurities, along the edge of the rim, notches made with a fingernail or a cord wound on a stick. It should be noted that archaeological finds are the main source of our ideas about the way of life and development of the Vyatichi. Since the only mention of Vyatichi in the ancient Nestorov chronicle, although it contains an accurate description of the customs and way of life of our ancestors, it already bears the imprint of the political bias of the rulers of Kievan Rus.
It is curious that Nestor and other chroniclers, creating the official version of the history of Kievan Rus, over-praise the ancestors of the Kievites - the Polyans, without mentioning the state formations of other Eastern Slavs, including the Vyatichi, belittling the Vyatichi and other tribes. But in vain, if we compare the development of the Russian lands in the 9th-13th centuries by the number of settlements, it turns out that most of them were in the Dnieper region (original Kievan Rus) - 49% of the total of all known ancient Russian settlements, and the "second place" of the land of the Vyatichi on the Oka - 16.6% of the total number of all known ancient Russian settlements (here's the "animal way of life in the forest"!). As the pre-revolutionary researcher of ancient Russian cities ID Belyaev noted: "... This unknown land, completely forgotten by our previous chronicles, was boiling with activity and life no less than other parts of Russia, ... there were many cities in it."
Arab and Persian merchants spoke about the greatness of the Vyatichi state. In the 9th-10th centuries they mention the big city Vantit known to them on the Oka River, i.e. Vyatkov or Vyatich. At the same time, only three Slavic cities were known to the Arabs at that time: "Cuyaba" - Kiev; Slavia - Novgorod; "Artania" - Vantit on the Oka. In the Mordovian language, the word "Artania" means "a country in constipation (locked)." And it was no coincidence that the Arabs mentioned that the Vyatichi did not let anyone in and killed the newcomers. It is no coincidence that at a later time, in the X-XII centuries. the land of the Vyatichi, lost in deep forests, was considered by the inhabitants of other regions inaccessible and dangerous. The usual road from Kiev to the ancient Russian cities of Rostov and Suzdal went in a roundabout way through Smolensk and the upper Volga. Few of the travelers dared to drive through the dangerous forests of the Vyatichi. Let us recall at least the first feat of the epic hero Ilya Muromets, who traveled along the direct path from Murom to Kiev through our "wild lands". It was so incredible for that time that, according to epic legend, the Kievites ridiculed Ilya Muromets when he told them about a journey through the "country locked". And they would not have believed it if they had not presented the epic hero with proof - the Nightingale the Robber. Perhaps the Vyatichi, like forest people, knew how to live in trees, hiding in century-old oaks, defending themselves and attacking from above, whistling signals to each other. It is no coincidence that the beautiful Vyatichi warriors, who kept their land "locked up", took part in the legendary campaign of Prince Oleg in 907 to Constantinople (Constantinople).
The basis of the Vyatichi economy in the 9th-10th centuries continued to be agriculture and cattle breeding. By the end of this period, slash farming began to change to arable farming. But this transition took place among the Vyatichi living in the forest region, more slowly than among other East Slavic tribes. The main instruments of labor were an iron ax, a hoe and a large knife - "mower". (At settlement 4 in Koltovo, archaeologists found a fragment of a scythe and an iron knife. In Koltovo 7, in addition to the usual abundance of Old Russian linear and wavy ceramics, archaeologists found iron knives, pink salmon braids). The harrow was used - a knotted one. Harvested with a sickle. The most popular agricultural crops of Vyatichi were millet and turnip. Vyatichi bred cattle, pigs, horses. Fodder was harvested in the floodplains of the Oka meadows. By the abundance of bird bones, one can judge the development of poultry farming.
The hunt was for a fur-bearing animal. Moreover, the Vyatichi ate the meat of the killed beaver, which allowed Nestor to write in the annals that the Vyatichi "ate the unclean". Honey and wax were extracted from forest bees by beekeeping. The Vyatichi actively used the rivers. In addition to fishing, they traveled along the Oka and Volga to the Caspian Sea on single-tree boats, for the purpose of trade, and reached Kiev and Novgorod by portage. In the district of the Kashira Territory, there are several more Vyatichi settlements dating from the 11th-13th centuries. On the Oka River, these are Teshilov (Serpukhovsky District) and Khoroshevka (Lopasnya?) (Yasnogorsky District), on the Osetra River - Shchuchye (Sokolovka) (Venevsky District), Bavykino and Bebekhino (Zaraysky District), etc.
Craftsmen settled in the settlements. Archaeological excavations testify to the development of blacksmithing and metal casting among the Vyatichi. Jewelery craftsmanship, weaving were developed (slate and clay spinning wheels were often found at the archaeological sites of Koltovo), pottery and stone-cutting.
If by that time unification had come in pottery among the Eastern Slavs - ceramics began to be made on a potter's wheel and decorated with the same linear or wavy pattern for everyone (this ceramics is found in all archaeological sites discovered in the Kashira Territory), then there were differences in jewelry. In the jewelry craft, the Vyatichi were only slightly inferior to Kiev and made bracelets, rings, temple bones, crosses, amulets, etc.
Our region is the center of Old Russian trade.
As we remember, the country of the Vyatichi was a “country locked up”. But suddenly the ancient Russian chronicler reports that from the middle of the 9th century (859) our ancestors began to pay tribute to the Khazar Kaganate: "And the Khazars took from the meadows, and from the northerners, and with Vyatichi, a silver coin and a squirrel from smoke (at home)." At the same time, D.S. Likhachev, believes that translating this place into the "Tale of Bygone Years" can be both "on a silver coin and on a squirrel", but it can be done as "on a winter (white) squirrel and a squirrel". Then it turns out that our ancestors paid absolutely insignificant tribute to the Khazars. Judge for yourself if later, according to the laws of Russkaya Pravda, a “vira” (fine) was established for an inflicted wound - 30 squirrels, and for a bruise - 15 skins. Doesn't such a tribute to the Khazars, more like a small tax, speak of the voluntariness of submission? It was very convenient for the Vyatichi who began to engage in trade to "make friends" with the Khazars, whose merchants controlled at that time all eastern trade, which brought a lot of income. And for this it was possible to join the kaganate on honorable terms, receiving a lot of benefits and privileges in exchange for a tax - a small tribute. We can say that by paying a small tribute to the Khazars, the Vyatichi retained maximum autonomy, but at the same time received huge advantages for trade with the developed Arab East.
The main coin in this trade was silver Arab dirhams (a thin silver coin with a diameter of 2-2.5 cm, covered on both sides with inscriptions - pious sayings and containing the name of the ruler, place and year of minting according to the Hijri chronology, leading from the year of the flight of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina). At the same time, eastern merchants traded not only with Vyatichi. The main flow of goods went in transit through our lands "from the Varangians to the Greeks" - to Western Europe and Byzantium (Byzantine coins were found in a hoard near the village of Khitrovka). It is clear that the warlike Vyatichi, in addition to income from trade, received payment for this Oka transit. Moreover, the payment for armed guards for escorting merchant caravans, consisting of flat-bottomed boats and boats, along the Great Volga Route. Wealth began to settle since the 9th century in our region, giving an impetus not only to the development of the economy, but also laying the foundation for the social stratification of the Vyatichi society. For example, during the excavation of settlement 2 in Koltovo, archaeologists discovered a detached, fortified with a ring shaft and a moat, a rich estate with ancient Russian pottery ceramics. Archaeologists find the first castles and their parts in the layers of that period. This is a vivid confirmation of the fact that it is the Kashira land and our region that have become centers of intensive international trade. This is evidenced by the numerous treasures of the 9th-10th centuries found in our land. On the territory of present-day Moscow and the Moscow Region, only 15 finds were recorded. Of these, 6 (almost half!) Are in the Kashirsky region. (Our first ethnographer A.I. Voronkov mentioned another treasure of Arab coins found in Topkanovo, but there are no descriptions of this treasure, no other mentions. Is it not in our region, and not in Voronezh, was the legendary trading city Vantit-Vyatich ? Maybe the version of some historians is correct that the capital of the Vyatichi state, the city of Kordno (the Arabs called this city Khordab and described how the Vyatichi squad collected tribute from the population) was located on the territory of the modern Venevsky district, bordering our region? Then the road to the capital of the Vyatichi could walk on our land, along the Sturgeon and B. Smedva rivers!
The Arab traveler Gardizi noted in his 11th century essay that the Rus "do not sell goods other than for minted dirhams." A large mass of oriental coins settled in our region, which contributed to the development of monetary circulation. It is no coincidence that after a hundred years, in 964, the Vyatichi began to pay an increased tribute to the Khazars with a silver coin (shchelyag) and not from the house (smoke), but from the plow (ral) - from the plowman (“We give Kozar along the shchelyag from the Rala”). Such a tribute was also not too heavy for the Vyatichi, since Arab travelers reported that the Vyatichi's silver dirhams were used to make monist jewelry for women, sometimes up to a thousand.
What did the Vyatichi sell for Arab silver? The famous Arab geographer Ibn-Khordadbeh reported in the "Book of the ways of states" (about 846) about expensive furs. "The Tale of Bygone Years" notes that furs, honey and "servants" (captive slaves) came from Russia. For a dirham in Russia one could buy a kunya skin, and a squirrel even for half a dirham. According to Ibn-Khor-dadbeh, the most expensive slave cost about 300 dirhams. A good and stable demand was among the Arabs at that time for furs, which became fashionable in the Arab caliphates. Sables, martens, squirrels and ermines from the Vyatichi region adorned the shoulders of the noble Khazars and Arabs. Oriental merchants also bought mammoth bone, which is still found in our region, and at that time, presumably, there was an abundance of it along the river banks at the “mammoth cemeteries”.
Vyatichi bought jewelry from Arab merchants: “The most magnificent adornment (considered) among them (the Rus) are green beads made of the ceramics that are on ships,” Ibn-Fadlan recalled. “They buy such beads for dirham and string them like necklaces for their wives. "
Domestic trade exchange in our region also developed. The first graveyards appeared - places of local trade and commodity exchange, small marketplaces. This was the period of the Khazar "yoke", as a result of which the land of the Vyatichi was enriched and strengthened and became a tasty morsel for Kievan Rus, which, during the reign of Prince Oleg, conquered all the tribes of the Eastern Slavs, except for the Vyatichi.
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The first people in the upper reaches of the Don appeared several thousand years ago, in the Upper Paleolithic era. The hunters who lived here knew how to make not only tools of labor, but also statuettes amazingly carved from stone, which glorified the Paleolithic sculptors of the Upper Don region. For many millennia, various peoples lived on our land, among which are the Alans, who gave the name to the Don River, which means "river"; wide open spaces were inhabited by Finnish tribes, which left us with many geographical names, for example: the rivers Oka, Protva, Moscow, Sylva. In the 5th century, the migration of the Slavs to the lands of Eastern Europe began. In the VIII-IX centuries, in the interfluve of the Volga and Oka rivers and in the upper Don, an alliance of tribes came, headed by the elder Vyatko; after his name, this people began to be called "Vyatichi". The chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" writes in this regard: "And Vyatko is sede with his kin after Otse, from him I was nicknamed Vyatichi." A map of the settlement of Vyatichi in the XI century can be viewed. |
Life and customs
Vyatichi-Slavs received an unflattering description of the Kiev chronicler as a rude tribe, "like animals, everything is unclean with poison." Vyatichi, like all Slavic tribes, lived in a tribal system. They knew only the genus, which meant the totality of relatives and each of them; the clans constituted a "tribe". The popular assembly of the tribe elected a leader who commanded the army during campaigns and wars. It was called by the old Slavic name "prince". Gradually, the prince's power increased and became hereditary. Vyatichi, who lived among boundless woodlands, built log huts, similar to modern ones, small windows were cut through them, which were tightly closed with latches during cold weather.
The land of the Vyatichi was vast and famous for its riches, an abundance of animals, birds and fish. They led a closed semi-hunting, semi-agricultural life. Small villages of 5-10 yards, as the arable land was depleted, were transferred to other places where the forest was burned, and for 5-6 years the land gave a good harvest until it was depleted; then it was necessary to move again to new areas of the forest and start all over again. In addition to farming and hunting, the Vyatichi were engaged in beekeeping and fishing. At that time, beaver rutting existed on all rivers and streams, and beaver fur was considered an important item of commodity exchange. Vyatichi bred cattle, pigs, horses. Food for them was prepared with scythes, the length of the blades of which reached half a meter, and the width - 4-5 cm.
 Vyachny temporal ring |
Archaeological excavations in the land of Vyatichi have opened numerous craft workshops of metallurgists, blacksmiths, locksmiths, jewelers, potters, stone cutters. Metallurgy was based on local raw materials - bog and meadow ores, as elsewhere in Russia. Iron was processed in forges, where special forges with a diameter of about 60 cm were used. Jewelry business reached a high level among the Vyatichi. The collection of foundry molds found in our area is second only to Kiev: 19 foundry molds were found in one town of Serensk. Craftsmen made bracelets, signet rings, temple rings, crosses, amulets, etc. |
The Vyatichi carried on a lively trade. Trade relations were established with the Arab world, they went along the Oka and Volga, as well as along the Don and further along the Volga and the Caspian Sea. At the beginning of the 11th century, trade with Western Europe was being established, from where the objects of artistic handicraft came. Denarii displace other coins and become the main means of monetary circulation. But the Vyatichi traded with Byzantium the longest - from the 11th to the 12th centuries, where they brought furs, honey, wax, armourers 'and goldsmiths' products, and in return received silk fabrics, glass beads and vessels, bracelets.
Judging by the archaeological sources, Vyatka fortified settlements and settlements of the 8th-10th centuries. and even more so XI-XII. centuries were settlements of not so much tribal communities as territorial, neighboring ones. The finds indicate a noticeable property stratification among the inhabitants of these settlements of that time, about the wealth of some and the poverty of other dwellings and graves, about the development of crafts and trade exchange.
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It is interesting that among the local settlements of that time there are not only settlements of the "urban" type or obvious rural settlements, but also very small in area, surrounded by powerful earth fortifications of the settlement. Apparently, these are the remains of the fortified estates of local feudal lords of that time, their kind of "castles". In the Upa basin, similar fortress estates were found near the villages of Gorodna, Taptykovo, Ketri, Staraya Krapivenka, and Novoye Selo. There are such in other places of the Tula region. |
The territory of the Kaluga region has been inhabited since the Neolithic era from the III millennium BC. NS. various tribes and nationalities. At the end of the III millennium BC. NS. - I millennium BC NS. our area was inhabited by a tribe of Fatyanovo, who were familiar with bronze tools. The Fatyanovites were mainly cattle breeders who came to our area from the southeastern steppes in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. NS.
At the end of the II - beginning of the I millennium BC. NS. people knew iron. The development of iron made it possible for people to cut down forests and shrubs, freeing up ever large areas for meadows and pastures, and also to build dwellings from logs instead of primitive huts. In that era, people lived in small tribal communities, and for the settlement they chose the most favorable places where it would be easier to defend against wild animals and rival neighbors. The settlement from the side of the open field, as a rule, was protected by deep ditches and earth embankments, and a palisade of large logs was erected on the top. The dwellings of people were small wooden houses with cone-shaped thatched roofs and a hearth located inside. At the same time, many settlements have existed continuously for hundreds and even more than a thousand years, as evidenced by the cultural layer accumulated on the site.
Hills with remnants of earthen ramparts and ditches, covered with coal-black soil, a cultural layer, have survived in large numbers in the Kaluga region. Archaeologists call the remains of these ancient settlements with fortifications fortified settlements. The first hoards of the "Early Iron Age" were discovered in a settlement near the village of Dyakovo on the southern outskirts of Moscow. This ancient monument, in the form of a pyramidal hill with the remains of a rampart and an ancient moat, received the popular name "Devil's Settlement". Picking up a stone in the debris of the hill locals often met here "devil's fingers" - fossilized mollusks of belemnites, often came across "thunder arrows" - stone tips of ancient arrows. In the 60s of the century before last, the Russian archaeologist D. Ya. Samokvasov during excavations found there a treasure of the most interesting metal jewelry made of bronze of the 5th – 6th centuries. n. BC: massive neck torch with wire winding and hollow beads, twisted torch, horseshoe buckle, bracelets, bells.
About a dozen ancient settlements were located on the Kaluga land- within the boundaries of Kaluga itself, three ancient settlements are known. And nearby there were burial grounds and mounds of ancient Slavic settlements passing nearby. Archaeological studies of Kaluga settlements shed light on the life and life of the ancient inhabitants of our area, made it possible to study their customs and culture. The settlements were inhabited by a patriarchal clan, but over time their population increased, and whole settlements appeared in the vicinity of the settlements. Their traces - a settlement near the village. Kaluzhki, der. Gorodni, der. Sekiotovo, Klimov plant. The architecture of ancient settlements is unusual.
The hills adjacent to the settlement were carefully fortified, and the fortification system of defense was continuously developing over the centuries. On the vulnerable sides of the field, large ramparts were erected, in front of which deep ditches filled with water burst out. A wooden palisade was laid along the crest of the ramparts, encircling the terraces on the steep slopes of the fortifications, built to enter and exit the territory, while the entrance paved with wooden logs or cobblestones led to the flat top of the fortress. On the territory of the settlement there were public buildings, dwelling houses, agricultural buildings, storage facilities, cellars. In each dwelling, one part was probably owned by men, and the other by women and children.
In the center of the house was a hearth lined with homemade baked clay bricks. Individual families living in houses made up one community, a single large patriarchal family, inseparably leading a common household. What treasures were hidden behind its ramparts? First of all, it is livestock, since cattle breeding was the main occupation of the inhabitants of the settlements, the basis of their primitive economy. The development of cattle breeding and the development of metal largely contributed to the development of agriculture in the Kaluga Territory, as indicated by iron products found at the sites of ancient settlements. Among the archaeological finds are iron items: sickles, scythes, knives, arrowheads. Important role hunting and fishing also played on the farm. Among the bones of animals found at the settlement, there were bones of wild and domestic animals of a bear, wild boar, elk, fox - the fauna of the territory of the future Kaluga was so diverse.
Ancient metallurgy was firmly part of the life of the inhabitants of Kaluga settlements: archaeologists discovered clay molds for melting metal - billets, forging, metal slags - production wastes, cast bronze and iron products. Skillfully made by an ancient master women's jewelry: temple rings, bronze pendants, metal rings, brooches, miniature bells. They adorned the festive costumes of women. Whole tassels of such bronze pendants hung from a woman's headdress. Beads and hryvnia were worn around the neck. All kinds of plaques were sewn on the chest and on the belt, even on the hem of the dress. A characteristic male adornment was a belt badge. Weaving and pottery were already developed on the Kaluga land at that time. Ancient rude molded utensils were found at the settlements. Excavations of the settlement of the supposed ancient Kaluga at the mouth of the Kaluzhka River and the adjacent settlement near the village of Gorodnya, where ancient Gorodensk stood, carried out in 1892 by Kaluga archaeologist I.D. Chetyrkin, confirmed that the inhabitants of the settlements made not only pottery, but were also skilled bone carvers - the bone knife handles and amulets found here are distinguished by their excellent finishing. Carved bone products were also found in the Mozhayka tract near the ravine near the village. Sekiotovo.
Who were the inhabitants of the Kaluga settlements? Archaeological research has shed light on the ethnographic identity of the inhabitants of Kaluga settlements in the earliest period of their history; they contain elements of the ancient Baltic and Finno-Ugric cultures. Later layers (X-XII centuries) belong to the chronicle Slavic tribes - Vyatichi. According to linguists, the name "Vyatichi" comes from the ancient name of the Slavs known to the Romans "Venta", from which came "Vyatchi" (Vyatichi). This period includes the characteristic clay ceramics made on a potter's wheel and the Vyatichi seven-bladed temple rings. Among the Slavic finds of the Kaluga region, there are dozens of various objects and iron products: openers, plowshares, sickles and scythes, knives and axes. This could be observed during the excavations of the ancient Russian Serensk. Among the many metal objects found in the Serensky Detinets, household items were in the first place. The tools of labor and agriculture took the second place (5.7%), while the tools of artisans, used for processing metal, wood, leather, etc., took the third place (4.1%). In addition, in the excavated ancient Serensk, among dozens of objects of everyday life and economic activity, written culture and cult, a hollow cross-encolpion was found for storing relics. He is a witness of the ancient Christian culture of the pre-Mongol period, which came to our region from ancient Kiev. Archaeological finds testify to these cultural ties between the city of artisans of Serensk and Kiev, Chernigov and other cities of Ancient Rus.
The history of the Vyatichi has preserved the names of the Slavic tribes known from the Old Russian "Tale of Bygone Years". This is the first Russian Chronicle XII v. also calls the legendary ancestor Vyatko: "... And Vyatko is sede with his kin along the Oka, from him she was called Vyatichi." Archaeological materials confirm that the Slavic-Vyatichi tribe occupied the basins of the Oka and the Moskva River, including the immediate territory of the future Moscow. Their communities, united in a large tribal union which was headed by elders (princes) from the tribal nobility, did not quarrel with each other, so the settlements were usually surrounded only by a wooden fence to protect them from wild animals. Remains of such settlements, which do not have traces of earthen fortifications, are more difficult to locate on the ground. More often they are discovered by chance, thanks to the intense black cultural layer preserved in their place and the finds in it of earthenware, made on a potter's wheel, graceful in shape and decorated with wavy or jagged ornaments. This is how Slavic settlements were discovered on the Kaluzhka River (XII centuries), near the village of Zhdamirovo (XII-XV centuries), in the Kaluzhsky pine forest (XI-XIII centuries), a settlement at the Simeon settlement (XIV-XVI centuries). On the banks of the Ugra River, there were also the remains of settlements, on which life continued for several centuries, until the beginning of the 17th century.
Arab geographer of the beginning of the 10th century Ibn-Rusta reported that "the land of the Vyatichi is a wooded plain, they live in the forests ... The bread they cultivate most is millet." The collection of wild fruits and berries, mushrooms and honey from wild bees has long played a significant role in the Vyatichi household. Written sources and archaeological sites testify that at the end of the 1st millennium AD. NS. the Vyatichi still retained the patriarchal clan system. They lived in fortified settlements - fortified settlements and were engaged in slash farming. But then, later with the development of arable farming, the Vyatichi settled widely in unfortified settlements. Archeology makes it possible to clarify not only the territories of the Vyatichi settlement, but also their main occupations. The main economic occupation of our ancestors was agriculture, so they often settled near rivers, among their field lands. During archaeological excavations in many places, seeds of cereals were found - rye, wheat, barley, millet. Since ancient times, people have identified life with arable land and bread, and therefore called grain crops "live". This name is still preserved in the Belarusian and Ukrainian languages.
Archaeological finds indicate that the southern lands of the Eastern Slavs were ahead of the northern ones in their development. This is due not so much to the proximity of the south of Ancient Rus to the then centers of the Black Sea civilization, but also to more fertile lands. At the same time, natural and climatic conditions had a significant impact on the main farming systems of the Eastern Slavs. If in the north, in the areas of taiga forests, the so-called slash-and-burn farming system prevailed (in the first year the forest was cut down, in the second year the dried trees were burned and sowed grain, using ash instead of fertilizer), then in the southern regions the fallow prevailed (with an excess of fertile lands for two or three years or more sowed the same plots, and then moved - "shifted" to new). The main tools of labor of the Eastern Slavs were an ax, a hoe, a knotted harrow and a spade, with which they loosened the soil. The harvest was harvested with a sickle, threshed with flails, and the grain was ground with stone graters and hand millstones. Cattle breeding was closely related to agriculture. The Eastern Slavs raised pigs, cows, and small ruminants. Oxen were used as draft animals in the southern regions, and horses were used in the forest belt. To get a more complete picture of the life of the Slavs in antiquity, fishing, hunting and beekeeping (collecting honey from wild bees) should be added to the main economic activities.
Among the exhibits of the Kaluga Regional Museum of Local Lore are widely represented jewelry made of bronze, copper, billon (an alloy of copper and silver), silver, which served as adornments to our distant ancestors who lived in the upper reaches of the Oka. They were found during excavations of the archaeological Verkhneokskaya expedition, which carried these finds to the 12th – 13th centuries. The results of the excavations amazed specialists with a large number of Slavic and Old Russian ceramics and metal decorations found here. Particularly valuable are the individual finds collected during the excavations: temple rings, bracelets, crosses, necklaces, pendants, rings, amulets, lunettes and beads, which gives grounds to date these finds to the 12th – 13th centuries. Excavations of the burial mounds have yielded many interesting materials to characterize not only the funeral rites of the Vyatichi Slavs, but also their way of life, way of life and culture. In addition to rings, bracelets, carnelian and glass beads, almost every female burial contained characteristic temporal rings with graceful seven-bladed plates. Based on these materials and comparing them with finds from other places, the outstanding archaeologist-specialist V.I.Sizov, as early as the century before last, determined the purpose of the temporal rings, which most likely served for tying hair with a ribbon. Subsequently, the seven-lobed temporal rings became the most important characteristic feature of the Vyatka burials, in contrast to other Slavic tribes that lived northward to Moscow and beyond the Klyazma River. Thanks to this, it was possible to quite accurately determine the boundary of the settlement of the Slavs-Vyatichi who inhabited the territory of modern Kaluga and Moscow. And when the archaeologist A.A. Spitsyn in late XIX century marked the finds of rings on the map, confirmed the truth of the messages "The Tale of Bygone Years." In the mounds on the Sozha River, women were buried in a headdress with seven-rayed rings, and in the basin of the upper Oka and on the Moskva River there were seven-bladed rings of Vyatichi. Other ancient Slavic necklaces found in the Vyatichi burial mounds consist of faceted scarlet carnelian and round crystal beads. The age of the necklaces is probably as old as the age of Kaluga itself, and the woman wearing the beads could be a contemporary of the legendary hero Ilya Muromets. There were also found pendant pendants characterizing the cosmogonic representations of the Vyatichi: some of them - "lunar", in the shape of a crescent - symbolize the moon, others - round in the form of a disk with rays - the sun. The elegance of the form and the delicacy of the processing of pendants from the Kaluga burial mounds attracted the attention of artists; According to experts, modern women of fashion will not refuse such jewelry.
Much longer than among other Slavs, even centuries after the adoption of Christianity, the Vyatichi kept the pagan custom of burial in barrows. High earthen embankments, as a rule, located in prominent places, have attracted the attention of residents for a long time. Their true origin has long been forgotten and rumor has linked the mounds with events of a later time: they were called "Lithuanian graves" in memory of the intervention of the early 17th century, and "French graves", "graves that hid the victims of the epidemic" and simply "henchies" ( bulging earth). From generation to generation, legends about countless treasures were passed down, supposedly hidden in the mounds by the conquerors. The Vyatichi believed in the afterlife, were convinced that in the next world things and tools that they used during their lifetime would be needed. During the excavations of the Kaluga burial mounds, there are chest pendants characterizing the cosmogonic ideas of the Vyatichi and their pagan cult: some of them are "lunars", in the shape of a crescent - symbolize the moon, others are round, in the form of a disk with rays - the sun. In the male burials of the mounds, there were many tools of labor. These findings tell about the occupation of agriculture, testify to the significant development of the craft. Among other items, many bones of wild and domestic animals were found in the Kaluga mounds - a bear, a fox, a hare, a wild boar and a horse. Moreover, almost all bones were heat treated. Apparently, the use of horses for food was common for Vyatichi of the 12th century. Perhaps this is precisely the fact that the Kiev chronicler had in mind when he said that the Vyatichi “eat everything unclean,” since they did not eat horse meat in Ancient Rus.
Old Russian chronicles of the XI century. depict the Vyatichi as a separate tribe, separated from other East Slavic tribes by deep forests (and the forests were so dense that in 1175, during the princely feud, two troops marching against each other - one from Moscow, the other from Vladimir, got lost in the thickets and in the woods ”, ie passed each other). Known for his military prowess, Prince Vladimir Monomakh tells in his "Teaching to Children" about a successful march across the land of the Vyatichi at the end of the 11th century. as a special feat. Equally important is another passage in the same "Teaching", where Monomakh reports two winter hiking“In Vyatichi” against Elder Khodota and his son in Kordna. Princes from the clan of Rurikovich Vyatichi in the XI century. did not obey, and Monomakh does not report either about the subjugation of them, or about the imposition of tribute. But where could the annalistic city of Kordna stand, which means a road in Old Finnish? Academician B. A. Rybakov on the map of the ancient cities of the Vyatichi compiled by him, indicated the proposed location of the present village of Karnady, northeast of Novosil, Oryol region. According to the assumption of the famous explorer of our region V.M. Kashkarov (1868-1915), this city of Vyatichi was located near the village of Korna at the mouth of the Korinka stream, which flows into the Ressa. The fact that it was the land of the Vyatichi is evidenced by the neighboring village of Mosalsk, Vyatchino. A waterway from Kiev and Chernigov to the Rostov-Murom Territory passed by this village and through the famous Bryn forests. When the legendary Ilya Muromets asked about the direct road to the city of Kiev, the tsar told him: "We have a direct road to the city of Kiev to the forests on Brynskie." In the late 1980s - early 1990s, reclamation works were carried out in the area of the Korna village of the Mosalsky district. And suddenly the workers stumbled upon something incomprehensible, having dug up the remains of a wooden structure from a charred log house in the ground. But the plan construction works did not allow them to go deeper and, laying a trench, laying pipes in it, they completed the object. Perhaps it was part of the fortress wall made of charred bog oak of the city of Kordno.
By the time the state was formed among the Eastern Slavs, a territorial (neighboring) community had replaced the clan. Each community owned a certain territory in which several families lived. All possessions of such a community were divided into public and personal. Personal property consisted of a house, household land, meadow, livestock, household equipment. Land, meadows, mows, reservoirs, forests and fishing grounds were in common use. Mowing and arable land were divided among families. When the princes began to transfer the rights to own land to the feudal lords, part of the communities fell under their rule. The same communities that did not fall under the rule of the feudal lord were obliged to pay state taxes. Peasant and feudal farms were natural in nature. Each of them sought to provide itself with internal resources, not working for the market. But with the appearance of surpluses, it became possible to exchange agricultural products for handicraft goods. So gradually cities began to take shape - centers of crafts, trade and at the same time - strongholds of feudal power and defensive fortresses from the encroachments of external enemies. The sites for the construction of cities were chosen with great care. Old Russian cities, as a rule, arose at the confluence of two rivers on the hills. The location of the city provided natural defenses against enemy attacks. The central part of the city was surrounded by an earthen rampart. A fortress wall (the Kremlin) was erected on it, behind which were the courtyards of princes and nobility, and later - churches and monasteries.
According to experts' estimates, about a dozen ancient Slavic cities of the Upper Poochye are located on the Kaluga land, on the territory of the present Kaluga region or near its borders. According to the "Chronology of Russian Chronicle" N. G. Berezhkov, from December 1146 to the first half of 1147, in the strife of the Chernigov princes Izyaslav and Vladimir Davydovich with the Novgorod-Seversky prince Svyatoslav Olgovich, the cities of Kerensk (Serensk), Kozelesk (Kozelsk) are mentioned in the Land of the Vyatichi. Dedoslavl, Devyagorsk, Lyubinets, Omosov, Lobynsk at the mouth of the Protva, Oblov, etc. According to the chronicles, Svyatoslav Olgovich, having become the prince of Chernigov, buys up a lot, including in 1155 the city of Vorotynsk (Vorotynsk-fortress at the mouth of the Ugra), Gorodensk, Bryn , Lyubutsk, Mezetsk (Meschevsk), Mosalsk, Obolensk, Yaroslavl (Maloyaroslavets). There is no exact data on who and when these cities were built. But the fact that in the first half of the XII century they belonged to the Slavic tribe Vyatichi cannot be doubted.
And this testifies to the fact that the Vyatichi in the XII century owned crafts, erected settlements and cities, knew how to build fortifications, defending themselves from enemies. This was confirmed by the excavations of ancient Serensk, burned in 1231 by the prince of Novgorod Yaroslav and the "sons of Konstantinov". The handicraft and cultural flourishing of this city is evidenced by the finds found during excavations carried out in the early 1980s, several dozen foundry molds, book clasps, writing, copper matrices and a spiral drill, an iron mask (mask) to protect the face of a warrior in battle, etc. In XII century, another ancient city of Ludimesk was founded, which was located on the Berezui River, 4 km from the village of Kurakino (now Grishovo). And nearby, on the bank of Berezui, there is a burial mound and an ancient settlement of the XII-XIII centuries. In 1246, Tarusa was first mentioned as a fortress city on the Oka River, at the confluence of the river. Tarusa, the center of the specific possession of the Tarusa prince Yuri, the son of the Chernigov prince. Mikhail Vsevolodovich. DI Malinin calls Tarusa one of the most ancient cities of the Kaluga region, built by the Vyatichi in the 10th century. Existence here in the XI-XII centuries. the settlements of the Slavs-Vyatichi are also proved by archaeological data.
Arose on the site of a Slavic pre-Mongol settlement and Przemysl (Polish. Przemysl, Premysl). During the examination by the archaeologist M.V. Fechner in 1953 of the Peremyshl settlement near the Assumption Cathedral, fragments of vessels of the 9th-10th centuries were found, pottery with wavy and linear ornament from the 13th-13th centuries was found. Przemysl has been known since 1328 as a small fortress, protected by the steep cliffs of the floodplain terraces of the Oka and Zhizdra rivers and a deep ravine. Later, the fortress occupied the opposite side of the ravine. A powerful earthen rampart simultaneously served as a dam for a defensive reservoir and a platform for the deployment of reserves inside the fortification. Vorotynsk, located on the Vyssa River, a tributary of the Oka, is just as ancient. The first chronicle mention of him dates back to 1155, when one of the Chernigov princes Svyatoslav Olgovich “exchanged cities” with his nephew, the son of the Grand Duke of Kiev (from 1139 to 1146) Vsevolod Olgovich (“taking from him Snov, Vorotynsk, Karachev and giving him others for them "). According to the hypothesis of AI Batalin, based on toponymic and archaeological materials, the emergence of Vorotynsk with the preaching of Christianity in the land of the Vyatichi. It was at that time that the legendary hermits Boris and Protas settled on the site of the future city. At the same time, according to researchers, a small secular settlement Voskresensk appeared - the core of the future city of Vorotynsk. The settlement on the southern outskirts of the city with the remains of a moat and ramparts also dates back to this time. Not far from this place, where r. Vysa makes a bizarre bend, an ancient Slavic settlement was located, the cultural layer on which reaches 3 meters. Here, along with the signs of culture of the first half of the 1st millennium AD. NS. found many items of early Slavic culture and the Middle Ages, tools, jewelry, Tatar and Lithuanian copper coins, etc.
Foundry crucibles and furnaces, many household utensils, including metal hooks for fishing, a sickle-shaped knife, beads and earrings of rare beauty were also found during excavations of the ancient village of Benitsa, present-day Borovsk district, on the banks of the Protva River. In our history, this settlement has been known since 1150, together with the neighboring village of Bobrovnitsy, from the charter of the Grand Duke of Smolensk Rostislav Mstislavovich, to which he transferred the newly colonized villages of the Vyatichi under the jurisdiction of his bishopric: Drossenskoe and Yasenskoe, Benitsa and Bobrovnitsa. The villages of Benitsy and Bobrovniki, Borovsk region, have retained their names until our times. P. V. Golubovsky, the author of the "History of the Smolensk Land" published in 1893, maps the villages of Benitsy and Bobrovnitsy to the map of the Smolensk principality as trading volost centers. It is known that the Novgorod-Seversky prince Svyatoslav Olgovich, together with his ally Yuri Dolgoruky, going to Smolensk, in the upper reaches of the Protva, took "the people of Golyad", enriching his squad with captivity. The modern scientist N. I. Smirnov in his article "On the question of outcasts" notes that the charter of the Smolensk bishopric of 1150 is "the fact of the conversion of communal lands into the land holdings of the Smolensk bishopric, which were not previously part of the feudal land ownership"... This is how the first signs of tribal differentiation appear within the free tribe of the Vyatichi. As noted by the Kaluga researcher and art critic V. G. Putsko in his Essay on the History of Orthodoxy in Kaluga Land," their Christianization is associated with the colonization movement that came from the Smolensk region Krivichi, and then from the southern Dnieper ".
However, not only the Vyatichi, but also their neighbors in the Upper Poochya Krivichi and, obviously, the indigenous population of the Goliad tribe had their own cities. Neither chronicles nor historical researchers have substantiated that the chronicled "golyads" migrated to the upper reaches of the Oka, Desna, or the Moskva River. V. M. Kashkarov in his article "On the question of the ancient population of the Kaluga province" writes: "In the Meshchovsky district, in the place formed by the confluence of the Ugra into the Oka, the memory of the goliad still lives on. According to legend ... on one of the mountains the robber Golyaga lived, according to others - Golyad ". The remarkable researcher of the 19th century, Z. Khodakovsky, did not share the "Western" theory of resettlement, arguing that "People or people" Golyad "are 14 of the Slavic regions, which are named after the rivers and rivers that irrigate the villages of the same names .. This tract is the Golyadyanka, which flows into the Moskva River. In the scribes of 1623 it is called Golyadya. They say that the names of cities and villages, rivers and natural boundaries capture our history, they record the language of the land. the earth tells its own historical language... The villages of Vyatchino or Vyatskoye say that Vyatichi lived here; Cretan - Krivichi, and Glyadovo (the old name of Golyadovo, Borovsk district) - Golyady. An echo of the old inhabitants of these places is also heard in the names of the villages Goltyaevo, Golenki, Golichevka, Golukhino, Golotskoe, Golchan. In the neighboring Moscow region, until the beginning of the 20th century, there was the Nachinsky Golets tract. A number of names are also known for the historical villages of the Kaluga and Tula provinces, belonging to another neighboring Vyatichi and Golyads of the Merya tribe. It is possible that both "golyad" and "merya", merging with the Vyatichi, also had their own cities. No wonder the ancient Scandinavians, the northern neighbors of the Eastern Slavs, called the multi-tribal Russia "Gardarik" - a country of cities. According to scientists, before the invasion of the Horde in Russia there were at least 24 major cities having fortifications.
The exact dates of the founding of many cities are unknown, and the year of foundation is considered the first mention in chronicles. Obviously, they existed not a single decade before the first Russian chronicler mentioned them. But can we trust the annals? For example, it is not known what authentic sources the famous scientist, discoverer ancient list"Words about Igor's regiment" A. I. Musin-Pushkin, placing on the map "the European part of Russia before the invasion of the Tatars" together with the chronicle cities of our region Kozelsk, Przemysl, Lubeysk (chronicle Lobynsk) and Koluga? Also doubtful is the map No. 24 of the historical atlas of Poland, drawn up on German and reflecting the geographical boundaries of Poland in 1370. The atlas has now been published in Minsk. However, it is not known by what original map No. 24 was issued. If it is based on the ancient original, then the map is trustworthy. Among the cities bordering Lithuania, Mozhaisk, Koluga, Przemysl and others are included on the map. It turns out that the message of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd, dating back to 1371, in which he mentions Koluga as a city taken from him, had no legal basis. And according to the Resurrection list of the annals of Koluga was not listed among the "Lithuanian castles".
But the authentic ancient city of Lyubutsk is known on the right bank of the Oka River, 4 km below the confluence of the river. Dugna, which since the IV century belonged to the Lithuanian principality, being its foremost fortress. This is evidenced by an ancient settlement dating back to the 9th century. Before the Great Patriotic War, there was a church on it, in ancient times, apparently, from a Lithuanian watchtower. The settlement is bounded from the south by the steep bank of the Oka River, and from the east and north by the Lyubuchay stream flowing. on a spacious and deep beam. On the western side of the settlement, a rampart up to 30 m high and more than 100 m long has survived. In 1372, the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich (Donskoy) (gg.) Stopped the Lithuanian prince Olgerd, who was marching with an army to Moscow. Nikon's chronicle tells about it this way: “And while walking near the town of Lyubugsk and most of all Muscovites were driving their guards, a Lithuanian regiment and their bisha, and Prince himself. Olgird ran into the stash, and both armies were armed, and between them the enemy was steep and deep. And standing for many days, and dying, and going in peace with the world. " Some historians believe that the participants of the Battle of Kulikovo, Rodion Oslyabya and Alexander Peresvet, were Lubut boyars before their monastic tonsure. Lyubutsk remained a Lithuanian fortress until 1396. Then, around the world in 1406, he passed to Moscow and became the inheritance of Vladimir Andreevich the Brave. However, in 1473 he again found himself under the rule of Lithuania. In 1460, Lyubutsk is mentioned as a point that Khan Akhmat reached during his movement through the Lithuanian lands to Moscow. Finally, the city came under the rule of Moscow only in 1503. Ivan Sh bequeathed it to his son Andrey. In the 15th century, Lyubutsk ceased to be a fortress on the Oka River and became a posad.
As for other Slavic cities of the Upper Poochye, in the XII-XIII centuries their growth was caused by an increased ebb of the population, as the historian V.O. Klyuchevsky, "from the central Dnieper Rus ... and this ebb tide marked the beginning of the second period of our history, just as the previous period began with the influx of Slavs in the Dnieper region." Indeed, with the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky, not only Moscow became known, but also Kostroma, Gorodets on the Volga, Starodub on the Klyazma, Galich and Zvenigorod, Vyshgorod on the lordship, etc. To the ancient Slavic cities of the upper reaches of the Oka Kozelsk (1146), Serensk (1147), Serpeysk, Meshchovsk, Mosalsk, Obolensk, Yaroslavl (Maloyaroslavets), Luzha, Borovsk, Medyn, Sukhodrovl, Kaluga are added to Vorotynsk (1155), Gorodensk (1158), Bryn and Lyubutsk.
Of course, Kaluga as a city took shape much later than other Slavic cities. Kaluga was first mentioned in sources in 1371 in a letter from the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerdt to Patriarch Philotheus of Constantinople to the Metropolitan of Kiev and Russia Alexy and the governor of the Grand Duke of Vladimir-Suzdal, the future Donskoy. The character of Kaluga in the first three centuries of its existence was explained by the strategic defensive significance of the border fortress. But ancient settlements in its vicinity existed here long before its foundation. In 1892, the chairman of the Kaluga Scientific Archaeological Commission, archaeologist D.I. NS. Excavations of a settlement on the right bank of the Kaluzhka River near the former village of Kaluzhka (now the village of Zhdamirovo), presumably the original location of Kaluga, revealed fragments of clay ceramics, arrowheads, a slate spindle, a bone ring, iron keys that date back to the XII-XV centuries. Probably, initially the settlement belonged to the patriarchal community of the Eastern Baltic tribes, attributed by archaeologists to the so-called Moschinskaya culture (according to a similar settlement discovered for the first time near the village of Moshchiny, Mosalsky district). The area of the settlement with the remains of earthen ramparts and ditches: southern, facing the r. Oka and western - to the river. Kaluzhka is about 3 thousand square meters. m. The ditches on the other two sides are badly destroyed. The height of the artificial rampart reaches 6 m, and its depth is 3 m.From this place our city, for unknown reasons, was later moved 6 versts lower, to the mouth of the Kaluzhka River, at its confluence with the Oka, where there is another settlement with traces earthen rampart and ditch. As early as the beginning of the 17th century, in old scribes, the Kaluzhka estuary is called an "old settlement" belonging to the "Kaluga coachmen". According to the description of Academician V. Zuev, in the 18th century the place was surrounded by a deep moat, from which a high rampart rose almost with a straight wall, encircling the settlement from three sides, while from the side of the Oka River, the settlement opened with a rage. At the corners of the main rampart, there were rolling hills, on which, most likely, there were wooden towers. In addition, from these artificial hillocks in the ditch, there were also slopes and, finally, above the ditch itself there were also the same hillocks, possibly for secondary towers. The shaft length from the Kaluzhka side was 100 steps, from the field side 230 steps. The settlement at the mouth of the Kaluzhka attracted the attention of researchers. At the end of the 19th century I.D. Chetyrkin excavated it, finding traces of a fire, numerous animal bones and fragments of pottery. Having supported the assumption of V. Zuev that the first Kaluga stood here, collecting new historical and ethnographic evidence, he put forward a new version of the reason for its transition from the banks of Kaluzhka to Yachenka. In his opinion, the ancient outpost Kaluga, like the neighboring fortress Gorodensk, mentioned in Yuri Dolgoruky's Letter of 1158, stood on the border of fire, covering the road to Aleksin and Tula. In 1911, students of the Kaluga branch of the Archaeological Institute carried out new excavations, the result of which disappointed the researchers: the age of the objects found here dates back to the 16th century. Local historian D.I.Malinin suggested that some reason was the pestilence of 1386 and 1419 or the big road and the raids of enemies, forced the inhabitants under Vasily I or Vasily II to move again to a new place - half a mile further - to the bank of the Yachenka river, near the Church of the Myrrh-bearing. Namely, under the Kaluga appanage prince Simeon Ivanovich (1487-1518), the son of the Grand Duke Ivan III, at the beginning of the 16th century Kaluga was located on the site of the former Simeon settlement, on which, according to legend, the palace of this prince stood. Later, the fortress from the bank of the river. Yachenki (moved) was moved to the banks of the Oka River on the territory of the city park. Before his death, Ivan III (1505) divided the volosts between five sons: Vasily, Dmitry, Simeon and Andrey. He bequeathed to Simeon Bezhetsky top, Kaluga, Kozelsk and Kozelsk volosts. From 1505-1518 Kaluga becomes the center appanage principality led by Prince Simeon Ivanovich. In 1512, the Crimean Tatars (Agaryans) attacked Kaluga. Simeon fought the Tatars on the Oka and defeated them, according to legend, thanks to the help of the holy fool Lavrenty Kaluga. For this feat, Prince Simeon and righteous Lawrence became locally revered saints. However, local historians M.V. Fechner and N.M. Maslov believe that the fortress of Kaluga was laid on the Yachenka River by the Grand Duke of Moscow Simeon Ivanovich Proud (died 1353).
The ancient Pyatnitskoye cemetery, adjacent to the Simeon settlement, reminded of the antiquity of the settlement itself. According to the plans and maps of the general surveying of Kaluga in 1776, Academician Zuev found out that the second ancient cemetery in Kaluga was only the necropolis of the Lavrentiev Monastery, where priests and especially revered citizens of Kaluga were buried. The area of the Simeon settlement, adjacent to the old cemetery, was called the "Old Settlement" according to boundary books and was four tithes according to the scribes of the 17th century. Around him were the towns of the coachmen. The first studies of the Simeonov settlement were carried out in 1781 by Academician V. Zuev. The settlement was once surrounded by a high earthen rampart with a gate and a deep ditch on the east side: from the south, the settlement was defended by a deep Serebryakovsky ravine, from the north by Semyonovsky, from the west by a steep slope to the Yachenka river. The length and width of the settlement were 310 and 150 meters. The very location between two deep ravines and the still noticeable embankment rampart suggested that a small fortress with corner watchtowers and an entrance gate could have stood here. Only from the eastern side did the road lead to the settlement along a moat filled up at the outskirts. A bridge could have been thrown across this moat, which, if necessary, was raised or disassembled. In addition, in some places the remains of utility pits and cellars have been preserved. Having examined the entire area and its surroundings, V. Zuev came to the conclusion that it was here that Kaluga crossed from the bank of the Kaluzhka River, and that the founder of the fortress could be the appanage prince of Kaluga Simeon Ivanovich. Archaeological excavations in 1956 revealed a minor cultural layer. An archaeological expedition of the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1956 made a deep cut in the rampart least damaged by the destruction and established that there was an old fortification (outpost) here at the end of the 15th century.
Various data about the ancient inhabitants of our places have been collected by archaeologists. But the real historical image of that distant era is given by the original portraits of Vyatichi, recreated by the remarkable scientist-anthropologist MM Gerasimov on the basis of skulls from the Vyatichi burial mounds of the Moscow region. The sculptural reconstructions of Professor Gerasimov and his students have received wide international recognition. He was the first to establish a direct relationship between the shape of the bones of the skull and the soft facial integument; he found standards for marking the thickness of the integument in various parts of the head, with the help of which individual facial features of a person are recreated from the preserved skull. The method of plastic reconstruction is documented, and its accuracy has been repeatedly tested by practice, including forensic science.
Today, in the State Historical Museum in Moscow, you can see a reconstructed documentary accurate sculptural portrait of a young girl from the Vyatichi tribe. According to Academician A. G. Veksler, she resembles women in the frescoes of Andrei Rublev, paintings by V. M. Vasnetsov and M. V. Nesterov: ... “It was this image of the“ red maiden ”that inspired the ancient storytellers - not to say in a fairy tale, nor a pen to describe. A youthful face with delicate, delicate features. The head is adorned with a tribal headdress - a band with laced silver rings with seven diverging blades attached to the temples and at the same time woven into the hair. By tradition, every woman wore such rings among the Vyatichi. A twisted wire hoop - a torch and a necklace adorned the chest and neck. Metal jewelry combined with stone beads and embroidered in different colors shirt gave the girl an elegant look.
Another sculpture that has been restored is a 40-year-old peasant man. “According to the chronicles and epics, archaeological and ethnographic data, one can imagine the harsh life of this man,” writes A. G. Veksler, “… with an ax and a plow, he worked in a small area that fed him. More than once he, the militia - "howl", with the same ax in his hands had to defend from enemies native land... He lived in a tiny log cabin "istba", which was heated in black, as it is said about such a hut in the ancient Russian manuscript "The Word of Daniel the Zatochnik": he couldn't stand smoky sorrows, couldn't see warmth. " During one of the cruel pestilences, the disease brought down this powerful and tall (and his height exceeded 190 cm) man. One involuntarily recalls the ancient Russian epic hero plowman Mikula Selyaninovich, who surpassed in strength and dexterity the entire prince's squad of 30 dashing fellows, and even Prince Volga himself "... The sculpture depicts the face of a courageous, handsome man... He has a straight-set head, a thin-cut nose, an energetic, strongly protruding chin. A wide sloping forehead is cut with wrinkles - traces of deep thoughts, heavy experiences. The man is depicted in a "shirt" - a simple peasant shirt, decorated with embroidery and buttoned up with small bells. Such a bell clasp and the remains of clothing with elements of embroidery were found during excavations of the Moscow region burial mounds. The hairstyle - hair "like a pot", a mustache, a docile beard - all this was restored from the miniatures of the ancient Russian chronicles. This is approximately what a peasant-smerd of the 12th century, a contemporary of Yuri Dolgoruky, looked like. Thanks to the reconstruction method, it has been restored and appearance Fatyanovets, who lived about 3.5 thousand years ago. Scientists agree that all portraits are as close to reality as possible, documentary and at the same time artistically expressive.
So gradually, step by step, the most ancient horizons of the history of the Vyatichi tribe are opening up and our territory is especially rich in these finds, which has become a treasury of the most diverse historical and archaeological monuments. A study of local attractions shows that the territory of Kaluga and the surrounding areas have been inhabited since the Neolithic period, periodically preserving and renewing human settlements over the next several millennia in various historical eras. The dated objects of antiquity and art obtained during the excavation of local monuments are of great importance for the study of the history of the most ancient settlements on the territory of Kaluga. The uniqueness of the historical and archaeological monuments of the territory of our region requires the most decisive measures to be taken to preserve them for posterity.
Literature: Karamzin N.M. History of the Russian State. Reprint. ed. (1842-1844) in 3 books. - M, 1988; Zelnitskaya E.G. Research of the ancients historical sites, or natural boundaries, which should be in the Kaluga province // Otechestvennye zapiski, 1826. Part 27; Nikolskaya T.N. Vorotynsk // Ancient Russia and the Slavs. - M., 1978; Malinin D.I. Kaluga. Experience of a historical guide to Kaluga and the main centers of the province. - Kaluga, 1992.S. 227-229; Sizov V.I.Dyakovo settlement near Moscow // Proceedings of the Archaeological Society. - SPb, 1897, S. 164; Zabelin I.E. Research on the most ancient original settlement of Moscow // Proceedings of the 8th archaeological congress. - M .: T. 1, 1897, S. 234; V.E.Produvnov. This is my Kaluga. - Kaluga. Golden alley. 2002; V. Pukhov. History of the city of Kaluga. Kaluga. Golden alley. 1998..
Oleg MOSIN,
Svetlana MOSINA
Vyatichi, Slavic tribe, who lived in the east of the Slavic lands from the 8th to the 13th century AD. It is difficult to deny their role in the formation of the Russian state, since the number of this tribe was very large. By the standards of those times, when the number of people on the planet was small, the Vyatichi were considered a whole people, which stood out clearly against the background of such tribes as Dregovichi, Drevlyans, Glades or Ilmen Slavs... Archaeologists attribute the Vyatichi to a very large group of the Romano-Borshagov culture, which also includes all the above-mentioned tribes and small groups.
In the annals, they were noted as excellent farmers, blacksmiths, hunters and warriors. For a long time this tribe remained practically inaccessible to many invaders, because they operated under the control of a single prince, and not in scattered groups torn apart by civil strife. Some historians are inclined to believe that Vyatichi possessed all the signs of a primordial state - there was a set of laws, their own regular army, symbolism and culture. entered the pantheon of the gods of this tribe. Therefore, the Vyatichi can be considered one of the key peoples that formed.
Etymology of the word "Vyatichi"
The most plausible version of the origin of the name of this tribe is believed to be the one that refers to the name of the first prince, known as Vyatko. There are other versions as well. So, according to the Indo-European version Slavs Vyatichi got their name from the same root word vent, which meant "wet" in those days. This is attributed to the fact that they inhabited wetlands. Also, some historians believe that the Vandals or Wendels are, in some way, akin to the name of this tribe. Since the data was collected from various documents written in ancient languages, they vary greatly.
Vyatichi land
The Arabic name of the lands inhabited by this tribe is also very interesting. The Arabs called them a separate country, and even with a separate name Vantit. In order to understand which lands were inhabited by these ancient peoples, it is easier to describe their possessions within the boundaries of modern regions. Partially they were located in the Moscow region, a small part of the land also lay in the modern Smolensk region. To the west, the lands of the Vyatichi extended to Voronezh and Lipetsk. Almost completely these Slavs populated the Oryol, Tula, Ryazan and Kaluga regions. There are still disputes between historians about the stay of the Vyatichi on the territory of the modern Lipetsk region. In general, their lands are briefly described as entering the Oka basin.
Princes vyatichi
At the time when Rurik was formed and ascended to the throne in Kiev, Vyatichi were not part of this state. The fact that the first prince of the Vyatichi was Vyatko is known not so much from historical documents as from legends. When they became part of the Old Russian state, they took power from Kiev, but soon found themselves practically cut off from the rest of the Slavs by the Khazars, to whom they paid tribute. Therefore, there is very little information about the local princes of this tribe. They did not mint their own coins, nor did they have their own seals, officially confirmed by the supreme Kiev prince. In fact, they needed only for a military alliance, but in general they possessed all the signs of statehood.
Assimilation of the Slavic tribe Vyatichi
It is believed that Vyatichi, as slavic tribe, finally began to lose their main features under the influence of the Khazars. In fact, they had nothing to lose, so they went to the northern lands, where the nomads did not want to go to war. The Khazars considered it prestigious to marry a Slavic woman, therefore, over time, the gene pool of this tribe was mixed. It is difficult to trace the situation among the Vyatichi during the Great Migration of Nations, but it cannot be said that this did not affect them in any way. Vyatichi simply disappeared for centuries. According to archaeological research, due to living in damp lands, a third of the Vyatichi population did not live up to 10 years, and the vacated places were quickly occupied by visiting people from other tribes. The way to the north dissolved the Vyatichi in the Balts and Finno-Ugric peoples.
