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Mysterious Slavic tribes (6 photos). Peoples of ancient Russia

Vyatichi is a union of East Slavic tribes who lived in the second half of the first millennium AD. NS. in the upper and middle course of the Oka. The name Vyatichi supposedly came from the name of the ancestor of the tribe, Vyatko. However, some people associate this name by its origin with the morpheme "veins" and veneds (or venets / vents) (the name "vyatichi" was pronounced as "ventchi").
In the middle of the 10th century, Svyatoslav annexed the lands of the Vyatichi to Kievan Rus, but until the end of the 11th century, these tribes retained a certain political independence; the campaigns against the Vyatichi princes of this time are mentioned.
Since the XII century, the territory of the Vyatichi was included in the Chernigov, Rostov-Suzdal and Ryazan principalities. Until the end of the XIII century, many Vyatichi preserved pagan rites and traditions, in particular, cremated the dead by erecting small mounds over the burial place. After rooting Christianity among the Vyatichi, the rite of cremation gradually disappeared from use.
Vyatichi retained their tribal name longer than other Slavs. They lived without princes, the social system was characterized by self-government and democracy. V last time Vyatichi are mentioned in the chronicle under such a tribal name in 1197.

Buzhany (Volynians) - a tribe of the Eastern Slavs that lived in the basin of the upper reaches of the Western Bug (from which they got their name); from the end of the 11th century Buzhanians were called Volynians (from the Volyn area).

Volhynians are an East Slavic tribe or tribal union mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years and in the Bavarian annals. According to the latter, the Volhynians owned seventy fortresses at the end of the 10th century. Some historians believe that the Volhynians and Buzhanians are the descendants of the Dulebs. Their main cities were Volyn and Vladimir-Volynsky. Archaeological research indicates that the Volhynians had developed agriculture and numerous crafts, including forging, casting and pottery.
In 981 the Volynians were subordinated to the Kiev prince Vladimir I and became part of the Kievan Rus. Later, the Galicia-Volyn principality was formed on the territory of the Volynians.

Drevlyans - one of the tribes of the Russian Slavs, lived along Pripyat, Goryn, Sluch and Teterev.
The name of the Drevlyans, according to the chronicler's explanation, was given to them because they lived in the forests.

From archaeological excavations in the country of the Drevlyans, it can be concluded that they possessed a well-known culture. The well-established burial ceremony testifies to the existence of certain religious ideas about the afterlife: the absence of weapons in the graves testifies to the peaceful nature of the tribe; the finds of serps, shards and vessels, iron products, remnants of tissues and leather indicate the existence of arable farming, pottery, blacksmithing, weaving and tanning trades among the Drevlyans; many bones of domestic animals and spurs indicate cattle and horse breeding; many articles of silver, bronze, glass and carnelian, of foreign origin, indicate the existence of trade, and the absence of coins suggests that trade was barter.
The political center of the Drevlyans in the era of their independence was the city of Iskorosten; at a later time, this center, apparently, moved to the city of Vruchiy (Ovruch)

Dregovichi - East Slavic tribal union that lived between Pripyat and Western Dvina.
Most likely the name comes from the Old Russian word dregva or dryagva, which means "swamp".
By the name of the Druguvites (Greek δρονγονβίται), the Dregovichi are already known to Constantine Porphyrogenic as a tribe subordinate to Russia. Being on the sidelines of the "Way from the Varangians to the Greeks", the Dregovichi did not play a prominent role in the history of Ancient Rus. The chronicle only mentions that the Dregovichi once had their reign. The capital of the principality was the city of Turov. The subordination of the Dregovichi to the Kiev princes happened, probably, very early. On the territory of the Dregovichi, the Turov principality was subsequently formed, and the northwestern lands became part of the principality of Polotsk.

Duleby (not dulёby) - a union of East Slavic tribes on the territory of Western Volyn in the 6th-beginning of the 10th centuries. In the 7th century they were subjected to the Avar invasion (obry). In 907 they took part in Oleg's campaign against Constantinople. They broke up into tribes of Volhynians and Buzhans and in the middle of the 10th century they finally lost their independence, becoming part of Kievan Rus.

Krivichi is a large East Slavic tribe (tribal union), occupying in the 6th-10th centuries the upper reaches of the Volga, Dnieper and Western Dvina, the southern part of the basin Lake Peipsi and part of the Nemunas basin. Sometimes the Ilmen Slavs are also ranked among the Krivichs.
The Krivichi were probably the first Slavic tribe to move from the Carpathian region to the northeast. Limited in their distribution to the northwest and west, where they met stable Lithuanian and Finnish tribes, the Krivichi spread to the northeast, assimilating with the living Tamphins.
Settling on the great waterway from Scandinavia to Byzantium (the route from the Varangians to the Greeks), the Krivichi took part in trade with Greece; Konstantin Porphyrogenitus says that the Krivichi make boats on which the Rus go to Constantinople. They took part in the campaigns of Oleg and Igor against the Greeks as a tribe subordinate to the Kiev prince; Oleg's contract mentions their city of Polotsk.

Already in the era of the formation of the Russian state, the Krivichi had political centers: Izborsk, Polotsk and Smolensk.
It is believed that the last tribal prince of the Krivichi, Rogvolod, together with his sons, was killed in 980 by the Novgorod prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich. In the Ipatiev list, the Krivichi are mentioned for the last time under 1128, and the Polotsk princes are called Krivichi under 1140 and 1162. After that, the Krivichi are no longer mentioned in the East Slavic chronicles. However, the tribal name Krivichi was used in foreign sources for quite a long time (up to the end of the 17th century). In the Latvian language, the word krievs entered to designate Russians in general, and the word Krievija to designate Russia.

The southwestern, Polotsk branch of the Krivichi is also called the Polotsk people. Together with the Dregovichi, Radimichi and some Baltic tribes, this branch of the Krivichi formed the basis of the Belarusian ethnos.
The northeastern branch of the Krivichi, settled mainly on the territory of modern Tver, Yaroslavl and Kostroma regions, was in close contact with the Finno-Ugric tribes.
The border between the territory of settlement of the Krivichi and Novgorod Slovenes is determined archaeologically by the types of burials: long mounds near the Krivichi and hills near the Slovenes.

The Polochans are an East Slavic tribe that in the 9th century inhabited the lands in the middle reaches of the Western Dvina in today's Belarus.
The Polotsk people are mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years, which explains their name as living by the Polota River, one of the tributaries of the Western Dvina. In addition, the chronicle claims that the Krivichi were descendants of the Polotsk people. The Polotsk lands stretched from the Svisloch along the Berezina to the Dregovichi lands. The Polochans were one of the tribes from which the Polotsk principality was later formed. They are one of the founders of the modern Belarusian people.

Polyane (poly) is the name of a Slavic tribe, in the era of settlement of the Eastern Slavs, who settled along the middle reaches of the Dnieper, on its right bank.
Judging by the chronicles and the latest archaeological research, the territory of the land of the meadows before the Christian era was limited by the course of the Dnieper, Ros and Irpen; in the northeast it adjoined the village land, in the west - to the southern settlements of the Dregovichi, in the southwest - to the Tivertsy, in the south - to the streets.

Calling the Slavs who settled here glades, the chronicler adds: “I’m getting sick in the field.” The glades differed sharply from the neighboring Slavic tribes both in moral properties and in the forms of social life: “The meadows are for their fathers, myahu is quiet and meek, and they are ashamed of their daughters-in-law and to their sisters and their mothers .... marriage customs I have. "
History finds Polyan already at a rather late stage political development: the social system is composed of two elements - the communal and the princely-druzhina, and the former is strongly suppressed by the latter. During the usual and most ancient occupations of the Slavs - hunting, fishing and beekeeping - among the meadows more than other Slavs, cattle breeding, agriculture, "tree breeding" and trade were widespread. The latter was quite extensive not only with Slavic neighbors, but also with foreigners in the West and East: it is clear from the coin hoards that trade with the East began in the 8th century; it stopped during the strife of the appanage princes.
At first, about half of the 8th century, the glades, which paid tribute to the Khazars, due to their cultural and economic superiority, from a defensive position in relation to their neighbors, soon turned into an offensive; Drevlyans, Dregovichi, northerners and others by the end of the 9th century were already subject to the glades. Christianity was established among them earlier than others. The center of the Polyanian ("Polish") land was Kiev; its other settlements are Vyshgorod, Belgorod on the Irpen River (now the village of Belogorodka), Zvenigorod, Trepol (now the village of Tripolye), Vasilev (now Vasilkov) and others.
Zemlyapolyan with the city of Kiev became the center of the Rurik's possessions since 882. For the last time in the annals the name of the Polyans is mentioned under 944, on the occasion of Igor's campaign against the Greeks, and is replaced, probably already at the end of the Χ century, with the name Rus (Ros) and Kiyane. The chronicler also calls the Glades the Slavic tribe on the Vistula, mentioned for the last time in the Ipatiev Chronicle under 1208.

Radimichi is the name of the population that was part of the union of East Slavic tribes who lived in the interfluve of the upper reaches of the Dnieper and Desna.
About 885 Radimichi were included in the Old Russian state, and in the XII century they mastered most of the Chernigov and southern Smolensk lands. The name comes from the name of the ancestor of the Radim tribe.

Northerners (more correctly, the North) - a tribe or tribal union of the Eastern Slavs who inhabited the territories east of the middle reaches of the Dnieper, along the Desna and Seimi Sula rivers.

The origin of the name of the north is not fully understood; most authors associate it with the name of the Savir tribe, which was part of the Hunnic union. According to another version, the name goes back to the obsolete Old Slavic word meaning "relative". The explanation from the Slavic siver, the north, despite the similarity of sound, is recognized as extremely controversial, since the north has never been the most northern of the Slavic tribes.

Slovenes (Ilmen Slavs) are an East Slavic tribe that lived in the second half of the first millennium in the basin of Lake Ilmen and the upper reaches of the Mologa River and constituted the bulk of the population of Novgorod land.

The Tivertsy are an East Slavic tribe that lived between the Dniester and the Danube along the Black Sea coast. They are first mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years along with other East Slavic tribes of the 9th century. The main occupation of the Tivertsy was agriculture. The Tivertsy took part in Oleg's campaigns against Constantinople in 907 and Igor in 944. In the middle of the 10th century, the lands of the Tivertsy became part of Kievan Rus.
The descendants of the Tivertsi became part of the Ukrainian people, and their western part underwent Romanization.

Ulichi is an East Slavic tribe that inhabited the lands along the lower reaches of the Dnieper, the Southern Bug and the Black Sea coast during the VIII-X centuries.
The capital of the street was the city of Peresechen. In the first half of the 10th century, the ulcers fought for independence from Kievan Rus, but they were nevertheless forced to recognize its supremacy and become part of it. Later, the Uchiha and neighboring Tivertsy were driven to the north by the arriving Pechenezh nomads, where they merged with the Volhynians. The last mention of the streets dates back to the annals of the 970s.

Croats are an East Slavic tribe that lived in the vicinity of the city of Przemysl on the San River. They called themselves White Croats, in contrast to the tribe of the same name who lived in the Balkans. The name of the tribe is derived from the ancient Iranian theologian "shepherd, guardian of cattle", which may indicate his main occupation - cattle breeding.

Bodrichi (cheered, rarogi) -Polab Slavs (lower course of the Elbe) in the VIII-XII centuries. - the union of wagrs, polabs, clay, smolyan. Rarog (among the Danes Rerik) - main city cheerful. Land of Mecklenburg in East Germany.
According to one version, Rurik is a Slav from the Bodrich tribe, the grandson of Gostomysl, the son of his daughter Umila and the bouncy prince Godoslav (Godlav).

The Wislans are a West Slavic tribe that has lived in Lesser Poland since at least the 7th century. In the 9th century, the Wislians formed a tribal state with centers in Krakow, Sandomierz and Straduv. At the end of the century they were conquered by the king of Great Moravia Svyatopolk I and were forced to be baptized. In the X century, the lands of the Vislans were conquered by the glades and included in Poland.

Zlicane (Czech Zličane, Polish Zliczanie) - one of the ancient Bohemian tribes. Inhabited the territory adjacent to the modern city of Kouřim (Czech Republic). Served as the center of formation of the Zlican principality, which covered at the beginning of the 10th century. East and South Bohemia and the region of the Duleb tribe. The main city of the principality was Libice. The Libyck princes Slavniki competed with Prague in the struggle for the unification of the Czech Republic. In 995, the Zlichans were subordinated to the Přemyslids.

Luzhitsa residents, Luzhitsk Serbs, Sorbs (German Sorben), Vendians - the indigenous Slavic population living in the Lower and Upper Lusatia - regions that are part of modern Germany. The first settlements of the Lusatian Serbs in these places were recorded in the 6th century AD. NS.
The Luzhitsky language is divided into Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian.
The Brockhaus and Euphron dictionary gives the definition: "Sorbs are the name of the Wends and, in general, the Polabian Slavs." Slavic people, inhabiting a number of areas in Germany, in the federal states of Brandenburg and Saxony.
Luzhitsky Serbs are one of the four officially recognized national minorities in Germany (along with Roma, Frisians and Danes). It is believed that about 60 thousand German citizens now have Serbolic roots, of whom 20,000 live in Lower Lusatia (Brandenburg) and 40 thousand in Upper Lusatia (Saxony).

Lyutichi (Wiltsy, Velety) is a union of West Slavic tribes who lived in the early Middle Ages on the territory of what is now eastern Germany. The center of the Lyutichi union was the Radogost sanctuary, where the god Svarozhich was worshiped. All decisions were made at a large tribal meeting, and there was no central authority.
Lyutichi led the Slavic uprising of 983 against the German colonization of lands east of the Elbe, as a result of which colonization was suspended for almost two hundred years. Even before that, they were ardent opponents of the German king Otto I. It is known about his heir, Henry II, that he did not try to enslave them, but rather lured them with money and gifts to his side in the fight against Poland by Boleslav the Brave.
Military and political successes strengthened the adherence to paganism and pagan customs in the lyutichs, which also applied to kindred vigorous people. However, in the 1050s, an internecine war broke out among the Lutichs and changed their position. The union quickly lost power and influence, and after the central sanctuary was destroyed by the Saxon Duke Lothar in 1125, the union finally collapsed. Over the next decades, the Saxon dukes gradually expanded their holdings to the east and conquered the lands of the Lutichi.

Pomorians, Pomeranians are West Slavic tribes that have lived since the 6th century in the lower reaches of the Odryn on the Baltic Sea coast. It remains unclear whether there was a residual Germanic population that they assimilated before their arrival. In 900 the border of the Pomorian area passed along the Audra in the west, the Vistula in the east and Notech in the south. They gave the name of the historical area of Pomerania.
In the 10th century, the Polish prince Mieszko I included the Pomor lands into the Polish state. In the 11th century, the Pomorians revolted and regained their independence from Poland. During this period, their territory expanded west of the Odra into the lands of the lutichi. On the initiative of Prince Vartislav I, the Pomorians adopted Christianity.
From the 1180s, German influence began to increase and German settlers began to arrive in the lands of the Pomorians. Because of the devastating wars with the Danes, the Pomorian feudal lords welcomed the settlement of the devastated lands by the Germans. Over time, the process of Germanization of the Pomorian population began.

The remnants of the ancient Pomorians that escaped assimilation today are the Kashubians, numbering 300 thousand people.

Sosnovy Bor news

Ancient historians were sure that warlike tribes and "people with dogs with their heads" lived on the territory of Ancient Rus. Much time has passed since then, but many mysteries of the Slavic tribes have not yet been solved.

Northerners living in the south

At the beginning of the 8th century, the tribe of the northerners inhabited the shores of the Desna, the Seim and the Seversky Donets, founded Chernigov, Putivl, Novgorod-Seversky and Kursk. The name of the tribe, according to Lev Gumilyov, is due to the fact that it assimilated the nomadic tribe of Savirs, which in ancient times lived in Western Siberia. The origin of the name "Siberia" is also associated with savirs. Archaeologist Valentin Sedov believed that the Savirs were a Scythian-Sarmatian tribe, and the place names of the northerners are of Iranian origin. So, the name of the river Seim (Seven) comes from the Iranian śyama or even from the ancient Indian syāma, which means “dark river”. According to the third hypothesis, the northerners (north) were immigrants from the southern or western lands. A tribe with this name lived on the right bank of the Danube. It could easily be “moved” by the Bulgars who invaded there. The northerners were representatives of the Mediterranean type of people. They were distinguished by a narrow face, an elongated skull, were thin-boned and had noses. They brought bread and furs to Byzantium, and back - gold, silver, luxury goods. They traded with the Bulgarians, with the Arabs. The northerners paid tribute to the Khazars, and then entered the union of tribes united by the Novgorod prince Prophetic Oleg. In 907 they took part in the campaign against Constantinople. In the 9th century, the Chernigov and Pereyaslavl principalities appeared on their lands.

Vyatichi and Radimichi - relatives or different tribes?

The lands of the Vyatichi were located on the territory of the Moscow, Kaluga, Oryol, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tula, Voronezh and Lipetsk regions. Outwardly, the Vyatichi resembled northerners, but they were not so nosed, but they had a high bridge of the nose and Brown hair... The "Tale of Bygone Years" indicates that the name of the tribe came from the name of the ancestor Vyatko (Vyacheslav), who came "from the Poles." Other scholars associate the name with the Indo-European root "ven-t" (wet), or with the Proto-Slavic "vęt" (large) and put the name of the tribe on a par with the Wends and Vandals. Vyatichi were skilled warriors, hunters, they collected wild honey, mushrooms and berries. Cattle breeding and slash farming were widespread. They were not part of Ancient Rus and more than once fought with the Novgorod and Kiev princes. According to legend, Vyatko's brother Radim became the ancestor of the Radimichs, who settled between the Dnieper and Desna in the territories of the Gomel and Mogilev regions of Belarus and founded Krichev, Gomel, Rogachev and Chechersk. The Radimichi also rebelled against the princes, but after the Battle of Peschania they submitted. The chronicles mention them for the last time in 1169.

Krivichi - Croats or Poles?

The passage of the Krivichi is not known for certain, which from the VI century lived in the upper reaches of the Western Dvina, Volga and Dnieper and became the founders of Smolensk, Polotsk and Izborsk. The name of the tribe came from the ancestor of Kriv. The Krivichi were distinguished from other tribes by their high growth. They had a nose with a pronounced hump, a well-defined chin. Anthropologists attribute the Krivichi to the Valdai type of people. According to one version, the Krivichi are migrated tribes of white Croats and Serbs, according to the other, they are immigrants from the north of Poland. The Krivichi worked closely with the Vikings and built ships on which they sailed to Constantinople. The Krivichi entered the structure of Ancient Russia in the 9th century. The last prince of the Krivichi Rogvolod was killed with his sons in 980. The Smolensk and Polotsk principalities appeared on their lands.

Slovenian vandals

Slovenes (Ilmenian Slovenes) were the most northern tribe... They lived on the shores of Lake Ilmen and on the Mologa River. The origin is unknown. According to legend, their ancestors were Sloven and Rus, who, even before our era, founded the cities of Slovensk (Veliky Novgorod) and Staraya Russa... From Sloven, power passed to Prince Vandal (known in Europe as the Ostrogothic leader Vandalar), who had three sons: Izbor, Vladimir and Stolposvyat, and four brothers: Rudotok, Volkhov, Volkhovets and Bastarn. The wife of Prince Vandal Advind was from the Varangians. Slovenes now and then fought with the Vikings and neighbors. It is known that the ruling dynasty descended from the son of Vandal Vladimir. The Slavens were engaged in agriculture, expanded possessions, influenced other tribes, were engaged in trade with the Arabs, with Prussia, with Gotland and Sweden. It was here that Rurik began to reign. After the emergence of Novgorod, Slovenes began to be called Novgorodians and founded the Novgorod Land.

Rus. A people without territory

Look at the map of the settlement of the Slavs. Each tribe has its own land. There are no Russes there. Although it was the Rus who gave the name to Rus. There are three theories of the origin of the Russians. The first theory considers the Rus as Varangians and is based on the "Tale of Bygone Years" (written from 1110 to 1118), it says: "They drove the Varangians across the sea, and did not give them tribute, and began to own themselves, and there was no truth among them , and race after race, and there was strife among them, and they began to fight with each other. And they said to themselves: "Let us look for a prince who would rule over us and judge by right." And they went across the sea to the Varangians, to Russia. Those Varangians were called Rus, as others are called the Swedes, and other Normans and Angles, and still other Gotlandians — that's how these are. " The second suggests that the Rus are a separate tribe that came to Eastern Europe earlier or later than the Slavs. The third theory says that the Rus are the highest caste of the East Slavic tribe of the Polyans, or the tribe itself that lived on the Dnieper and on the Ros. "Glade is even n'inѣzovaya Rus" - was written in the "Laurentian" Chronicle, which followed the "Tale of Bygone Years" and was written in 1377. Here, the word "Rus" was used as a toponym, and the name Rusa was also used as the name of a separate tribe: "Rus, Chud and Slovenia" - this is how the chronicler listed the peoples who inhabited the country.
Despite the research of geneticists, the controversy around the Rus continues. According to the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, the Varangians themselves are descendants of the Slavs.

SLAVIC TRIBES IN RUSSIA

Slavic tribes

Vyatichi is a union of East Slavic tribes who lived in the second half of the first millennium AD. NS. in the upper and middle course of the Oka. The name Vyatichi supposedly came from the name of the ancestor of the tribe, Vyatko. However, some people associate this name by its origin with the morpheme "veins" and veneds (or venets / vents) (the name "vyatichi" was pronounced as "ventchi").

In the middle of the 10th century, Svyatoslav annexed the lands of the Vyatichi to Kievan Rus, but until the end of the 11th century, these tribes retained a certain political independence; the campaigns against the Vyatichi princes of this time are mentioned.

Since the XII century, the territory of the Vyatichi was included in the Chernigov, Rostov-Suzdal and Ryazan principalities. Until the end of the 13th century, the Vyatichi preserved many pagan rituals and traditions, in particular, they cremated the dead, erecting small mounds over the burial place. After rooting Christianity among the Vyatichi, the rite of cremation gradually disappeared from use.

Vyatichi retained their tribal name longer than other Slavs. They lived without princes, the social system was characterized by self-government and democracy. The last time the Vyatichi were mentioned in the chronicle under such a tribal name was in 1197.

In 981 the Volynians were subordinated to the Kiev prince Vladimir I and became part of the Kievan Rus. Later, the Galicia-Volyn principality was formed on the territory of the Volynians.

The political center of the Drevlyans in the era of their independence was the city of Iskorosten; at a later time, this center, apparently, moved to the city of Vruchiy (Ovruch)

Dregovichi - East Slavic tribal union that lived between Pripyat and Western Dvina.

Most likely the name comes from the Old Russian word dregva or dryagva, which means "swamp".

Under the name of Drugovites (Greek δρονγονβίται), the Dregovichi are already known to Constantine Porfirodny as a tribe subordinate to Rus. Being on the sidelines of the "Way from the Varangians to the Greeks", the Dregovichi did not play a prominent role in the history of Ancient Rus. The chronicle only mentions that the Dregovichi once had their reign. The capital of the principality was the city of Turov. The subordination of the Dregovichi to the Kiev princes happened, probably, very early. On the territory of the Dregovichi, the Turov principality was subsequently formed, and the northwestern lands became part of the principality of Polotsk.

Duleby (not duleby) - a union of East Slavic tribes on the territory of Western Volhynia in the 6th and early 10th centuries. In the 7th century they were subjected to the Avar invasion (obry). In 907 they took part in Oleg's campaign against Constantinople. They broke up into tribes of Volhynians and Buzhans and in the middle of the 10th century they finally lost their independence, becoming part of Kievan Rus.

The Krivichi is a large East Slavic tribe (tribal association) that occupied in the 6th-10th centuries the upper reaches of the Volga, Dnieper and Western Dvina, the southern part of the Lake Peipsi basin and part of the Neman basin. Sometimes the Ilmen Slavs are also ranked among the Krivichs.

The Krivichi were probably the first Slavic tribe to move from the Carpathian region to the northeast. Limited in their distribution to the northwest and west, where they met stable Lithuanian and Finnish tribes, the Krivichi spread to the northeast, assimilating with the living Tamphins.

Settling on the great waterway from Scandinavia to Byzantium (the route from the Varangians to the Greeks), the Krivichi took part in trade with Greece; Konstantin Porphyrogenitus says that the Krivichi make boats on which the Rus go to Constantinople. They took part in the campaigns of Oleg and Igor against the Greeks as a tribe subordinate to the Kiev prince; Oleg's contract mentions their city of Polotsk.

Already in the era of the formation of the Russian state, the Krivichi had political centers: Izborsk, Polotsk and Smolensk.

It is believed that the last tribal prince of the Krivichi, Rogvolod, together with his sons, was killed in 980 by the Novgorod prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich. In the Ipatiev list, the Krivichi are mentioned for the last time under 1128, and the Polotsk princes are called Krivichi under 1140 and 1162. After that, the Krivichi are no longer mentioned in the East Slavic chronicles. However, the tribal name Krivichi was used in foreign sources for quite a long time (up to the end of the 17th century). In the Latvian language, the word krievs entered to designate Russians in general, and the word Krievija to designate Russia.

The Polochans are an East Slavic tribe that in the 9th century inhabited the lands in the middle reaches of the Western Dvina in today's Belarus.

The Polotsk people are mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years, which explains their name as living by the Polota River, one of the tributaries of the Western Dvina. In addition, the chronicle claims that the Krivichi were descendants of the Polotsk people. The Polotsk lands stretched from the Svisloch along the Berezina to the Dregovichi lands. The Polochans were one of the tribes from which the Polotsk principality was later formed. They are one of the founders of the modern Belarusian people.

Polyane (poly) is the name of a Slavic tribe, in the era of settlement of the Eastern Slavs, who settled along the middle reaches of the Dnieper, on its right bank.

Judging by the chronicles and the latest archaeological research, the territory of the land of the meadows before the Christian era was limited by the course of the Dnieper, Ros and Irpen; in the northeast it adjoined the village land, in the west - to the southern settlements of the Dregovichi, in the southwest - to the Tivertsy, in the south - to the streets.

History finds the glades already at a rather late stage of political development: the social system is composed of two elements - the communal and the princely-druzhina, and the former is strongly suppressed by the latter. During the usual and most ancient occupations of the Slavs - hunting, fishing and beekeeping - among the meadows more than other Slavs, cattle breeding, agriculture, "tree breeding" and trade were widespread. The latter was quite extensive not only with Slavic neighbors, but also with foreigners in the West and East: it is clear from the coin hoards that trade with the East began in the 8th century — it stopped during the strife of the appanage princes.

At first, about half of the 8th century, the glades, which paid tribute to the Khazars, due to their cultural and economic superiority, from a defensive position in relation to their neighbors, soon turned into an offensive; Drevlyans, Dregovichi, northerners and others by the end of the 9th century were already subject to the glades. Christianity was established among them earlier than others. The center of the Polyanian ("Polish") land was Kiev; its other settlements are Vyshgorod, Belgorod on the Irpen River (now the village of Belogorodka), Zvenigorod, Trepol (now the village of Tripolye), Vasilev (now Vasilkov) and others.

Zemlyapolyan with the city of Kiev became the center of the Rurik's possessions since 882. For the last time in the annals the name of the Polyans is mentioned under 944, on the occasion of Igor's campaign against the Greeks, and is replaced, probably already at the end of the Χ century, with the name Rus (Ros) and Kiyane. The chronicler also calls the Glades the Slavic tribe on the Vistula, mentioned for the last time in the Ipatiev Chronicle under 1208.

Radimichi is the name of the population that was part of the union of East Slavic tribes who lived in the interfluve of the upper reaches of the Dnieper and Desna.
About 885 Radimichi became part of the Old Russian state, and in the XII century they mastered most of the Chernigov and southern Smolensk lands. The name comes from the name of the ancestor of the Radim tribe.

The northerners (more correctly, the North) are a tribe or tribal union of the Eastern Slavs who inhabited the territories east of the middle reaches of the Dnieper, along the Desna and Seimi Sula rivers.

The streets are an East Slavic tribe that inhabited the lands along the lower reaches of the Dnieper, the Southern Bug and the Black Sea coast during the VIII-X centuries.
The capital of the street was the city of Peresechen. In the first half of the 10th century, the ulcers fought for independence from Kievan Rus, but they were nevertheless forced to recognize its supremacy and become part of it. Later, the Uchiha and neighboring Tivertsy were driven to the north by the arriving Pechenezh nomads, where they merged with the Volhynians. The last mention of the streets dates back to the annals of the 970s.

Bodrichi (cheered, rarogi) —Polab Slavs (lower course of the Elbe) in the 8th-12th centuries. - the union of wagrs, polabs, clay, smolyan. Rarog (among the Danes Rerik) is the main city of the vigorous people. Land of Mecklenburg in East Germany.
According to one version, Rurik is a Slav from the Bodrich tribe, the grandson of Gostomysl, the son of his daughter Umila and the bouncy prince Godoslav (Godlav).

The Luzhitsky language is divided into Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian.

The Brockhaus and Euphron dictionary gives the definition: "Sorbs are the name of the Wends and, in general, the Polabian Slavs." Slavic people, inhabiting a number of areas in Germany, in the federal states of Brandenburg and Saxony.

A thousand years ago, the chroniclers of ancient Kiev claimed that they, the people of Kiev, were Rus, and that the state of Rus came from Kiev. The Novgorod chroniclers, in turn, argued that Russia was them, and that Russia came from Novgorod. What kind of tribe Rus was it, and what tribes and peoples did it belong to?

Traces of these tribes, which left a deep mark in the history of Europe and Asia, can be found in place names from the Rhine to the Urals, from Scandinavia to the Middle East. Ancient Greek, Arab, Roman, Germanic, Gothic historians wrote about them. There was Russia in Germany in the Gera district, and only by order of Hitler during the war with Russia this name was canceled. Russia was in the Crimea on the Kerch Peninsula back in the 7th century AD. Only in the Baltics there were four Rus: the island of Rügen, the mouth of the Neman River, the coast of the Gulf of Riga, in Estonia Rotalia-Russia with the islands of Ezel and Dago. V Eastern Europe except for Kievan Rus there were: Rus in the Carpathian region, in the Azov region, in the Caspian region, at the mouth of the Danube, Purgasov Rus on the lower Oka. In Central Europe in the Danube: Rugia, Ruthenia, Russia, Ruthenskaya mark, Rutonia, Rugiland on the territory of Present Austria and Yugoslavia. Two principalities "Rus" on the border of Thuringia and Saxony in Germany. The city of Russia in Syria, which arose after the first crusade. Roger Bacon (English author of the 13th century) mentions the "Great Russia", which encircles Lithuania on both sides of the Baltic Sea, including the modern Kaliningrad region... In the same century, German Teftons came here, and this territory became German Prussia.

German historians, the authors of the Norman theory, declare that Russia is one of the Germanic tribes. Russian scientists claim the opposite: Russia is one of the Slavic tribes. But the closest to the truth, nevertheless, is the Arab scientist and historian, contemporary of Ancient Russia and an outside, independent observer Al-Masudi, who wrote: "The Rus are numerous peoples, subdivided into various tribes, among them the most powerful is Ludaana." But the word "ludaana" is unambiguously explained from the Slavic languages as "people", these are Slavic tribes who lived on the southern shores of the Baltic Sea from East Germany between the Elbe and the Oder to the coast of the White Sea. The western part of these lands was called Slavia ("Slavic Chronicle" of Helmgold, 1172), and stretched from Greece to the Baltic (Scythian) Sea. Al-Istarhi says about the same "The Book of the Ways of States": "And the most distant of them (Rus), a group called as-Slavia, and their group, called al-Arsania, and their king sits in Ars." Lyutichi got their name, most likely, from the word "fierce, cruel, merciless." It was they who stood at the forefront of the offensive of the Balkan Slavs to the north and west, forcing the Germans to cross the Rhine and go to Italy and Gaul (present-day France). In VIII the Franks defeated the Russian-Slavic tribe of Varins, known from Scandinavian and Russian legends as the Varing-Varang-Varangians, and forced some of them to leave for the eastern coast of the Baltic. At the beginning of the X century, having collected all the power German Empire, Emperor Henry I declared "Drang nah Osten" (attack to the east) against the Slavs, who then lived in the territory of what is now East Germany. The Russian-Slavic tribes: the Vagrs, the encouraged (reregs), the Polabs, the Clayans, the Lyutichi (they are also the Viltsi: the Khizans, the Crosspenians, the Ratari, the Dolenchane), having fallen under the cruel oppression of the German barons, began to leave Slavia (East Germany) to the east in search of freedom and will. Many of them settled near Novgorod and Pskov, others went further towards the Urals, to the Russian North. Those who remained in place were gradually assimilated by the Teutons, who poured from Germany to the richest Slavic lands.

In the work of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus "On the government" lists the names of the Dnieper rapids in Slavic and Russian. The Russian names of the rapids sound like Scandinavian: Essupi “do not sleep”, Ulvorsi “island of the threshold”, Gelandri “noise of the threshold”, Aifor “pelicans”, Varuforos “threshold with a backwater”, Leanti “boiling water”, Strukun “small threshold”. Slavic names: Do not sleep, Ostrovuniprag, Gelandri, Owl, Vulniprag, Verutsi, Naprezi. This suggests that the Russian and Slavic languages are still different, the Russian language of Konstantin Porphyrogenitus differs from the Slavic, but not so much that it can be ranked as a Germanic language. In the literature, many tribes of the Rus are mentioned, leading their history from the shores of the Baltic. Rugs, horns, rutulas, rotals, ruthenes, rosomons, roxalans, roszi, herules, ruians, renas, wounds, aorses, ruzzi, gepids, and they spoke different languages: Slavic, Baltic, Celtic.

Still, Al-Masoudi is right, who wrote that the Rus are numerous peoples, subdivided into various tribes. The Rus were northern peoples: Slavs, Scandinavians, northern Celts "flavi ruthenes", that is, "red ruthenes", and at the beginning of the II millennium AD and the Finno-Ugrians (the names of the Russians from Igor's contract with the Greeks: Kanitsar, Issevi, Apubksar). The tribes received the name "Rus, Rus" regardless of nationality. Back in the X century, the North Italian historian Liutprand explained the name of the tribes "Rus" from the Greek language as "red", "red". And there are numerous confirmations of this. Almost all the names of Russian tribes come from the word “red” or “red” (rotals, ruthenes, roztsi, ruyans, Rus, etc.), or from the Iranian word “rus”, which means light, fair-haired, blond. Many ancient authors who wrote about the Rus characterize them as fair-skinned, red-haired, red-haired. For the Greeks, the color red was a distinctive feature of the supreme power, and only kings and emperors could use it. To emphasize his innate right to rule, the Byzantine emperor Constantine added the title Porphyrogenitus to his name, that is, born red or red. Therefore, the Greeks especially distinguished the northern red-haired tribes, calling them Rus, regardless of the language in which this tribe spoke. At the beginning of our era, it was the Byzantine Greeks who carried the light of civilization to Eastern Europe, giving names to the European peoples in their own way. Therefore, on the map of Europe, the name Rus appears precisely in the zone of influence of the Byzantine Empire.

Such a light-skinned and red-haired type of people could have formed only with a long existence in the north, in a cold climate and, as modern scientists have determined, with a large consumption of fish. The archaeological culture of "kyekkenmedings" or heaps of kitchen garbage left at the sites of fishermen and hunters along the shores of the North and Baltic Seas is quite suitable for these conditions. They left behind huge heaps of fish bones, shells and bones of marine animals. These are the creators of the so-called "pit" ceramics. They decorated their pots with one or more rows of small, round pits along the rim and strokes along the walls. This ceramics can be used to unmistakably trace the paths of the movement of Russian tribes. Most likely, in the beginning they spoke the Baltic language, an average between the Germanic and Slavic languages. In their ancient language there were many words with Slavic roots. In the essay of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus "On the Russians who come from Russia in one-tree trees to Constantinople", the names of the seven Dnieper rapids are mentioned in Slavic and in Russian. Of the seven names, two have the same sound, both in Slavic and in Russian: Essupi (do not sleep) and Gelandri (noise of the threshold). Two more Russian names have a Slavic root and can also be explained in the Slavic language: Varuforos (the Slavic root “var” in the meaning of “water”, from which the meaning “to cook” has been preserved in modern Russian, and Strukun with the meaning “to flow, flowing” ). As a result, it turns out that out of seven Russian words, four, and this is 57%, that is, more than half have Slavic roots. But, having taken up science before the Slavs, German scientists, in view of the loud military glory of the Russian tribes, ranked the Baltic languages as Germanic and called them "East Germanic". With the same success, the languages of the northern Russian tribes, including the Scandinavian ones, can be called “North Slavic” languages. It is in our time that the Swedish language has become closer to the Germanic languages, having undergone the strongest influence of German culture, imposed on it from outside. The same thing happened with Norwegian... The Gothic historian Jordan also mentions the Norwegians under their original name "Navgo". Most likely this name came from the totem of the patron saint of the tribe and had its root in the name of a fish (for example, "navaga") or a sea animal (for example, "narwhals"). At the turn of the 2nd millennium AD, this Baltic tribe also underwent strong Germanization. The name "navego" was reinterpreted in the German manner and began to sound like "Norwegians" from the German word "road to the north", but what have the Norwegian people and "road to the north" to do with it?

It is most expedient to single out the ancient Russian-Baltic languages in a separate group Indo-European languages and give it the name "Baltic", which fully corresponds to reality.

The abundance of food: fish and sea animals, the climatic optimum on the shores of the Baltic Sea, contributed to rapid growth population, the surplus of which, wave after wave, began to go south. In the upper reaches of the Volga and Oka, Russian tribes mingled with the Eastern Slavs, and with a small number of the Siberian population that came from across the Urals. From this mixing, the Russian-Slavic tribes appeared, the creators of the cultures of "pit-comb" ceramics. Their most ancient sites are found near Moscow (Lyalovskaya site), and throughout the Volga-Oka interfluve from the 4th millennium BC. The spread of dimple-comb ceramics shows the widespread settlement of the Russian-Slavic tribes over the territory of the forest belt of Eastern Europe, including the Scandinavian Peninsula. They spoke the Slavic language, but, unlike the Balkan and Danube Slavs, they had light, blue eyes and light blond or red hair, all the signs of Russian tribes. And in culture they were close to the Russian-Baltic tribes. This is what Procopius of Caesarea wrote about them: “They (antas) are very tall and of great strength. Their skin and hair color is very white or golden, and not quite black, but they are all dark red. "

And here is the Jewish prophet Ezekiel says about the people of Ros:
1. “You are the son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: this is what the Lord God says: here I am - against you, Gog, prince of Rosa, Meshech and Tubal!
2. And I will turn you around and lead you, and I will bring you out from the ends of the north and bring you to the mountains of Israel ”(Ezekiel chapter 39).

Under the concept: Russian tribes fell all the peoples of northern Europe who spoke Slavic languages: Rugi, Ruyan, Vagry-Varangians, encouraged-vigorous-reregs, Viltsy, Lyutichi, etc. In the Baltic languages: Chud, Goths, Swedes, Navgo (future Norwegians), Izhora, etc. In Celtic languages: Estonian, Ruthenian, etc. In the Finno-Ugric languages (assimilated Baltic, Celtic and Russian-Slavic tribes). The North Iranian Scythians, who have lived in the north of Eastern Europe since ancient times, also belonged to the Russian tribes. Therefore, such a confusion has been created in the literature about the Russian tribes that no one can still unravel it. Some Russians burned their dead relatives in a boat, others buried them in simple earth pits, others buried a whole log house in the ground and buried them with a living wife. Some Russes wore short jackets, others did not wear jackets or caftans, but wore a "kitty" - a long piece of cloth wrapped around the body, the third Rus wore wide trousers, each of which was a hundred "cubits" of cloth. Of course, the Goths who came from the southern shores of the Baltic also belonged to the Russian tribes. In the Lithuanian language, Russians are still referred to by the word "guti", that is, "Goths" (Tatishchev). One of the self-names of the Goths was "gut-tiuda", but the name "tiuda", which is recognized by many modern historians, means the Baltic tribe "Chud". This tribe, together with the Slavs and ancient Finno-Ugrians, played a huge role in the development medieval culture in the territory from the White Sea to Spain. The Chud tribes spoke the Baltic language, close to Russian-Slavic. In the modern Russian language from that time the words "wonderful", "miracle", "eccentrics" remained, that is, people who are very close in culture and language, but have their own wonderful customs. For example, from communication with the ancient, Finno-Ugric tribe Merya, who spoke a foreign, incomprehensible language, the words “vile”, “abomination” remained in the Russian language. From contact with the Finno-Ugric tribe "Mari", the word "Mara", that is, "death", remained in the Russian language. Meeting with them for the Slavs meant physical or ethnic death, loss of life or loss of their language and their culture.

At the beginning of our era, the "Chud" (tiuds) people lived along the entire Baltic coast; the Goths (gut-tiuds) and Swedes (svet-tiuds) belonged to them. The name of the Gothic king Theodoric can be translated as Tiudo-Rix, that is, "Chud king." All the facts indicate that the Chud is a very ancient Russian-Baltic tribe, from which both the Goths and the Swedes spun off and separated.

According to the legends of the Udmurt people, the richest Cheganda (Pyanobor) archaeological culture of the 2nd century BC - 3rd century AD on the territory of Udmurtia was created by a light-eyed chud who came from the north. This is also confirmed by archeology: the “corded” ceramics with impressions of the cord disappears, and the Baltic “pit” ceramics are widely spread. This period of time fits completely with the time when the Goths were promoted from south coast Baltic in the Black Sea region. In the book "Getika" of the Gothic historian Jordan (VI century AD) it is written that the Goths, when moving south, drove out from their places the tribe of the Ulmerugs, which is related to them, that is, the island rugs. Since then, the rugs considered ready to be theirs. worst enemies and repeatedly defeated them in battles. Jordan himself did not consider the Rugs to be Germans, they were originally a Russian-Slavic tribe. Breaking through Germany to the west, the Goths literally flooded their lands with blood in battles, beating the Germanic tribes one by one and all together. Since then, the name of the Baltic tribe Goths for the Germans acquired the meaning of God.

It can be clarified: the richest Cheganda (Pianoborsk) archaeological culture (II century BC - V century AD) in the lower reaches of the Kama River was created by the Russian-Slavic tribe of Rugs, ousted in the Black Sea region by the Goths. Probably, several generations of the Goths lived in the Kama region, gathering forces to break through to the most fertile lands of the Black Sea region.

Further, Jordan writes that the king is ready Filimer, before the attack on the sleepers, which blocked the Goths access to the steppe expanses, sent half of his army to the east. They crossed the river (presumably the Kama, because in the lower reaches of the Kama steppes are already spreading), left and disappeared in endless swamps and bottomless swamps. These lands can only be the vast swamps of Western Siberia. Traces of these Goths in our time are found by archaeologists, in the form of "accidentally got there" Scandinavian products, throughout the forest-steppe part of Western Siberia. They reached Tuva, becoming princes and kings for the local peoples. They passed on their culture and runic writing to the Yenisei Kirghiz, Khakass and ancient Tuvinians. The name "runic" is translated from the Gothic language as "secret".

According to the descriptions of Chinese historians, the Mongolian clan of Borjigins, to which Genghis Khan belonged, came to Mongolia from the north, from the territory of present-day Tuva and was very different from the local Tatars. They were tall, gray-eyed and fair-haired. It is quite possible that Genghis Khan is a direct descendant of the Rus-Goths, who left the territory of the Kama region to the east in the second century BC. The Mongols wrote, moreover, Scandinavian runic... Probably, remembering their Russian origin, the Borjigins (Chingizids) did not destroy the Russian princes in Russia, just as they completely destroyed the princes of the Tatar, Bulgar, Finno-Ugric, Kypchak, Cuman, but accepted them almost as equals. The name "Urus Khan" - "Russian Khan" is often mentioned among the supreme rulers of the Mongol Hordes. The son of Batu Khan (Batu), Sartak, considered it an honor to become a twin brother of the Russian prince Alexander Nevsky.

The Goths, who broke apart in the Black Sea region, fell under the blow of the Huns, and left for Western Europe, where, having changed the entire course of European history, they gradually disappeared among the Italians, French and Spaniards.

If we talk about what tribes Russia belonged to, which created the state of Ancient Russia, then here we can say unequivocally - Slavic Russia, which spoke the Slavic language. This conclusion can be reached by analyzing the modern Russian language. The word "work" has the same root as the word "slave"; to work means to perform the function of a slave, to be a slave. But the word "dream" has the same root as the word "sword". To dream means to think how to achieve everything we want with the help of the sword: happiness, fame, wealth and power. Most Russian folk tales tell a very fascinating story about how the youngest son found a sword-kladenets and, having gone to distant countries, got everything for himself: wealth, fame, a bride and a kingdom to boot. This is fully consistent with the characteristics that the ancient authors gave when describing the Rus (for example, Ibn-Rusta "Dear Values"). When a son is born to them, he (rus) gives the newborn a naked sword, puts it in front of the child and says: “I leave you no inheritance, and you have nothing but what you get with this sword”, “Rusy they have neither real estate, nor villages, nor arable land and eat only what they get in the land of the Slavs, "but they have many cities, they are warlike, brave, and pugnacious." But the "Rus themselves ... belong to the Slavs" (Ibn-Khordadbeg IX century AD).

One of the names of the Russian-Baltic tribe of Swedes is "svet-tiudy", that is, "light chud". Ibn-Rust writes that among the Slavs, bordering on the Pechenegs, the king is called "svet-malik", that is, "Swede-amalik" (a Swede from the royal family of Amalov), and he feeds only on mare's milk. Most likely what happened is that, in contrast to Slavic Russia, Swedish Russia came under the strongest influence of the Sarmatians-Finno-Ugrians and Scythians-Iranians. They moved from boats to horses and became typical nomads widely known from Russian chronicles as "Polovtsy". Polovtsi - from the word "sexual", which, again, means "red-haired", and the nomads of the Turks could not be fair-haired by their southern nature. Until the Mongol invasion, the Polovtsians (Swedes who became nomads) were the masters of the Black Sea steppes. Even after the Mongol invasion, the Polovtsian (Swedish) khans ruled in the Black Sea steppes on a par with the Mongol khans. Until now, the local population calls the Polovtsian burial mounds in the Black Sea region "Swedish graves". And the famous Polovtsian Khan Sharukan is referred to by medieval historians as the leader of the Goths (Swedes). It is quite possible that therefore the Polovtsian khans and Russian princes quickly found a common language and jointly tried to resist the Mongol invasion. Gradually, the Polovtsian Swedes dissolved among the Slavs and became part of the Ukrainian people.

The Russian-Baltic tribes were "Chud" and "Izhora", they lived from the area of present-day St. Petersburg and Estonia to the upper reaches of the Vyatka and Kama. At the turn of the second millennium, after experiencing the strongest influence of the Finno-Ugrians, they partially took their language and became Estonians, Udmurts and Komi, but the majority remained Russian, having mastered, closer to them, a kindred Slavic-Russian (modern Russian) language. In Udmurtia, the Russian-Baltic Chud tribes assimilated by the Finno-Ugric peoples make up more than 30% of the Udmurts, and are known as Chudna and Chudza. One of the ancient centers of settlement of the Russian-Baltic tribe Chudza was the area of the city of Izhevsk, and the village of Zavyalovo, whose lands are located around Izhevsk, was called Dery-Chudya.

The large Russian-Slavic tribe "Ves", traces of which can be found on a geographical map from the Baltic to the eastern slopes of Altai: rivers whose names have the Indo-European ending "-man" and settlements that begin or end with "weight" or "you ". It was only partially assimilated by the Finno-Ugrians - these are the current Vepsians. The overwhelming majority of Vesi was originally part of the Russian people. In the ingenious work of the ancient Russian chronicler "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" the word "all" is used in the meaning of "native village". In the famous Words: "How the prophetic Oleg is now being assembled ..." the epithet "prophetic" has nothing to do with the word "broadcast" or "predict." Oleg did not predict anything, it was the Magi who predicted death from his beloved horse. Most likely, the word "prophetic" meant that Prince Oleg was from the Russian-Slavic tribe Vesi or was the prince of Vesi, and the name Oleg itself comes from the Iranian word Khaleg (creator, creator). Part of the Russo-Slavic tribe Ves, who lived in Siberia, was cut off by the Finno-Ugric peoples advancing from the Kazakh steppes from the bulk of their fellow tribesmen and received the name "cheldons". They were widely known in the Urals and Siberia, and in small numbers have survived to this day under the same name. The name "chel-don" consists of two words. The word "chel" - from the self-name of the Slavs - a man, and the ancient Uralic word "don" - which means a prince. It is quite possible that the Cheldon Slavs, before the arrival of the Ugrians, were a princely tribe in Western Siberia and the Urals. After the annexation of Siberia to Russia, the local peoples called the first Russian settlers the word "pajo" meaning "prince" or "tsar", apparently in memory of that ancient Russian-Slavic tribe Ves that lived in Siberia before the arrival of the Ugrians. The very name "all" comes from the word "message", "broadcast", that is - to speak. From time immemorial Ves also lived on the territory of Udmurtia. From them remained the ruins of the city - the fortress Vesyakar on the Cheptse river and the legends of the Udmurt people about the hero Vesya.

In Germany, since the Middle Ages, it was believed that the state of Ancient Rus was created by the Rugs, about which Tacitus wrote (I-II century AD): “Near the Ocean (north of East Germany, the area of the city of Rostock) Rugia and Lemovia live; a distinctive feature of all these tribes is round shields, short swords and obedience to kings. " Apparently after the arrival from the territory of present-day Sweden to the southern coast of the Baltic, the quarrels were divided. One half went to the Kama region, the other to the lands of what is now East Germany. Actively participating in all the wars of the middle of the first millennium of our era, often, as part of both opposing sides, the rugs scattered throughout Europe, and wherever rugs appeared at the beginning, the name Rus or Ros appeared on the map. For example: Russia in Styria in the south of Austria, Russia on the Kerch Peninsula in the Crimea. But where there were swears, there were sure to be their eternal rivals - the Goths, and it is impossible to say for sure who created the next Russia. This once again confirms the assumption that the Greeks gave the name "Rus" regardless of the tribal affiliation of the creators of the next Rus, and regardless of the language they spoke. In the place where Tacitus places the "Germanic" tribes Rugov and Lemoviev "suddenly" there appear the Slavic tribes Luga (Luzhichians) and Glinians. It can be confidently asserted that the “Germanic” tribes of Rugov and Lemoviev are the Germanic vocalization of the originally Russian-Slavic tribes of Lugs (Luzhichian) and Glinyan (clay in German sounds like “lem” - Lehm, clay - they are the same Lemovia). Part of the Russian-Slavic tribe of Rugs (Luzhichan), who created the state of Ancient Rus (Kiev and Novgorod), still live in their ancient ancestral home - in Slavia, that is, in East Germany.

http://www.mrubenv.ru/article.php?id=4_5.htm

Most of the sources, as has been said, separate the Rus from the Slavs.
Therefore, many experts looked for the ancestors of this tribe in the non-Slavic population of the Northern Black Sea region. Even in medieval monuments, the Rus were identified with the Roxalans, a branch of the Iranian tribe of Alans. This version was later adopted by M.V. Lomonosov and even later by the prominent anti-Normanist D.I. Ilovaisky. It remains the most attractive among Soviet scientists as well. To what extent special interest the Alans were promoted by their high activity and mobility in the era of the great migration! they went as far as the North Sea coast and Atlantic Ocean, went to Spain and North Africa, uniting now with the Goths, now with the Vandals, now with other tribes, everywhere participating in the formation of new states and nationalities.

The famous Soviet historian and ethnographer S.P. Tolstov linked the Rus with the Roxalan or Aors tribe, and he believed that these tribes originally belonged to the non-Iranian language group and were only later Iranized. Later, the Ukrainian archaeologist D. T. Berezovets identified the Rus with the Alans of the Don region. Developing the observations of S. P. Tolstov and D. T. Berezovets, the Ukrainian archaeologist and historian M. Yu. Braichevsky connects the “Russian” names of the Dnieper rapids with the “Sarmatian Rus” in the notes of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus (mid-tenth century), names, which to this day remain one of the main foundations of Normanism. The Iranian background, dating back to the era of the Chernyakhov culture (II-IV centuries), is seen in the land of the meadows-Rus by the Moscow archaeologist V.V. Sedov. As if the famous archaeologist P.N. Tretyakov was inclined to the same idea, but he preferred to leave the question open, since he saw traces of Western - Germanic or West Slavic influence in the Dnieper antiquities. ON Trubachev is inclined to associate Russia with the remnants of the ancient Indo-Aryan ethnos that he identified.

The Normanist point of view also remains quite representative in our archeology and linguistics. It is adhered, in particular, by archaeologists D.A.Machinsky, G.S. Lebedev, M.I.Artamonov was inclined towards it in the last years of his life, the linguist G.A.Khaburgaev is close to her. Many linguists and historians, not counting the Russians as Normans (Scandinavian Germans), nevertheless recognize the significant role of the Scandinavians in the formation of the Old Russian state, just based on the data concerning the Russians. This kind of substitution is especially common in general works or in surveys aimed at finding traces of the Scandinavian presence in Eastern Europe. It is the “Russian” names of the rapids and the names of the princes and warriors of the “Russian clan” that most of all serve to convince the existence of the “Norman period” in the history of Russia. At the same time, as a rule, they confine themselves to finding something similar in Scandinavia, ignoring more than two centuries ago the apt remark made by MV Lomonosov: “In the Scandinavian language, these names have no sign.”

The question of the Slavic ancestral home is difficult because we do not know when to start. The question of the beginning of "Rus" is even more difficult, because there is no certainty about the main thing: do we know the language of this tribe? And the sources give so many different "Rusii" that among them it is easy to get confused and lost. Only in the Baltic states are four Rus' mentioned: Rügen Island, the mouth of the Neman River, the coast of the Gulf of Riga, and the western part of Estonia (Rotalia-Russia) with the Ezel and Dago islands. In Eastern Europe, the name "Rus", in addition to the Dnieper, is associated with the Carpathian, Azov and Caspian regions.

Recently B.A.Rybakov drew attention to information about Russia at the mouth of the Danube. The Ruzik area was part of the Vandal Kingdom of North Africa. And perhaps the most important "Rus" was located in the Danube. In the X-XIII centuries, Rugia, Ruthenia, Russia, Ruthenskaya mark, Rutonia are mentioned here.

In all cases, obviously, we are talking about the same area, which could only be Rugiland or Rugia, known from the sources of the V-VIII centuries. Rugia-Ruthenia was located on the territory of present-day Austria and the northern regions of Yugoslavia, that is, exactly where the "Tale of Bygone Years" brought Polyan-Rus and all Slavs from. Perhaps the offshoot of this Rus was the two principalities "Rus" (Reis and Reisland, that is, the Russian land) on the border of Thuringia and Saxony. Perhaps few people have heard of these principalities. And they are known to sources, according to at least, from the XIII century until 1920, when they were abolished. The "Russian" princes themselves, who owned these lands, guessed about some kind of connection with eastern Russia, but did not know what it was.
In addition to the named "Rusy", Russian chroniclers knew some kind of "Purgas Rus" on the lower Oka, and even in the XIII century this Rus had nothing to do with Kiev or the Vladimir-Suzdal land.

In our literature, it was mentioned (in particular, by Academician MN Tikhomirov) about the "Russian" colony in Syria, which arose as a result of the first crusade. The city bore the name "Rugia", "Russia", "Rossa", "Roya". We are dealing with approximately the same alternation in the designation of other "Rusii". It is possible that in some cases the names, different in meaning, but similar in sound, coincided. But the fact of the wide dispersion of kindred clans and tribes cannot be ignored either. The era of the great migration of peoples gives us many examples of this order. In fact, all the tribes it covered eventually disintegrated, scattering across different parts Europe and even North Africa. The claims of some clans for domination over others, related to them, prompted the latter to separate and move away from ambitious relatives. The Rugi-Rus, obviously, experienced approximately the same thing that was observed among the Goths, Alans, Suevi, Vandals and other tribes. Even in the 10th century, the Byzantines called Russia "dromites", that is, mobile, wandering.

At the present time, there is still no answer to the questions that arise naturally: no one has tried to map all references to Rus.
Different ideas about the original ethnic nature of the Rus are usually accompanied by corresponding interpretations of the ethnonym itself.

Normanists usually point to the Finnish name of the Swedes “Ruotsi”, without explaining what this name means in general (and this word in Finnish languages can mean “the land of rocks”), supporters of the southern origin of the name point to the designation in the Iranian and Indo-Aryan languages of light or white , which often symbolized the social claims of tribes or clans. The sources provide sufficiently representative material for another similar interpretation. In Western Europe, Russia, as it was said, was also called Rugia, Ruthenia, sometimes Ruya or Ruiyana. In the first centuries in Gaul, there was a Celtic tribe of Ruthenes, which was often accompanied by the epithet "flavi ruthenes", that is, "red ruthenes". In some medieval ethnogeographic descriptions this phrase was transferred to Russia, and, as indicated in our literature, for such a transfer, at least some external basis was required. Indeed, in the 10th century, the Northern Italian author Liutprand explained the ethnonym “Rus” from “common” Greek as “red”, “red”. In French sources, for example, the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, Anna Russkaya, was also interpreted as Anna Ryzhaya. The name of the Black Sea as "Russian" is found in more than a dozen sources of the West and East. Usually this name is associated with an ethnonym, serves, in particular, the rationale for the southern origin of Russia.

This is not excluded and even likely. But one must also bear in mind that the very name was interpreted as "Red". In some Slavic sources the sea is called not "Black", but "Red", that is, Red. It is also called in the Irish sagas, leading the first settlers on the island of Ireland from "Scythia" (in Irish: "Mare Ruad"). The very name "Ruthenes" comes, apparently, from the Celtic designation of red, although this name has already passed to the Rugov-Rus in the Latin tradition.

In the Russian medieval tradition, there was also a version that the name "Rus" is associated with the color "fair-haired". This tradition is usually not taken seriously. Nevertheless, it has very deep roots. So, in some early Slavic monuments, the designation of the month of September as Ruen, or Ryuen, is recorded, that is, almost as the island of Ryugen (usually Ruyana) was called in the Slavic languages. The meaning of this name of the month is the same as that of the adjective "fair-haired": it is brown-yellow, crimson (later the word "fair-haired" will mean a slightly different shade). Essentially, all forms of designation of Rus in Western European sources are explained from some languages and dialects as "red", "red". In this case, it is not necessary to talk about the appearance, although the appearance in the eyes of the neighbors could correspond to this. Red in symbolism so important for the Middle Ages meant power, the right to rule. The red color could be specially emphasized, as the author of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" emphasized by "blackened", that is, the red color of the shields of the Russians. For the pagans of the era military democracy ritual coloring was also characteristic, to which Julius Caesar drew attention, speaking of the Britons (they were painted blue).
There is still little information about the language of the Russians, and a constructive concept is needed that would explain the scattered material. Above, there is a curious message from an anonymous 15th century, according to which the Ruthenes called the Pomorians "Galmatians". In this regard, a parallel with the Illyrian Dalmatians suggests itself, especially since the Glomachs known from German sources were also called Delemic. The 16th century geographer Mercator called the Ruthenian language from the island of Rügen "Slovene da Vindal." Apparently the Ruthenes were bilingual for a while; passing to the Slavic speech, they retained their original, which Mercator considers "Vindalskoy", that is, apparently, Venedian. In modern Germanic linguistics, there is a widespread and well-founded version, according to which in the northern, Baltic limits, not the Germans once lived, but the Illyrians or Veneti, the so-called "northern Illyrians". This thesis is mainly proved by toponymy material. A significant part of the toponymy of the northwestern coast of the Adriatic has analogies in the Southeastern Baltic. We add that the same toponymy is also found in the northwestern part of Asia Minor and adjacent European regions.

The Illyrian-Venetian toponymy goes back to a fairly deep antiquity, perhaps by the end of the Bronze Age, when significant movements of tribes took place throughout the European continent, including movements caused by the defeat of Troy and its allies from Asia Minor, including the Veneti (XII B.C.). It was in the last quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. NS. on the southeastern coast of the Baltic States, a narrow-faced population, alien to this region, appears, which is still reflected in the appearance of Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians living on the sea coast. It was this part of the Baltic Sea that was once called the Venedian Gulf, and this name in relation to the Gulf of Riga remained until the 16th century.

How the Illyrian, Thracian and Venetian languages were related remains unclear, but, in all likelihood, they belonged to the same group. The Celtic language was also close to this group, although Celtic features in the culture of the southern coast of the Baltic, which are revealed by German archaeologists in recent times, possibly already of secondary origin, are layered on the earlier Veneto-Illyrian culture. The names of the ambassadors and merchants "from the Russian clan", named in the agreements between Russia and the Greeks, Oleg and Igor, find most of all analogies and explanations precisely in the Veneto-Illyrian and Celtic languages. Among them there are also those that can be interpreted from the Iranian languages, which is not surprising, given the deep local traditions of this language in the Dnieper region, as well as in the Estonian (Chud) language.

So, Russia, Slavs, Wends. The historical destinies of these three initially different peoples turned out to be so closely intertwined that in the region of Eastern Europe, over time, they began to represent a kind of a single whole. The process of unification (assimilation) took place on the basis of the Slavic element, but ethnic differences persisted for quite a long time, in particular, these differences were reflected in the "Tale of Bygone Years".

A single whole of the three peoples became the main component of the ancient Russian nationality that was forming in the 9th-11th centuries. At the same time, the presence of various ethnic groups to a large extent influenced the form and character of the Old Russian state.

Ancient Russia was an initially multi-ethnic state, and therefore inevitably within its frameworks were combined different shapes management. The Slavic form was the most widespread and stable, and it is ultimately visible later in the conditions of feudal fragmentation. The Balts and the Ugro-Finns have a similar form, and to a large extent this, apparently, was a consequence of the Slavic influence. The fact is that both the tribal level of organization was not yet clearly debugged, and the scattered local communities (territorial or clan) were included in the system introduced by the Slavic colonists and soon assimilated.

In the south of Russia, the remnants of the Iranian-speaking tribes were assimilated. This population has long had rather developed forms of organization and could keep them for a long time. Of the greatest importance were Rus in the south and the Varangians in the north of Eastern Europe.
It was the question of the ethnicity of Rus and the Varangians, as well as their role in the creation of a large state unification in Eastern Europe, that served as the basis for a long dispute between Normanists and anti-Normanists. This dispute has always had many shades from purely scientific to frankly political, speculative. These shades continue to this day. That is why it is necessary to dwell on the essence of the problem in somewhat more detail.

In the chronicle, as it was said, different ideas about the beginning of Russia are combined. One of the most ancient chroniclers put three questions at the beginning of his work: "Where did the Russian land come from", "who in Kiev began the first princes" and "where did the Russian land come from?" First of all, the answer to these questions must be sought in the text. He really is in the chronicle: Russia is a glade, once they, like other Slavs, left Norik, a Roman province on the Right Bank of the Danube. The first princes in Kiev were Kiy and his brothers, after which "their kind" reigned at the glades-Rus. The chronicler did not know exactly when all this happened, although legends about the Danube campaigns of Kiy reached him, about his reception by a certain Byzantine "king". He also did not know why the Polyans began to be called Rus. But he insistently emphasized that "the glade, now calling Russia" is a Slavic tribe, that, together with other Slavic tribes, it received the beginnings of Christianity back in Norik from the Apostle Paul, etc.

Another chronicler believed that Russia was the Varangians who came in the middle of the 9th century to the northwestern Slavic and Chud (Finno-Ugric) tribes and established dominance over them, and then went down the Dnieper and settled in Kiev, making him a “mother Russian cities ". Judging by the "Lay of Igor's Host" and later Slavic chronicles, there were other versions of the origin of Russia and the beginning of the Russian state, at least of the origin of the dynasty. But the two named remained the main ones, influencing later historiography.

The Normanist concept arose during the Bironovschina (30s of the 18th century). This was the era of the widespread triumph of absolutism, an era when they believed that the welfare of the state and subjects entirely depended on the head, and any arbitrariness of the monarch was justified by his supposedly necessarily good intentions. This was the era when the people, crushed by the apparatus of oppression, were viewed as "incapable" of any initiative. And the formation of nations that began with the development of bourgeois relations gave the conclusions about “ability” and “incapacity” an ethnic character: some peoples are more “capable”, others less.

The Slavs were among the latter, the Germans, in whom the awakening of national consciousness began somewhat earlier, were among the former.

The outspoken tendentiousness of the creators of the Norman theory, Z. Bayer and G. Miller, provoked a sharp rebuke from MV Lomonosov, who argued that the Varangians-Rus were natives of the southern and eastern coasts of the Baltic, who belonged to the Slavic language. Considering that such a view was widespread in sources XV - early XVIII century, and not only Slavic, then it is possible to speak of Lomonosov as the ancestor of anti-Normanism only conditionally: in fact, he restored what was already known earlier, only sharpening facts, either bypassed or arbitrarily interpreted by the creators of the Norman-German concept. The dispute at this time also quite clearly revealed the position: the German part of the Academy of Sciences and bureaucracy adhered to Normanism, Russian scientists and some of the courtiers - anti-Normanism.

In the 19th century, the picture will become more complex. The German G. Evers will oppose Normanism, and one of the pillars of Normanism will be a native of the serf class, M.P. Pogodin (18001875). True, his emotional exclamations in defense of Normanism were too weakly supported by concrete material. He generally believed that "the main thing, essential in this incident, in relation to the origin of the Russian state, is not Novgorod, but the face of Rurik, as the founder of the dynasty." “Baby Rurikov, Igor,” Pogodin explains this thought, “with his squad there is the only ingredient in the composition of the state, a thin thread by which it connects with subsequent incidents. All the rest passed without leaving a trace. If it were not for Igor, then this northern Novgorod episode would hardly have been necessary, perhaps, to speak in Russian history, or only in passing. "
In other words, the Norman participation in the formation of the state is reduced by Pogodin to the origin of the sovereign.

In our time, many of those who assign the Normans a much greater role, who recognize the Norman not only the dynasty, but also the squad and the social elite in general, do not consider themselves Normanists. This happened because the question of the composition of the social elite began to be pushed aside as insignificant, and attention was focused on finding elements of social inequality, which should lead to the formation of classes and the state.

The dispute between Normanists and anti-Normanists really cannot now be perceived as it was in the last century. The possibilities of the prince and his retinue were not at all as boundless as it seemed to the noble-bourgeois historians and sociologists. The internal laws of the development of society ultimately overcome external influences. But only ultimately. And the living generation may not wait for the triumph of historical regularity, because some force that has appeared from the outside will stand in its way.

Old Norman literature usually emphasized the beneficent nature of the Norman conquest, or simply asserting the Normans at the top of the social ladder. But in some works and publicistic writings, a purely racist rapture over the superiority of power was also visible.

Anti-Normanists usually pointed to the absence of Germanisms in the language, pagan cults, and in general in culture.
Today's neo-Normanists often contrast these arguments with indications that the Normans and everywhere in Europe have left no trace. Only this statement is incorrect. The Normans left a trail everywhere, and a bloody, destructive trail. It would be correct to say that they did not play a creative role anywhere. And such a conclusion will be useful for comparison with what happened in Eastern Europe. It, in any case, should be taken into account by the current adherents of the idea of "Norman-Slavic synthesis", who are trying to present the matter in such a way that the bloodthirsty robbers known throughout Europe immediately "softened" as soon as they saw the Slavs ripe for statehood.

It must be emphasized that the Norman theory cannot be refuted by general considerations. Proceeding from theoretical positions, one can only reject arguments about "capable" and "incapable" of nations.

And this reasoning, flowing from the Normanist concept, is not at all obligatory for her. The debate about the role of the aliens does not really matter. If these are Normans, then, by analogy with Western Europe, it should be assessed as negative. But even such an assessment would not undermine Normanism. In other words, Normanism is based on a variety of methodological premises, and everyone who accepts the actual argumentation of the Normanists inevitably adheres to it, no matter how far they diverge in assessing the role and influence of the Normans in Eastern Europe.

Some time ago, the decisive argument against Normanism was the conviction that all peoples from century to century develop in approximately the same territory. Now this argument helps rather Normanism, since the fact of numerous migrations and displacements of peoples is obvious.

In Europe, you will not find a single country whose people would not include people from a dozen languages and tribes. And in Eastern Europe, one should take into account when and with what certain tribes and nationalities came here.

This, by the way, will clarify what the Germans brought, if they brought something.

The form of organization of Slavic tribes, more precisely, tribal unions in the 6th-9th centuries was mentioned above. In essence, it is a harmonious system, created from below, primarily for economic and economic purposes, in which the upper stratum has not yet separated from the lower links. We are now somewhat artificially sharpening the question of whether this very stable system can be called a state, or whether we should limit ourselves to a more cautious definition. And it would be worth talking about possible alternative state forms and their effectiveness in the given conditions. And in this regard, the ideas about the tasks of the highest power, characteristic of people of that ancient era, are interesting.

For the author of The Tale of Bygone Years, in the first place is the concept of “land”. "Russian land". "Derevskaya Zemlya", later also "Novgorodskaya" and "Suzdal Zemlya". Not a clan, not a tribe and not a prince. The very concept of "tribe" in this case also presupposes not consanguineous, but territorial-historical significance, that is, it means not blood relatives, but people united by a common territorial organization. The chronicler credits Vladimir with the fact that he, together with the elders, worked "about the system with land, and about military operations, and about the charter with land." In Vladimir's gridnitsa, feasts were held, to which "boyars and greedy, and socialist, and tenth, and deliberate men, with the prince and without the prince, could freely come." Here, however, there are no more common people, but there are still representatives of the people, and the prince is interested in attracting them to his side.

The ancient Kiev chronicler also raised the question of the beginning of princely power in Kiev. But fundamental importance was attached to it only because someone disputed the princely dignity of Kiy and his successors, as the princely dignity and rulers of individual lands. Obviously, the chronicler himself put the power that comes from the earth higher than that that falls on the earth from the outside, whether it is "one's own" or "someone else's."

In the legend about the vocation of the Varangians, which arose clearly later, external and external power rises above the "lands". According to the chronicle, the need for it arose because, freed from the Varangian tribute, the tribes of Slovenes, Krivichi, Vesi, Chudi and Mary drowned in strife. Therefore, they agreed to invite the prince from the outside as an arbitrator, "who would like us and judge by right."

It is enough to look at the map, and it becomes clear that there was no economic need for the unification of the vast territory of tribal unions either in the 9th century, or much later. The connection of multilingual territories could only be carried out by an external power. The development of private property introduced contradictions to the tribal organization, but it could not break it.
This organization will not be broken by the external power, although it will strive for this. It is on this Russian territory that customary law, opposed to state legislation, will remain until the 19th century.

In the legend of the vocation, the idea of a "right" to reign of a unique kind also appears. This idea was implanted by the Monomakhovichs, who defended themselves from the ancestor of the Igor dynasty by as much as seven generations. And it seems that, apart from them, no one behaved from Rurik. In any case, Troyan is recognized as the legendary ancestor of the Russian princes in The Lay of Igor's Host, and the main character, Igor Svyatoslavich, is called his “grandson,” that is, a descendant.

It must be borne in mind that the word "possession" under the pen of the chronicler meant something other than the later feudal or princely possession. In the Slavic language, it is no coincidence (just like in Celtic) that the land and the government on it were denoted in one word: power (volost). "Ownership" in this sense did not mean either domination or property. It was a form - an honorable and profitable one, after all, it was a duty. In practice, of course, the owners strove to become both masters and owners. Nevertheless, the princely inheritance never merged with state ownership. And within the domain, the prince's property was limited. It is no coincidence that when, in the middle of the 19th century, on the eve of peasant reform the question arose, who owns the land, no one could give a clear answer to it.

As it was said, the economically expedient zemstvo power could not extend over vast territories. Only power, one way or another external, could rise above them. Such, naturally, took advantage of the contradictions between the individual lands-reigns and, of course, did not forget to remind of her merits in maintaining "order", as well as in organizing defense or campaigns against an external enemy. In the south, Glade-Rus turned out to be such a unifying tribe.

The Danube memoirs of the most ancient Kiev chronicler date back to the era of the Great Migration. But it is currently not possible to reconstruct the course of events from the 6th to the 9th century in the Dnieper region. One can only assume that the Slavic and Russian tribes, which had not yet merged, coexisted here, together with the remnants of some other local and newcomer population. The chronicler clarified something without suspecting it.

He really wanted to raise the dignity of the glades, substantiate their right to primacy in the Slavic princes, and he showed that the glades still retained the features characteristic of many tribes of the era of migration.

The glade retained the most significant differences from the rest of the Slavs in the two most persistent traditional spheres: in the forms of the family and in the funeral rite. All Slavs were burned to death. The glades were distinguished by corpses, and this message of the chronicler is confirmed by archaeological material. Among the Slavs, while maintaining polygamy, a small family prevailed.

And this is also confirmed by archaeological data: the size of semi-dugouts (10-20 square meters) could only accommodate a small family. "Big houses" of the Chernyakhov culture (II-IV centuries) usually reached hundreds or more square meters. The chronicler attached particular importance to the form of marriage, noting that the Slavs generally "did not have a marriage", but were abducted during the games between villages by agreement with the bride ("whoever consulted with her"). In this case, marriage is a kind of commercial transaction, the purchase of a wife. The glades have preserved even such a specific feature, widespread among the tribes of the Great Migration era, as the "morning gift" of the groom to the young wife after the first wedding night.

The chronicler specifically dwelled on the fact that the youth of the Drevlyans and other Slavic tribes do not honor their elders, their parents. The young people themselves decide and arrange their family affairs. This situation is natural when the main unit is a small family, and the community is built on a territorial rather than consanguineous principle. The situation is different for the glades. Here, young people are subordinate to the elders, who also enter into marriages, and the young must be brought to the house of the groom's parents. “Big family” is usually the legacy of a consanguineous community. Judging by the data relating to Central Europe, the Rugi-Rus everywhere for a long time retained the form of community that was previously characteristic of the Goths, Lombards and some other tribes. The basis here was not the land, not the territory, but a related group that could easily change their place of residence. But since these groups were relatively small in number, they somehow had to be included in the local territorial structure.

The Kiev chronicler, glorifying the Polyans, no longer even noticed that “ big family"Is less in harmony with the territorial principle of the organization of society than the" small "family.

As noted earlier, the Rugi-Rus were usually everywhere distinguished by well-known claims to a special position, boasting of the antiquity of the clan, of noble origin. The "Russian clan" in the Dnieper region also made some claims. But the chronicler did not explain their essence to us, and he did not separate Russia from the Slavs by language and origin.

The Kiev chronicler, as it was said, did not favor princely power too much. For him, she was only the pinnacle of the zemstvo dispensation, and he speaks of its hereditary character only because someone challenged the rights of the local Kiev dynasty. In general, it is very significant that the Kiev princes cannot even boast of the antiquity of their kind: there is no one in front of them. Perhaps something else also affects: in the VIII-IX centuries according to the Dnieper tribes, according to the chronicle, they paid tribute to the Khazars, and the liberation from this tribute came from outside, from the Varangians-Rus. Meanwhile, in Western Europe, where titling was of particular importance, Russian princes are invariably called "kings", while, say, Polish princes are only "dukes." Adam of Bremen and Helmold specifically note that among the Western Slavs, only the Ruyans (Rus) from the island of Rügen have “kings”.
The royal dignity of all Russian princes goes, therefore, into already forgotten antiquity, apparently, at the time when the Danube rugs received the status of a federal kingdom in relation to Rome.

According to the 911 and 945 treaties, it is clear that the main occupations of the "kind of Russian" were war and trade. Igor's treaty named 25 ambassadors from the princely family and boyars, and from each individually, and another 26 merchant ambassadors, apparently representing the rest of the Rus - merchants and artisans. The numerous embassy in this case testifies to the contradictions in the corporation, claiming the dominant position, to the weakness of the princely power itself, as well as to the domination of private property within the corporation. In fact, this clan did not have any common property, except for the claims to the possession of Slavic lands on the way "from the Varangians to the Greeks", which in the 10th century meant collecting tribute and replacing, in some cases, local princely dynasties by the sons of the Kiev prince.

The “Russian clan”, known by treaties, apparently consisted of newcomers from the north, although among the warriors and merchants there were many bearers of the names characteristic of Illyria and the Danube, and in the princely dynasty prevailed Slavic names... But the newcomers from the north, contrary to the opinion of the Normanists, not only were not themselves Swedes, but they were not even included in the squad. Indeed, even after the adoption of Christianity, until the end of the 11th century, polygamy prevailed among the Swedes, while the Polans-Rus had monogamy. The Swedes did not have hereditary royal power. Ivan the Terrible even in the 16th century reproached the Swedish ruler Johan III for being of a non-royal family and that there were never any kings in Sweden at all, and therefore, supposedly, the Swedish side could not claim diplomatic etiquette equal to the Moscow tsar.

Of course, from the fact that Swedish kings were elected by tribal assemblies up to the XIV century, a conclusion similar to that of Ivan the Terrible cannot follow. It is just such a system that is not a sign of "backwardness" but of expediency. It is effective at almost all times. It was this system that helped Scandinavia cleanse itself of the Vikings and avoid serfdom. But this is clearly not the same system that characterized the Russians in any territory they occupied.

It should be borne in mind that the inevitable conflicts between the "Russian race" and the Slavic population proper, at least in the 10th century, did not carry interethnic antagonism. The Russians felt themselves to be aristocratic, but Slavic. It is no coincidence that Slavic names and titles spread primarily in the princely family, and contracts were written in the Slavic language (presumably with the help of the Glagolic, "Russian" writing). Naturally, there was also the usual "dilution" of the clan in such cases as a result of marriage contacts, the inclusion of alien warriors in its composition, and, mainly, due to the erasure of differences in the cultural sphere, primarily in beliefs. But at the same time, the Kievan Rus still did not forget about their relatives somewhere in the Danube, in Central Europe, perhaps in the Baltic states.

True, in all other regions where groups of Rugov-Rus settled, Slavic speech predominated, and Central European ruthenes are also usually considered in the sources as a special branch of the Slavs.

In traditional Normanism, the ethnonyms "Rus" and "Varangians" were perceived as equivalent, and therefore the Scandinavian origin of the Varangians was usually proved by materials related to Russia. The majority of Soviet scientists consider Russia to be a southern, Black Sea (albeit non-Slavic) tribe, while the Varangians, in agreement with the Normanists, recognize them as Swedes. Meanwhile, if many sources speak about the non-Slavism of the Rus, then there are no such materials in relation to the Varangians of the 9th-10th centuries. Normanism is based on the fact that the ambassadors from the "kagan of the dews" in Germany in 839 seemed to be<свеонами>that in 844 Seville was attacked by the Rus who came from somewhere in the north, that Konstantin Porphyrogenitus in the middle of the 10th century calls the Dnieper rapids Slavic and “Russian” names, that the chronicler Liutprand in the 10th century identifies the “Rus” with the Nordmann and that the names themselves "Kind of Russian" in the contracts - non-Slavic. But this is all exactly the Rus, not the Varangians. The Varangians, however, can be considered in this context only to the extent that they are Rus, in which their identification is justified.

It is quite obvious that the name "Varangians" in different cases covers different ethnic groups. "Varyag-Rus" is, in all likelihood, really Rus - Baltic Rus, akin to the Danube, Dnieper and others. So could be called both the inhabitants of Rügen, and the group of Rus-Rugs, scattered along the eastern coast of the Baltic. May be, Special attention should attract Rotalia (Western Estonia), since in the Russian nomenclature there are many names of clearly Chud, Estonian origin, and such names as "Igor", "Igeld", "Yggivlad" can be directly compared with the "Igov language", which Kurbsky still emphasizes v XVI century on the territory of Estonia. Estonia holds a special place in all sagas where it comes to Russia, in particular in the sagas about Olaf Tryggvason.

At the same time, the Kiev chronicler has something different in mind when he speaks of the Varangians. In the earliest mention of the Varangians - precisely the testimony of the chronicler of the time of Vladimir - they live to the east from the Chudi (Estonians) to the "Simov limit", which meant the Volga Bulgaria. These were exactly the lands on which the Varangians who came with Rurik established themselves.

Themselves Novgorodians and southern and northern chroniclers derived "from the Varangian clan." The Kiev chronicler limits the western limits of the settlement of the Varangians, on the one hand, to the Polish Pomorie (Pomorie belonged to Poland at the end of the 10th century) and, on the other, to the territory of Denmark, called in the Tale of Bygone Years "the land of the agnians", that is, the Angles - a Germanic tribe that occupied the southern part Jutland Peninsula. The Angles' neighbors on the southern coast of the Baltic were the "Varins", "Vars", "Vaars", "Vagry" - a tribe that belonged to the Vandal group and became Slavic by the 9th century. In the genealogy of the Saxon family of Wettins, compiled in the 13th century, in connection with the events of the late 10th - early 11th centuries, two margraves are mentioned who ruled the “Wöhring brand”. That was the name of the area where the Varins lived.

The identity of the "Varangians" with the "Varins" is obvious from a linguistic point of view. Ethnonyms have the same root, and differences in ethnic-forming suffixes are common throughout this territory; in the Celtic-Romance languages the ethnonym should sound like "Varins", in the Germanic - "Waringi", among the Baltic Slavs - "Varangi", in the Eastern - "Varangians".
The meaning of the ethnonym is also quite obvious. In German literature, the etymology of the tribal name "varina" has long been adopted from the old Indo-European "var" - sea, water. In fact, this is one of the main designations for water in Indo-European languages, variants of which are also "mar" or "nar" ("varangs" - Varangians - in Byzantium were sometimes also called "marangs"). And only the deliberately tendentious desire to transfer the "waring" to Scandinavia prompted to look for some other etymology for them.
The Varangians, therefore, are simply Pomorians. Therefore, this name has always been applied to different sea peoples, and only to the sea.

It is peculiar to each era to look down on the previous ones. How many times the chroniclers had to be criticized and taught by not too grateful descendants! Why are these Vikings, having built new town, call it "Novgorod"? Why do they give the name "Beloozero" to the city, erected on the territory, where even the Slavs did not penetrate? Why Izborsk, Pleskov-Pskov - and not a single "Holma", "Burg", "Stadt"? And at the time when the chronicler wrote, this problem simply did not exist. He said that the Varangians came “from across the sea,” and their language was understandable to the people of Kiev. In the 18th century, the chronicler will begin to scold for their naivety and simplicity. And the 18th century will show that even a not too numerous foreign stratum in the highest echelons of power is enough for the place of "grads" to be taken by "burgs" in the same territories.

Archeology is now the main refuge of Normanism. But the interpretation of archaeological data is sometimes polar. The famous Leningrad archaeologist G.S. Lebedev in a number of works was ready to link with the Normans almost all the burials of the Kiev nobility of the 10th century. And in another work, he admits that only one burial out of 146 can be attributed to the Scandinavian. For some reason, many archaeologists still simply close their eyes to the well-known archaeological facts. So, throughout the north of Russia, specific Feldberger ceramics, characteristic of the Baltic Slavs VIII- X centuries. In the posad of the city of Pskov, it is over 80 percent in the corresponding layers. There is a lot of it in Novgorod and other cities, it reaches the Upper Volga and Gnezdovo on the Dnieper, that is, to those regions where the Kiev chronicler placed the Vikings. And in Kiev it is not at all. And this kind of facts, apparently, is connected with the opposition of "Varangians" and "Rus", which can be traced in a number of chronicle texts.

The influence of the Baltic Pomerania even affected the anthropological appearance of the population of Northern Russia. After analyzing materials related to the X-XIV centuries, the famous specialist V. V. Sedov established that “the closest analogies to the early medieval skulls of Novgorodians are found among craniological series originating from the Slavic burial grounds of the Lower Vistula and Oder. These are, in particular, the Slavic skulls from the burial grounds of Mecklenburg, which belonged to the cheers. " The same population reached the Yaroslavl and Kostroma Volga regions, that is, the region to which the special attention of the Normanists is always drawn.
Even in our time, islets remain where the direct descendants of those old settlers live. So, having recently examined the population of the Pskov Lake District (the western coast of Lake Pskov), anthropologists Yu. D. Benevolenskaya and G. M. Davydova discovered a group belonging to the "West Baltic type", which is most common among the population south coast Baltic Sea and islands from Schleswig-Holstein to the Soviet Baltic.

The colonization flow from the southern coast of the Baltic to the east was supposed to begin at the end of the 8th century, when Frankish state, having broken the resistance of the Saxons, began to attack the lands of the Baltic Slavs and the remnants of the old local population... Part of the Frisians (from the area of the present Netherlands) is retreating in the same direction, especially after a major defeat from the Danes at the Battle of Bravalle in 786. The spread of Christianity here more and more erases ethnic differences, but deepens religious and social. The strongholds of paganism are on the southern coast of the Baltic.

Scandinavia itself also found itself in the path of a colonization stream going from west to east. In Scandinavia, Slavic settlements persisted for a long time. The Scandinavians themselves were inevitably involved in this stream, not to mention the weapons in household items that could be bought, exchanged, and taken away by force on any coast of the Baltic Sea. It is only necessary to keep in mind that in IX-X centuries level material culture on the southern coast of the Baltic was almost the highest in Western Europe, and as early as the 6th century Varins were famous for the manufacture of swords that were brought for sale to Italy.

In the legend about the vocation of the Varangians, the nobility of the Rurik clan was especially emphasized, although no evidence was given in favor of this. In some medieval genealogies, Rurik and his brothers were taken out of the clan of the encouraging princes (they were considered the sons of Godlaw, who was killed by the Danes in 808), and those, in turn, were tied to the Venedo-Herul genealogy, which was second only to Danish in antiquity. There are no other alternative genealogies for Rurik, except for the frankly fantastic legend about his relationship with the Roman Augustus (by the way, in this case, too, he was taken out from the southern coast of the Baltic). But the chroniclers who insisted on Rurik's priority over other dynasties, apparently, could not rely on anything real, since in the north the princely power was clearly less important than in the south, in Kiev. The Varangians brought with them not a monarchical system at all, but something like an Athenian polis. The most ancient cities of the north, including the Volga region, were governed in much the same way as the cities of the Baltic Slavs. The Konchan system of Novgorod is close to the analogous territorial division of Stettin.
We will understand even the unusually important role of the archbishop of Novgorod only in comparison with the role played by the priests in the life of the Baltic Slavs, at least some of them. And it is no coincidence that later, when the princely power will develop the Volga-Oka interfluve, in contrast to the old "boyar" cities, new princely ones will be erected, and in the Novgorod land itself, princely power will never be able to establish itself.

The Varangian type of socio-political structure is ultimately the same Slavic (in any case, more Slavic than Russian proper), based entirely on the territorial principle, on veche traditions and absolutely not providing for the possibility of centralization. A distinctive feature of this type is big role cities in general and the trade and craft class in particular. It was the high level of material culture and the well-functioning of public administration that ensured the predominance of immigrants in the vast areas of northern Russia, as well as the rapid assimilation of the local non-Slavic population.

Thus, in principle, those who believe that the statehood in Russia developed before the reign of the Rurikids or some other dynasties are right. Only natural statehood in this era could not extend over boundless spaces. Only some kind of external force external to most areas. And even under this condition, unity could be maintained only with a certain mutual interest. For example, liberation from the Khazar tribute could create the necessary authority for the external power, and the low amount of tribute was initially paid off by the benefits of relative security and involvement in international trade, as well as in long campaigns. An external force in the 9th-10th centuries is the "Russian clan", which apparently united people from the Dnieper, Danube and Baltic regions. The Varangians and partly the Frisians, who joined the colonization stream from the end of the VIII century, could replenish the princely squads, but they still did not play an independent role, and in the north of Russia it was they who influenced the creation of a polis system that did not accept centralization.