« Who lives in Russia well? "(N. Nekrasov, production" Who Lives Well in Russia? ")
« Russia, where are you rushing ? " (N.V. Gogol, production of "Dead Souls")
- « Who is guilty? "(A. I. Herzen, production" Who is to blame? ")
- « What to do? "(I. G. Chernyshevsky, production" What to do ")
« Who to be? » (V.V. Mayakovsky, production "Who to be?")
Periodization of Russian history
Traditionally, Russian history is counted from 862 BC when the Vikings from Scandinavia came to Russia and became the princes of the Russian lands. Russian civilization is relatively young.
The history of Russia can be divided into 5 cycles:
9-13 centuries.
The heyday was reached under Yaroslav the Wise in the 12th century, when Kievan Rus became one of the leaders of medieval society. The cycle ended as a result of the feudal fragmentation of the state and the Tatar-Mongol invasion.
14th century - the beginning of the 17th century.
The center of the country was moved to Moscow, Moscow state... The cycle reached its peak under Ivan III and ended with a national catastrophe during the Time of Troubles.
The beginning of the 17th century - early 20th century
The third cycle began with the accession of the Romanov dynasty and reached heights during the reign of Peter I and Catherine II. Russian empire joined the ranks of the world powers. However, then conservative tendencies prevailed, there was a delay in the transition to an industrial society (almost a century compared to Europe). The end of this cycle is a series of national catastrophes: defeat in the war with Japan, in the First World War, the collapse of the Russian Empire and the civil war.
20 20 c. - 1991
The Russian Bolsheviks, with difficulty and by methods of violence, again gathered most of the disintegrated empire under the rule of a single center. Local civilization is reviving again, but for the first time not under the flag of Orthodoxy, but socialism. Soviet Union became a superpower. This cycle ended with economic and geopolitical weakening, internal national problems and then the collapse of the USSR.
Many people think that in the 20th century. the natural course of Russian history was interrupted by a catastrophe. Tens of millions of people died at the hands of fellow citizens and with their consent. There was a sharp degradation of morals and culture. Sometimes this situation is compared with the death of classical ancient culture.
Since 1991
Having abandoned socialist ideology and overcoming the economic crisis of the 90s, Russian Federation looking for a way to a better future.
(According to the book by Kononenko, B.I .: Culture. Civilization. Russia.)
Features of Russian history
Several times in the thousand-year history of Russia, a radical socio-political and economic transformation took place (the era of the reign of Peter I, socialism, reforms of the 90s of the 20th century).
Several times the country entered a dead end (Time of Troubles, socialism). The population often had to experience disasters. Wars and famines were repeated.
However, against the tragic background of the history of Russia, a high culture arose, stages of upsurges in spirituality were observed, and world successes in science were achieved.
East-West
Eastern and Western phases alternate in Russian history. Russians see their country as largely Asian, which needs to be civilized by following the European path.
Western historians see in Russia rather a type of Eastern society (a person rules, not a law; power is concentrated in the hands of one person; there is no understanding of personality as an absolute value).
However, Russian civilization can be generally considered hybrid: it includes elements of Europeanism and Asianism.
Eastern Slavs and Kievan Rus
East Slavs
In the 6-8 centuries. in the process of the final stage The great migration of peoples various tribes of the Eastern Slavs (for example, Vyatichi, Drevlyans, Krivichi, etc.) settled in a vast area from the Middle Dnieper in the south to Lake Ladoga in the north, from the Western Bug in the west to the Volga in the east.
Although the conditions for the effective development of agriculture in these areas were unsuitable due to the harsh climate (the fertile southern steppe regions were occupied by nomadic tribes - Polovtsy, Pechenegs, Turks, Khazars, etc.), the Eastern Slavs were mainly engaged in agriculture, as well as hunting, fishing and cattle breeding. Traded in honey, wax, furs.
At the head of the East Slavic communities were the prince with the squads. Their residences were fortified settlements - grads.
The religion of the Eastern Slavs was paganism - they worshiped the natural gods (Perun is the main god, the god of thunder and lightning, Radegast is the god of the sun).
Rus and Kievan Rus
The north-south water trade route ran along the Dnieper and Volkhov rivers "From the Varangians to the Greeks"... This route was chosen by the Vikings, a northern tribe of Scandinavians (Vikings) for trade with Byzantium. Large cities arose on it - Novgorod and Kiev.
In 862 in Novgorod the Varangians created the earliest union of the East Slavic lands - Rus, later called Kievan Rus.
The Varangians left traces in the Russian language - for example, the name Vladimir = Waldemar, Olga = Helga. The word "Rus", perhaps, comes from the Finnish "Ruotsi", which, according to one of the hypotheses, called the tribes of the Eastern Slavs.
The first ruler of Russia is the Varangian prince (Hrörekr, Roderick) who came to Novgorod. Founder of the first dynasty of Russian rulers - Rurikovich. Under the heir of Rurik, the prince Oleg, Kiev was annexed to his lands, which became the capital of the principality.
In 988 under the prince Vladimir Orthodox Christianity, borrowed from Byzantium, was adopted. The sculpture of the pagan god Perun in Kiev was thrown into the Dnieper River.
After baptism, Slavic writing, created in the 9th century, penetrates into Russia. Cyril and Methodius.
Kievan Rus developed intensive trade and cultural ties with Byzantium. The Byzantine civilization left many traces in Russian society.
Kievan Rus reaches the top in half of the 11th century. at Yaroslav the Wise... At this time, it was part of the advanced European states, and its rich diplomatic and trade ties with Europe were strengthened. Yaroslav's sons married European princesses, daughters married European kings.
Under Yaroslav, the first set of laws of Ancient Rus was adopted - Russian Truth
.
In 1125, with the end of the reign Vladimir Monomakh, Kievan Rus split into separate principalities.
The first written monument testifying to the early history of Russia is the chronicle Tale of Bygone Years , created by monks in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
At the initial stage of the development of Russia, the geographical position at the crossroads of Eurasian trade and migration routes played an important role. The history of that time is an almost continuous struggle between sedentary (mainly Slavic) and nomadic (mostly Asian) peoples. Kievan Rus blocked the path to the west for the hordes of nomads. The myth of Russia as the "shield of Europe" arises.
Period of feudal fragmentation
After the collapse of Kievan Rus, a system of separate, virtually independent principalities was formed. They developed around the large cities of Kievan Rus. The most significant: Novgorodskoe, Vladimir-Suzdalskoe, Smolenskoe, Chernigovskoe, later Tverskoe.
Novgorod land
Novgorod was the most developed and largest trade center. He had his own money, laws, army, management system ("boyar republic"). The most valuable architectural monuments arose here.
The famous prince was from Novgorod Alexander Nevskiy, who twice defended the land from enemies - from the Swedes (battle on the Neva River, 1240) and the Teutonic Knights (Battle on the Ice on Lake Peipsi, 1242).
Mongol-Tatar yoke
At the beginning of the 13th century. a large army of new nomads led by Genghis Khan approached the southeastern borders of Russia.
In 1237, in the lower reaches of the Volga River, the union of Mongol tribes was founded Golden Horde... From here the Mongols invaded the Russian lands, took Ryazan, Vladimir, Moscow, and ruined Kiev. From Russia, Mongol troops began a campaign to Central Europe.
For 240 years, the Russian lands were practically a protectorate of the Mongol empire and paid an annual tribute to it.
In 1380 the Moscow prince Dmitry Donskoy defeated the Tatars in battle on the Kulikovo field and marked the beginning of liberation.
Consequences of the invasion
Many cities were destroyed, crafts were forgotten, construction was stopped. The invasion caused a deep decline in culture, a long lag between Russia and Western Europe.
An uninvited guest is worse than a Tatar. (Russian folk proverb)
Moscow state
The Moscow princes used the advantageous position of Moscow in the center of the Russian principalities and, with the help of the Golden Horde, eliminated their rivals (the princes of the cities of Vladimir, Ryazan and Tver). Moscow began to claim the role of a center in the process of “gathering Russian lands”.
In the middle of the 15th century. The Horde broke up into the Crimean, Astrakhan, Kazan and Siberian Khanates.
Ivan III
In 1462, Ivan III, “the Grand Duke of Moscow and All Russia,” ascended the throne. The centralization of the country and tranquility on its eastern borders are associated with the era of his reign. Ivan III annexed the appanage principalities: he suppressed separatism in Novgorod, conquered Yaroslavl, Tver, Pskov, Ryazan. During the reign of the heirs of Ivan III, the borders of the Moscow state continued to expand further.
Ideological platform of the Moscow State
- the ancient origin of the power of rulers from the Rurik dynasty
- the power of the sovereign from God himself, the ruler is a fighter for the true faith
- Moscow - "the third Rome" (Moscow - the spiritual center of world Christianity)
After overcoming the consequences of the Mongol-Tatar invasion, a huge rise of culture... Stone Kremlin cathedrals grew, valuable monuments of painting (icons and frescoes by Andrei Rublev) and literature (chronicles, hagiography) arose.
Under Ivan III, the first central government("Orders" and institutions that decide questions of state affairs - for example, the Ambassadorial Prikaz, the predecessor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
Was written Code of Law
, a new set of laws.
A merchant class is formed (for example, the well-known old family of the Stroganovs), crafts and construction are developing. However, in the economic field, the life of people (the population numbered about 6.5 million) in the Moscow state developed unevenly - the ups were replaced by stagnation, crop failures and plague epidemics were frequent.
Ivan IV the Terrible
In 1533, the three-year-old Ivan IV (later nicknamed the Terrible) ascended the Moscow throne. Throughout his childhood and youth, when he could not actually rule, there was a struggle between boyar groups at court.
In 1547, 16-year-old Ivan, as the first Russian Grand Duke, was officially crowned king.
The personality of Ivan the Terrible
Ivan IV grew up in an atmosphere of conspiracies and murders, without a mother, which greatly influenced his psyche. After the death of his beloved wife, he lost the last signs of humanity. The king, in a fit of anger, even killed his son.
Public administration reforms
The young tsar and his boyar assistants carried out a series of reforms.
Created the first Russian parliament - Zemsky Cathedral... A system of orders of the central bodies that govern different regions of the state has developed.
The population paid cash and taxes in kind.
Trade development
Industry and trade relations with other countries, mainly with Persia and England, developed in Ivan the Terrible's Russia. English and Dutch merchants and entrepreneurs often arrived in Russia at that time.
Foreign policy and wars
A semi-regular army appears, and the tsar fights the enemies of Russia by military means. He manages to conquer the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates (their lands are turning into almost deserted spaces); later the Siberian Khanate was also defeated. Lands along the entire course of the Volga were annexed to Russia, and the colonization of the occupied territories took place. For the first time Russia turned into a multinational state (non-Slavic and non-Orthodox peoples lived in the newly annexed territories).
At the end of the 50s. 16th century started Livonian Wars(Livonia - today's Latvia and Estonia), which ended in fact with the defeat of Russia.
Repression
Gradually, the monarch's individual power was strengthened, and his suspicion deepened; the policy of repression has affected all segments of the population.
The king divided the state in two: the so-called. "Oprichnina", to which were numbered those whom he trusted (the territory of the "oprichnina" occupied a third of the country). Here the boyars, who became the executors of the policy of the tsarist terror, ruled in their own way, without constraining themselves with any laws. It was forbidden to talk about "oprichnina" in the presence of foreigners. The rest of the territory of Russia was called "Zemshchina".
Many thousands of people died during the terror. The most terrible evil was the defeat and depopulation of Novgorod.
Consequences of the reign of Ivan IV
Moscow Russia, led by the first tsar, expanded significantly, turned into a multinational state and began to be called Russia. A rigidly centralized monarchy was created.
Time of Troubles
(vague = strange, unclear; confusion - excitement, rebellion)
Time of Troubles or Troubles is the name of a stage in the history of Russia, when dynasties changed in difficult and unclear conditions.
After the death of Ivan IV the Terrible in 1584, his feeble-minded son became the heir to the throne. Fedor I, who entrusted the conduct of state affairs to his brother-in-law, the oprichnik Boris Godunov... The second son of Ivan the Terrible, Dmitriy, died unexpectedly at the age of eight; Godunov was unofficially accused of killing him. After the death of Tsar Fyodor, the Zemsky Sobor elected Godunov as tsar. The Rurik dynasty was cut short.
The reign of Boris Godunov
The reign of Boris Godunov was haunted by failures - a terrible crop failure and famine, epidemics, invasions, uprisings, in which the people saw signs of God's wrath.
At the end of the 16th century. measures were taken to establish serfdom in Russia.
Impostors
In an atmosphere of general discontent and chaos, impostors appear who appear under the guise of the heirs of Ivan IV.
In Poland (at that time the Commonwealth), a young man declared himself the miraculously saved Tsarevich Dmitry. Boris Godunov was killed as a result of a conspiracy, and after the capture of Moscow by the Poles in 1605, an impostor was enthroned in Russia. He entered the history of Russia under the name False Dmitry I... The Russians learned that this was not a real Russian tsar, as various legends say, for example, by the fact that he did not sleep after dinner, as was customary in Russia, and did not go to the bathhouse. The conspirators soon got rid of the new king.
Then the royal throne passed from hand to hand, for some time it was again at the disposal of the Poles.
Only in 1613, with the help of the popular patriotic movement (led by the Novgorodians Minin and Pozharsky), the Russian throne was freed from the power of foreigners. Zemsky Sobor elected to reign Mikhail Romanov... The reign of the royal dynasty of the Romanovs begins.
Mikhail Romanov's board
With the first decades of power of the Romanovs, the tightening of serfdom is associated. The culmination of peasant resistance was uprising of the Don Cossack Stepan Razin (1667–1671).
Cossacks are former serfs who fled from their owners, free people living on the outskirts of Russia.
As already noted in the preface to the entire VIII Volume, its first section is devoted to the ancient period in the history of the country, which is designated by the concept of "Ancient Rus". But where is the starting point from which the history of Russia begins? This point, or rather the boundary, is at least 2.5 million years away from us, when on Earth a branch of humanoids emerged from the animal world, which laid the foundation for the Human race. This boundary refers, as indicated in the first volume of the "History of Mankind", to all of Mankind, and therefore to the inhabitants of the territory of Russia, although the first traces of anthropoid creatures lead us to the territories of West Africa, India, the islands of Indonesia, and later, as further human evolution, are found in other regions of the world, including the East European Plain, the Caucasus, Siberia.
At the same time, the authors of The History of Humanity, in the words of one of the initiators and authors of the publication, Charles Moraze, emphasize that “it is better to avoid overemphasizing our ancestors among our distant common ancestors,” since this violates the scientific basis of the history of Humanity and causes groundless national passions and ambitions. We will follow this advice and, in turn, draw attention to the fact that in volumes I and II of the "History of Humanity" the authors (among whom there are many prominent Russian archaeologists and anthropologists), covering the topic of the appearance and resettlement of people on the territory of Russia, also talk about common human ancestors in the regions they study, but by no means about the ancestors of a particular people. In this edition, relying on the data of the previous volumes and only briefly repeating their conclusions, we basically define the borderline for a more detailed presentation of the history of Russia, starting from the time of the appearance of Indo-Europeans in the Eurasian spaces and their interaction with the ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples that have already emerged in the same region. and the Turkic peoples, since a significant part of the peoples of Russia in one way or another goes back precisely to these historical communities of people.
In this regard, one should touch upon the question posed in the "History of Mankind" about the correlation between prehistory and the history of Mankind. The first longest period of human life is defined as their prehistory and covers the time from 2.5 million years ago to the appearance of writing, i.e. up to about 5 thousand years BC, with which Mankind enters into its already written history. Acceptable for the most advanced civilizational regions of the planet at that time, i.e. for the so-called "key cultural regions" - North Africa (Ancient Egypt), the Middle East (Sumerian civilization), India, China, this approach turns out to be completely unthinkable for the territory of Western, Central, as well as Eastern Europe and a significant part of Asia, which turned out to be territory of Russia, since by the V millennium BC. these regions were a remote and sparsely populated periphery of the "key cultural regions" of that time and continued to remain at the level of the prehistory of Mankind. Touching upon the history of Russia of this time and subsequent millennia and centuries, we found ourselves on a train of asynchronous approach to the history of Russia, in which historical categories related to "key cultural regions" turn out to be absurd when applied to other regions of the world, in particular, to Eastern Europe and Eurasia.
This also applies to the history of the most ancient period in the history of Russia, covering the time from the 9th century. AD, i.e. from the boundary of the formation of the ancient Russian state to 1230. - to the point beyond which its political integrity ceases and a period of political fragmentation begins. The political state feature acts here, as in the future, as the beginning, concentrating and determining the main civilizational processes. However, as the history of Russia changes, first of all, its most ancient and ancient period, we will have to consider not only this civilizational feature that appears on the historical surface, at first glance, is poorly compatible with the progress of the quality of life of people and the improvement of human personality, although such a connection between development and improvement of political principles and progress of the Human race is historically correct. We will also talk about other global historical phenomena that determined the civilizational development of the region against the background of general European development and, in connection with it, led to the mastery of writing, the adoption of Christianity, participation in European and Eurasian politics, etc.
The state-territorial area of Ancient Rus should be specially determined. Initially, its constituent parts were the Old Russian North, headed by Novgorod, the Old Russian South, headed by Kiev, which already in the X century. were multinational conglomerates. In the future, this territory, which was under the state control of a single center - Kiev, "the mother of Russian cities", as the Chronicle says, and covering vast areas from the Carpathians to the Middle Volga, from the shores of the Baltic and the White Sea to the Northern Black Sea coast, Taman Peninsula, The Kerch Strait and the foothills of the Caucasus, was Rus, an ancient Russian state. Such a state continued to exist as the center of Old Russian statehood moved to the northeast, in the interfluve of the Oka, Volga and Klyazma rivers, as well as as the title of Grand Duke moved from Kiev to Chernigov, and then to the northeast, to Vladimir on the Klyazma. The life of this state, like this period itself, ended as its political and economic unity collapsed, as its individual parts ended up in other state formations, and new state formations and new phenomena in the economy, social relations, and culture dominated paving their way into the future.
in the 5th century split into 3 branches
western southern
oriental
ancestors of the Russian,
Belarusian and
Ukrainian peoples
The Pre-Slavs lived in the territory of Central and Eastern Europe, stretching from the Elbe and Oder rivers in the west to the upper reaches of the Dniester and the middle reaches of the Dnieper in the east. The Slavs in ancient written sources (eg Greek) are referred to as Wends, Sklavins and Antes.
The great migration of peoples set in motion, including the Slavic tribes. In the V century. - division of the Slavs into 3 branches.
In the IV-VI centuries, according to various sources, the lands to the east of the Carpathians were inhabited by the descendants of the Eastern Veneti - the Antes.
Our immediate ancestral Eastern Slavs leave for the East European Plain and settle, as Nestor writes in the 12th century. in "The Tale of Bygone Years" along the Dnieper. History knows about 15 East Slavic tribes, more precisely, tribal unions that existed approximately in the 9th-11th centuries, and by the 11th-13th centuries formed the Old Russian nationality.
Tribes of the North: Ilmen Slovenes, Krivichi, Polochans
Tribes of the North-East: radimichi, vyatichi, northerners
Duleb group: Volynians, Drevlyans, Polyana, Dregovichi
Tribes of the Southeast: Buzhany, Don Slovens
Tribes of the South: White Croats, Uchiha, Tivertsy
Periodization of the Ancient History of Russia
IX - XI centuries. - Kievan Rus
XII - XIII centuries - fragmentation of Rus (Vladimir Rus)
XIV - XV centuries. - Moscow Russia
Gardarika- "country of cities", as the lands of the Eastern Slavs are named in Greek, Arab and Scandinavian sources
Local reigns (Gostomysl in Novgorod, Kiy in Kiev, Mal among the Drevlyans, Khodot and his son among the Vyatichi) are the embryonic form of statehood in Ancient Rus.
Eastern chroniclers identified 3 centers for the emergence of statehood in the Slavic lands: Kuyaba (in the south, around Kiev), Slavia (in Priilmenye), Artania (in the east, around ancient Ryazan)
Rurik (862-879)
862 - the vocation of the Varangians (Rurik with his tribe in Russia) The vocation of the Varangians in the painting by Vasnetsov
Rurik founded a dynasty of Russian princes, ruled in Novgorod.
"Norman theory" is the theory of the creation of a state among the Slavs from the outside (Varangians-Scandinavians).
The first anti-Normanist Mikhail Lomonosov (the origin of the Varangians from the West Slavic lands)
Anti-Normanists (the folding of the state is a stage in the internal development of society).
Oleg(Prophetic) (879-912)
882 - the formation of Kievan Rus (the union of two political centers of Novgorod and Kiev into a single ancient Russian state by Prince Oleg)
907 and 911 - Oleg's campaigns to Byzantium (the goal is to sign profitable trade agreements)
Fight against the Khazars
Polyudye- collection of tribute by the prince from the subject East Slavic tribes
Polyudye trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" ( Baltica-Volkhov-Lovat-Western Dvina-Dnieper) Constantinople
Varangians. Nicholas Roerich, 1899
Igor(Old) (912-945)
The unsuccessful campaign of Prince Igor against Byzantium in 941.
Greek fire- a combustible mixture ejected from copper pipes under pressure onto the enemy ship, not extinguished by water.
Repeated campaign in 943, ending with a peace treaty in 944.
In 945 he was killed during the uprising of the Drevlyans
Olga(organizer of the Russian land) (945-969)
1) Cunning (brutally avenged the Drevlyans for her husband)
2) "The organizer of the Russian land" - ordered the collection of tribute (polyudye taxes) (introduced lessons- the exact amount of the tribute,
churchyards- tribute collection points)
3) Carried out a volost reform (divided the state into volosts), (introduced uniform rules for the court of princely governors)
4) Established diplomatic relations with Byzantium
5) The first to accept Christianity (Elena)
Svyatoslav(warrior prince) (962-972)
He spent his whole life on campaigns (expanded the borders of the state, ensured the safety of trade routes for Russian merchants)
1. Subdued the Vyatichi
2. He defeated the Bulgars and the Khazars by opening a bargaining. the way along the Volga to the eastern countries
("I'm going to you")
3. Hiking on the Bulgarians on the Danube (an attempt to move the capital to Pereyaslavets)
But he often left the state without protection, for example, the siege of Kiev by the Pechenegs (968), undertaken while the Kiev prince Svyatoslav was on the Danube.
(According to the chronicle, while Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich was campaigning against the Bulgarian kingdom, the Pechenegs invaded Russia and laid siege to its capital, Kiev. The besieged suffered from thirst and hunger. People on the other side of the Dnieper, led by voivode Pretich, gathered on the left bank of the Dnieper.
Driven to the extreme, Svyatoslav's mother, Princess Olga (who was in the city with all of Svyatoslav's sons) decided to tell Pretich that she would surrender the city the next morning if Pretich did not lift the siege, and began looking for ways to contact him. Finally, a young Kievite, fluent in Pechenezh, volunteered to get out of the city and get to Pretich. Pretending to be a Pecheneg looking for his horse, he ran through their camp. When he threw himself into the Dnieper and swam to the other side, the Pechenegs realized his deception and began to shoot at him with bows, but did not hit.
When the young man reached Pretich and told him about the desperate situation of the Kievites, the voivode decided to suddenly cross the river and take Svyatoslav's family out, and if not, Svyatoslav would destroy us. Early in the morning Pretich and his squad boarded their ships and landed on the right bank of the Dnieper, blowing trumpets. Thinking that Svyatoslav's army had returned, the Pechenegs lifted the siege. Olga and her grandchildren went out of the city to the river.
The leader of the Pechenegs returned to negotiate with Pretich, and asked him if he was Svyatoslav. Pretich confirmed that he was only a voivode, and his detachment was the vanguard of the approaching army of Svyatoslav. As a sign of peaceful intentions, the ruler of the Pechenegs shook hands with Pretich and exchanged his own horse, sword and arrows for the armor of Pretich.
Meanwhile, the Pechenegs continued the siege, so it was impossible to water the horse on Lybid. The Kievans sent a messenger to Svyatoslav with the news that his family was almost captured by the Pechenegs, and the danger to Kiev still remains. Svyatoslav quickly returned home to Kiev and drove the Pechenegs into the field. A year later Olga died, and Svyatoslav made Pereyaslavets on the Danube his residence)
But after a difficult campaign against Byzantium in 972, the delighted army of Svyatoslav with heavy war booty was met on the Dnieper rapids by hordes of Pechenegs waiting for them. The Rus were surrounded and completely destroyed. They all perished, including Prince Svyatoslav. Khan Kurya ordered to make a drinking cup from his skull, bound it with gold.
Vladimir(Red Sun, Saint) (980-1015)
Civil strife (Vladimir - the son of a slave, defeats Yaropolk)
1. Loved by the people (the image of the prince is displayed in epics):
A) the creation of a system of fortresses in the south for defense against the Pechenegs;
B) recruited people from the people to the squad;
C) arranged feasts for all Kievites.
2. Strengthens the state and princely power:
A) carries out a pagan reform (Perun is the main god)
Purpose: an attempt to unite the tribes into a single people with the help of religion
B) 988 - Baptism of Rus by the Byzantine model
C) the acquisition of an important military and political ally in the person of Byzantium
D) development of culture:
1) Slavic writing (Cyril and Methodius);
2) books, schools, churches, icon painting;
The tithe church is the first stone church in Kiev (1/10 of the prince's income for construction);
3) the establishment of the Russian metropolis
Baptism of Vladimir. Fresco by V.M. Vasnetsov.
Prince Vladimir went down in history as the Baptist of Rus. The prince's decision to be baptized was not spontaneous. According to the Chronicle of Bygone Years, a few years before the campaign against Korsun (Chersonesos), Vladimir thought about the choice of faith. At heart, the prince leaned towards Orthodoxy. And he was confirmed in this decision after his ambassadors went to Constantinople "for reconnaissance". When they returned, they said: “When we came to the Greeks, we were led there where they serve their God, and we did not know whether we were in heaven or on earth: we cannot forget this beauty, for every person, having tasted sweet, turns away from the bitter, so we are "not imams to be here", we do not want to remain in the old pagan faith. " Then they remembered: "If the Greek law was not good, then your grandmother Olga, the wisest man of all, would not have accepted it."
Monument "Millennium of Russia"- a monument erected in Veliky Novgorod in 1862 in honor of the thousandth anniversary of the legendary vocation of the Vikings to Russia. The authors of the monument project are sculptors Mikhail Mikeshin, Ivan Schroeder and architect Viktor Hartman. The monument is located in Novgorod Detinets, opposite the St. Sophia Cathedral
The prince ruled the Russian state for 37 years, of which 28 years as a Christian. It is worth noting that Prince Vladimir adopted Orthodoxy from Byzantium not as a vassal, but as an equal. “Historians are still building different versions of why the prince went to the siege of Chersonesos,” says S. Belyaev. One of the versions says: having decided to accept Orthodoxy, Vladimir did not want to appear before the Greeks in the role of a supplicant. It is significant: it was not Vladimir who went to Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, to be baptized. It was to him, in the conquered Chersonesos, they came, and even brought the princess Anna. At the same time, the very decision of Vladimir to become Orthodox was dictated by the need of the soul, as evidenced by the dramatic changes that took place with the prince.
Looking closely at the Baptist of Russia, it becomes clear that he was also an outstanding state strategist. And in the first place he put the national interests of Russia, which, under his leadership, united, straightened its shoulders and subsequently became a great empire.
On the Day of National Unity, November 4, 2016, on Borovitskaya Square, the grand opening of the monument to the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, designed by the People's Artist of Russia Salavat Shcherbakov, took place. The monument was created on the initiative of the Russian Military Historical Society and the Moscow Government. opening ceremony of the monument to Prince Vladimir. The ceremony was attended by President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
The President stressed that Prince Vladimir forever went down in history as a collector and defender of the Russian lands, as a far-sighted politician who laid the foundations of a strong, united, centralized state.
After the President's speech, Patriarch Kirill consecrated the monument to the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince.
Yaroslav the Wise(1019-1054)
Vladimir has 12 sons - civil strife (the elder Svyatopolk killed his brothers Boris and Gleb, who became the first saints in Russia, and Svyatopolk was christened Cursed also because he brought foreigners to Russia, who ruined and killed)
Yaroslav, who ruled Novgorod, supported by the Novgorodians in the fight against his brother, seizes the throne (from 1019 to 1036 he rules together with his brother Mstislav). A calm and wise rule begins - the heyday of the Old Russian state.
1. Strengthened power (supreme power belonged to the great Kiev prince, who issued laws, was the supreme judge, led the army, and determined foreign policy). Power was inherited by the elders in the family (the sons-governors in the volosts, moved in the event of the death of the older brother to a larger parish).
2. Laid the foundation for the creation of a unified code of laws "Russian Truth" (1016). (In Pravda Yaroslav, for example, blood feud is limited and replaced by a fine-vira)
3. Measures to strengthen the independence of the Russian Church (since 1051, not Greeks, but Russians were appointed as metropolitans, and without the knowledge of Constantinople. The first Russian metropolitan was Hilarion).
4. Developed culture (built churches, cathedrals (St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, Novgorod), monasteries (Kiev-Pechersky - monk Nestor in the XII century. Wrote the first Russian chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years"), where the scripture was spread annals(description of historical events by year-years), schools, libraries, which contributed to the development of literacy)
5. Conducted a wise foreign policy:
· Strengthened the southern borders of Russia (built defensive lines from fortress cities on the southeastern borders);
· Defeated the Pechenegs under the walls of Kiev in 1036, where he built the St. Sophia Cathedral;
· Expanded the north-western borders of the state (in 1030 he built the city of Yuryev on the western coast of Lake Peipsi, which he captured from the Poles and Lithuanians)
All land acquisitions were secured by peace treaties and dynastic marriages
It was under Yaroslav the Wise that the process of state formation among the Eastern Slavs ended, and the Old Russian nationality was formed.
Social structure of society in the Old Russian state
In the XI century. Kievan Rus is an early feudal state (along with the emergence of the upper stratum and, conversely, the dependent, the bulk of the population is still free communes who paid taxes to the state. And the formation of feudal land tenure proceeded very slowly).
The land belonged to the state, therefore the community (the land was jointly owned, divided among all the families that were part of the community) paid the tax for the use of the land to the state.
The first feudal lords to seize the land were the princes. They bestowed the lands on the church and the boyar vigilantes for the service ( patrimony - hereditary land ownership), who also became feudal lords.
I. Higher layer:
II. Free landowners united in communities
(the largest part of the population of the Old Russian state)
III. Dependent population:
Smerd- a member of a rural community, but a peasant directly dependent on the prince in the Old Russian state during the XI-XIV centuries.
Ryadovich- who has entered into an agreement ("row") to work for a feudal lord on certain conditions.
Purchase- bankrupt community members who fell into debt dependence for non-payment of loans ("kupy"). If he returned the debt, he became free.
Slave- a slave who worked on the land of the feudal lord. (Prisoners of war who had not fulfilled their obligations to purchase and ryadovichs, children of slaves, became slaves; from great need, a person sold himself as slaves).
Culture of Ancient Russia
The culture- a set of material and spiritual values created by society.
East Slavs
1) Beliefs - paganism, from the word "language" - tribe, people.
Gods - Perun, Dazhdbog, Stribog, Svarog, Yarilo, Lada, Makosh, etc.
A place of worship for idols is a temple where sacrifices were made.
Magi ("sorcerer, wizard, fortuneteller") - ancient Russian pagan priests who performed divine services, sacrifices and supposedly knew how to conjure the elements and divine the future.
Vasnetsov "Meeting of Prince Oleg with the sorcerer"
2) ancient legends, epics - poetic legends about the past, where the feats of the Russian heroes were glorified (Mikula Selyaninovich, Ilya Muromets, Stavr Godinovich, etc.). The main motive is the defense of the Russian land from the enemy.
Viktor Vasnetsov "Bogatyrs"
3) the art of blacksmiths, woodcarvers and bone carvers.
The Christianization of Rus had a tremendous influence.
1) The spread of writing and literacy in Russia (60s of the 9th century - Cyril and Methodius - lived in Thessaloniki (Greece), the compilers of the Slavic alphabet - Glagolitic, translated the Gospel into the Slavic language, preached in the Slavic language. students, in a modified form is the basis of the modern Russian alphabet).
2) Distribution of chronicles (1113 - "The Tale of Bygone Years")
At the church of St. Sofia Yaroslav created the first library in Russia.
Yaroslav created a powerful center for book writing and translated literature in Kiev.
Monasteries appeared - the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (founders Anthony and Theodosius).
XI - n. XII centuries. - the annalistic centers are formed in Kiev and Novgorod.
3) The origin of Russian literature:
A) 1049 - "The Word of Law and Grace" by Hilarion (solemn address, message and instruction, sermon on the moral assessment of the ruler);
B) Lives - a literary description of the life of people canonized (Nestor wrote the life of Boris and Gleb)
Passion-bearers Boris and Gleb. Icon, early XIV century. Moscow
B) 1056 - "The Ostromir Gospel" - the oldest of the handwritten books.
Books were written in monasteries, which were centers of culture (they were written on parchment - thin dressed calfskin).
Ordinary people, exchanging information, used birch bark.
The art of book miniature developed (handwritten illustrations)
4) Architecture (the Byzantine cross-domed system lay at the heart of the construction of temples).
Wooden (tower, city walls, huts)
Feature: multi-tiered, turrets, extensions, carving)
· The first stone church in Kiev was called Desyatinnaya (989), since the prince gave a tenth of his income for its construction. The church had 25 domes.
· 1037 - Construction of the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev.
Model-reconstruction of the original appearance of the cathedral
Modern view of St. Sophia Cathedral
Many domes are a characteristic feature of Russian architecture (1 dome in the center, 12).
For cladding temples, plinfu is used - a wide and flat brick
The stone tomb of Yaroslav is located in Sofia.
The altar contains the image of the Mother of God. Image type - Oranta - with arms raised up. The people of Kiev called it "The Unbreakable Wall" and considered it their protector.
There are frescoes depicting the family of Yaroslav the Wise.
Interior decoration of temples: frescoes, icons, mosaics
The icons were painted by the Pechersk monk Alimpiy.
Under Yaroslav, Kiev was being built. He is called "the adornment of the East and the rival of Constantinople." The Golden Gate is the main entrance to the city.
1113-1125 - reign of Vladimir Monomakh (grandson of Yaroslav and Byzantine emperor Constantine Monomakh). At the age of 60, he ascended the Kiev throne.
1) Campaigns against the Cumans (1111 - a crushing blow to the Cumans
went to the steppe, relative calm
2) He fought against strife (the initiator of the Lyubech Congress (1097) - “let everyone keep his patrimony.” Although this only consolidated the fragmentation in Russia (legislatively)
3) He fought for the unity of Russia (he subdued the Russian princes, punished for strife), but after the death of Vladimir and his son Mstislav, who continued his father's policy, civil strife resumed
4) An educated person and a gifted writer, he left a covenant to his sons to live in peace, to faithfully serve the Fatherland (1117 - "Teaching to Children" - a valuable historical source and a vivid literary monument).
5) Created a set of laws "The Charter of Vladimir Vsevolodovich", in which he eased the position of debtors, forbidding them to be turned into slaves.
6) Founded on p. Klyazma city named after him.
7) New literary genres are being formed - parables, teachings, walking.
8) Under Vladimir, they began to mint gold and silver coins, then they were replaced with silver bars - hryvnia.
9) High level of craft development - casting, chasing, ceramics, embroidery, enamel
Art craft
A) blacksmith craft (weapons, armor);
B) jewelry craft (granulation, filigree, enamel)
Scan - an image made of thin gold wire;
Grain - balls are soldered onto filigree;
Cloisonne enamel - metal gaps are filled with enamel.
The spiritual world of medieval man combines the sublime (appeal to God) and the earthly ("laughter culture"). The bearers of the "laughter culture" of the Middle Ages in Russia were buffoons and guslars - itinerant actors who were persecuted by the church, but loved at the courts of princes and in the villages.
Today our knowledge about Ancient Rus is similar to mythology. Free people, brave princes and heroes, rivers of milk with jelly banks. The real story is less poetic, but that makes it no less interesting.
"Kievan Rus" was invented by historians
The name "Kievan Rus" appeared in the 19th century in the works of Mikhail Maksimovich and other historians in memory of the domination of Kiev. Already in the very first centuries of Russia, the state consisted of several isolated principalities that lived their own lives and were completely independent. With the nominal subordination of the lands to Kiev, Russia was not united. Such a system was common in the early feudal states of Europe, where each feudal lord had ownership of the land and all the people on it.
The appearance of the Kiev princes was not always truly "Slavic" as it is customary to imagine. It's all about the fine Kiev diplomacy, accompanied by dynastic marriages, both with European dynasties and with nomads - Alans, Yases, Polovtsians. The Polovtsian wives of the Russian princes Svyatopolk Izyaslavich and Vsevolod Vladimirovich are known. In some reconstructions, Russian princes have Mongoloid features.
Organs in ancient Russian churches
In Kievan Rus one could see organs and not see the bells in churches. Although bells existed in large cathedrals, in smaller churches bells were often replaced by flat bells. After the Mongol conquests, the organs were lost and forgotten, and the first bell-makers came anew from Western Europe. Tatiana Vladyshevskaya, a researcher of musical culture, writes about organs in the Old Russian era. One of the frescoes of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev "Skomorokhi" depicts a scene with organ playing.
Western origin
The language of the Old Russian population is considered East Slavic. However, archaeologists and linguists do not quite agree with this. The ancestors of Novgorod Slovenes and part of the Krivichi (Polochans) arrived not from the southern expanses from the Carpathians to the right bank of the Dnieper, but from the West. Researchers see the West Slavic "trace" in the finds of ceramics and birch bark records. A prominent historian-researcher Vladimir Sedov is also inclined to this version. Household items and features of rituals are similar among the Ilmen and Baltic Slavs.
How Novgorodians understood Kievites
Novgorod and Pskov dialects differed from other dialects of Ancient Rus. They had features inherent in the languages of the Polabs and Poles, and even completely archaic, Proto-Slavic. Known parallels: kyrky - "church", hѣde - "gray-haired". The rest of the dialects were very similar to each other, although they were not as common as modern Russian. Despite the differences, ordinary Novgorodians and Kievans could understand each other well: the words reflected the way of life common to all Slavs.
"White spots" in the most conspicuous place
We know almost nothing about the first Rurikovichs. The events described in the "Tale of Bygone Years" were already legendary at the time of writing, and the evidence of archaeologists and later chronicles is scarce and ambiguous. Written agreements mention some Helga, Inger, Sfendoslav, but the dates of the events differ in different sources. The role of the Kiev “Varangian” Askold in the formation of the Russian statehood is also not very clear. And this is not to mention the eternal disputes around the personality of Rurik.
"Capital" was a frontier fortress
Kiev was far from the center of the Russian lands, but was the southern border fortress of Russia, while being located in the very north of modern Ukraine. Cities south of Kiev and its environs, as a rule, served as centers of nomadic tribes: Torks, Alans, Polovtsians, or were predominantly of defensive significance (for example, Pereyaslavl).
Russia - the state of the slave trade
The slave trade was an important article of the wealth of Ancient Rus. They traded not only captive foreigners, but also Slavs. The latter were in great demand in the eastern markets. Arabic sources of the X-XI centuries in paints describe the path of slaves from Russia to the countries of the Caliphate and the Mediterranean. The slave trade was beneficial to the princes, the large cities on the Volga and Dnieper were centers of the slave trade. A huge number of people in Russia were not free, for debts they could be sold into slavery to foreign merchants. One of the main slave traders were the Radonite Jews.
Khazars "inherited" in Kiev
During the rule of the Khazars (IX-X centuries), in addition to the Turks who collected tribute, there was a large diaspora of Jews in Kiev. Monuments of that era are still reflected in the "Kiev Letter", which contains the Hebrew correspondence of Kiev Jews with other Jewish communities. The manuscript is at the Cambridge Library. One of the three main Kiev gates was called Zhidovsky. In one of the early Byzantine documents Kiev is called Sambatas, which, according to one of the versions, can be translated from Khazar as "upper fortress".
Kiev - Third Rome
Before the Mongol yoke, ancient Kiev occupied an area of about 300 hectares during its heyday, the number of churches went to hundreds, for the first time in the history of Russia, the layout of the quarters was applied in it, making the streets slender. The city was admired by Europeans, Arabs, Byzantines and called the rival of Constantinople. However, from all the abundance of that time, almost not a single building remained, not counting the St. Sophia Cathedral, a couple of rebuilt churches and the recreated Golden Gate. The first white-stone church (Desyatinnaya), on which the Kievites fled from the Mongol raid, was destroyed already in the 13th century
Russian fortresses are older than Russia
One of the first stone fortresses in Russia was a stone-earthen fortress in Ladoga (Lyubshanskaya, VII century), founded by the Slovenes. The Scandinavian fortress on the other bank of the Volkhov was still made of wood. The new stone fortress, built in the era of the Prophetic Oleg, was in no way inferior to similar fortresses in Europe. It was she who was called Aldegüborg in the Scandinavian sagas. One of the first strongholds on the southern border was the fortress in Pereyaslavl-Yuzhny. Among Russian cities, only a few could boast of stone defensive architecture. These are Izborsk (XI century), Pskov (XII century) and later Koporye (XIII century). Kiev in the Old Russian time was almost completely made of wood. The oldest stone fortress was the castle of Andrey Bogolyubsky near Vladimir, although it is more famous for its decorative part.
Cyrillic was almost never used
Glagolitic, the first written alphabet of the Slavs, did not take root in Russia, although it was known and could be translated. Glagolic letters were used only in some documents. It was she who in the first centuries of Russia associated with the preacher Cyril and was called "Cyrillic". Glagolitic was often used as a cryptography. The first inscription in the Cyrillic alphabet itself turned out to be a strange inscription "gorushshcha" or "gorushna" on an earthen vessel from the Gnezdov mound. The inscription appeared shortly before the baptism of the Kievites. The origin and exact interpretation of this word is still controversial.
Old Russian universe
Lake Ladoga was called "Lake Great Nevo" along the Neva River. The ending "-o" was common (for example: Onego, Nero, Volgo). The Baltic Sea was called Varangian, the Black Sea - Russian, Caspian - Khvalissky, Azov - Surozh, and White - Studeny. On the contrary, the Balkan Slavs called the Aegean Sea the White (Byalo Sea). The Great Don was not called the Don, but its right tributary, the Seversky Donets. The Ural Mountains in the old days were called Bolshoi Kamen.
Heir to Great Moravia
With the decline of Great Moravia, the largest Slavic state for its time, the rise of Kiev and the gradual Christianization of Rus began. Thus, the chronicled White Croats came out from under the influence of the crumbling Moravia, and fell under the gravity of Russia. Their neighbors, Volhynians and Buzhanians, have long been involved in Byzantine trade along the Bug, which is why they were known as translators during Oleg's campaigns. The role of the Moravian scribes, whom the Latins began to oppress with the collapse of the state, is unknown, but the largest number of translations of Great Moravian Christian books (about 39) were in Kievan Rus.
No alcohol and sugar
There was no alcoholism as a phenomenon in Russia. Wine alcohol came to the country after the Tatar-Mongol yoke, even beer brewing in the classical form did not work out. The strength of drinks was usually not higher than 1-2%. They drank honey pitched, as well as intoxicated or staged (low-alcoholic) honey, digests, and kvass.
Ordinary people in Ancient Russia did not eat oil, did not know spices like mustard and bay leaves, as well as sugar. They boiled turnips, the table was full of cereals, dishes of berries and mushrooms. Instead of tea, they drank broths of fireweed, which would later become known as "Koporsky tea" or Ivan tea. Kissels were unsweetened and made from cereals. They also ate a lot of game: pigeons, hares, deer, wild boars. Traditional dairy dishes were sour cream and cottage cheese.
Two "Bulgaria" in the service of Russia
These two most powerful neighbors of Russia had a huge influence on it. After the decline of Moravia, both countries that emerged on the remnants of Great Bulgaria are flourishing. The first country said goodbye to the "Bulgar" past, dissolving in the Slavic majority, converted to Orthodoxy and adopted the Byzantine culture. The second, following the Arab world, became Islamic, but retained the Bulgarian language as the state language.
The center of Slavic literacy moved to Bulgaria, at that time its territory expanded so much that it included part of the future Rus. A variant of the Old Bulgarian language became the language of the Church. It has been used in numerous lives and teachings. Bulgaria, in turn, sought to restore order in trade along the Volga, suppressing the attacks of foreign bandits and robbers. The normalization of the Volga trade provided the princely possessions with an abundance of eastern goods. Bulgaria influenced Russia with culture and bookishness, and Bulgaria contributed to its wealth and prosperity.
Forgotten "megacities" of Russia
Kiev and Novgorod were not the only large cities of Russia, it was not for nothing that in Scandinavia it was nicknamed "Gardarika" (the country of cities). Before the rise of Kiev, one of the largest settlements in all of Eastern and Northern Europe was Gnezdovo - the ancestor city of Smolensk. The name is conditional, since Smolensk itself is on the sidelines. But perhaps we know his name from the sagas - Surnes. The most populated were also Ladoga, symbolically considered the "first capital", and the Timeryovskoe settlement near Yaroslavl, which was built opposite the famous neighboring city.
Russia was baptized by the XII century
The chronicle baptism of Rus in 988 (and according to some historians in 990) affected only a small part of the people, mainly limited to the people of Kiev and the population of the largest cities. Polotsk was baptized only at the beginning of the 11th century, and at the end of the century - by Rostov and Murom, where there were still many Finno-Ugric peoples. Confirmation that most of the common population remained pagans was the regular uprisings of the Magi, supported by smerds (Suzdal in 1024, Rostov and Novgorod in 1071). Dual faith arises later when Christianity becomes a truly dominant religion.
The Turks also had cities in Russia
In Kievan Rus there were also completely "non-Slavic" cities. Such was Torchesk, where Prince Vladimir allowed the Tork nomads to settle, as well as Sakov, Berendichev (named after the Berendey), Belaya Vezha, where the Khazars and Alans lived, Tmutarakan, inhabited by Greeks, Armenians, Khazars and Circassians. By the XI-XII centuries, the Pechenegs were no longer a typical nomadic and pagan people, some of them were baptized and settled in the cities of the union of "black hoods" subordinate to Russia. In the old cities on the site or in the vicinity of Rostov, Murom, Beloozero, Yaroslavl, mostly Finno-Ugrians lived. In Murom - Murom, in Rostov and near Yaroslavl - Merya, in Beloozero - everything, in Yuryev - Chud. We do not know the names of many important cities - in the 9th-10th centuries there were almost no Slavs in them.
"Rus", "Roksolania", "Gardarika" and not only
The Balts called the country “Krevia” after the neighboring Krivichi, the Latin “Ruthenia” took root in Europe, less often “Roksolania”, the Scandinavian sagas called Russia “Gardarika” (the country of cities), the Chud and Finns “Venemaa” or “Venaya” (from the Wends), the Arabs called the main population of the country "As-Sakaliba" (Slavs, Sklavins)
Slavs out of bounds
Traces of the Slavs could be found outside the state of Rurik. Many cities along the middle Volga and in the Crimea were multinational and inhabited by Slavs as well. Before the Polovtsian invasion, many Slavic towns existed on the Don. The Slavic names of many Byzantine Black Sea cities are known - Korchev, Korsun, Surozh, Gusliev. This indicates the constant presence of Russian merchants. Peipsi towns of Estland (modern Estonia) - Kolyvan, Yuryev, Bear's head, Klin - with varying success passed into the hands of the Slavs, the Germans, or the local tribes. Krivichi settled along the Western Dvina, interspersed with the Balts. In the zone of influence of Russian traders was Nevgin (Daugavpils), in Latgale - Rezhitsa and Ochela. Chronicles constantly mention the campaigns of the Russian princes on the Danube and the capture of local cities. So, for example, the Galician prince Yaroslav Osmomysl "locked the door of the Danube with a key."
Both pirates and nomads
Runaway people from various volosts of Russia formed independent associations long before the Cossacks. Berladniki were known who inhabited the southern steppes, the main city of which was the Berlads in the Carpathian region. They often attacked Russian cities, but at the same time they took part in joint campaigns with Russian princes. The chronicles also introduce us to the roamers, a mixed population of unknown origin, who had much in common with the Berladniki.
Sea pirates from Russia were ushkuyniki. Initially, these were the Novgorodians, who were engaged in raids and commercial fishing on the Volga, Kama, Bulgaria and the Baltic. They undertook campaigns even in the Cis-Urals - to Ugra. Later they separated from Novgorod and even found their own capital in the city of Khlynov on Vyatka. Perhaps it was the Ushkuiniks, together with the Karelians, who destroyed the ancient capital of Sweden - Sigtuna in 1187.
Its history can be conditionally divided into three periods:
the first - the period of the formation of Ancient Rus under the first princes-Rurikovich (the second half of the 9th - the last third of the 10th centuries);
the second - the heyday of Kievan Rus under Vladimir I and Yaroslav the Wise (late 10th - first half of the 11th centuries);
the third - the period of the beginning of the territorial and political fragmentation of the Old Russian state and its disintegration (the second half of the XI - the first third of the XII centuries).
- First period history of ancient Russia begins since 862 when he began to reign in Novgorod or, possibly, at first in Staraya Ladoga Rurik (862 - 879)... As already noted, this year is traditionally considered the legendary beginning of Russian statehood.
Unfortunately, information about the details of Rurik's reign has not reached us. Since the son of Rurik Igor was a minor, then he became a guardian and a prince of Novgorod Oleg (879 - 912)... According to some sources, this was a relative of Rurik, according to others - the leader of one of the Varangian detachments.
In 882, Oleg undertook a campaign against Kiev and killed Askold and Dir, who reigned there, who were the last representatives of the legendary Kiy family. True, some scholars consider them to be Rurik's vigilantes who have occupied the Kiev throne. Oleg made Kiev the capital of the united state, calling it “the mother of Russian cities”. That is why the Old Russian state went down in history also under the name of Kievan Rus.
In 911, Oleg made a victorious campaign against Constantinople(as the Russians called Constantinople - the capital of Byzantium). He concluded a treaty that was very beneficial for Russia with the Byzantine emperor and returned to Kiev with a rich booty. According to the agreement, Russian merchants, or guests, as they were then called, could buy goods in Constantinople without paying duties for them, live in the capital for a month at the expense of the Greeks, and so on. Oleg included in his power the Krivichi, Northerners, Radimichi and Drevlyans, who began to pay tribute to the Kiev prince.
For his luck, wisdom and cunning, Oleg was nicknamed the Prophetic people, that is, who knew in advance what to do in a given situation.
After the death of Oleg, the son of Rurik became the prince of Kiev Igor (912 - 945)... Under him, Russian squads made a campaign against Byzantium twice and concluded a new treaty with the Byzantine emperor, which stipulated the procedure for trade between the two states. It also included articles on military alliance.
Igor fought with the Pechenegs who attacked the Russian lands. Under him, the territory of the state expanded due to the inclusion in its composition of the lands of the Uliches and Tivertsy. Subordinate lands paid tribute to the Kiev prince, which he collected annually, bypassing them with his retinue. In 945, trying to re-take tribute from the Drevlyans, Igor was killed by them.
Igor's successor was his wife, the princess Olga (945 - 964)... She brutally avenged the Drevlyans for the death of her husband, killing many of the rebellious, and burned their capital - the city of Iskorosten (now Korosten). The Drevlyans were finally included in the Old Russian state.
Under Olga, the collection of tribute was streamlined. Established special places for collecting tribute - churchyards, the size of the tribute - lessons, determined the timing of its collection.
During this period, the international relations of Ancient Rus expanded significantly. There was an exchange of embassies with the German emperor Otto I, relations with Byzantium were strengthened. While making a visit to Constantinople, Olga promised support to the Byzantine emperor in his policy towards neighbors, and also converted to Christianity there. Later, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Olga.
The next Kiev prince was the son of Igor and Olga - Svyatoslav (964 - 972)... He was a talented commander who glorified the Russian land with his military campaigns. It is Svyatoslav who owns the famous words that he uttered in front of his squad in one of the difficult battles: "Let's lie here with our bones: the dead have no shame!"
He began the subordination of Ancient Rus to the Vyatichi, who until the last fought for their independence and remained the only Slavic tribe in the east that was not subject to the Kiev prince. Svyatoslav defeated the Khazars, repelled the onslaught of the Pechenegs, defeated the Volga Bulgaria, successfully fought on the Azov coast, capturing Tmutarakan (modern Taman) on the Taman Peninsula.
Svyatoslav began a war with Byzantium for the Balkan Peninsula, which was initially successful, and he even thought to move the capital of his state from Kiev to the Danube bank, to the city of Pereyaslavets. But these plans were not implemented. After stubborn battles with a large Byzantine army, Svyatoslav was forced to conclude a non-aggression pact with Byzantium and return the captured lands.
Returning to Kiev with the remnants of his squads, Svyatoslav was ambushed by the Pechenegs at the Dnieper rapids and was killed. The Pechenezh prince cut off his head and made a cup out of the skull, believing that all the power of the great warrior would pass to the drinker from it. These events took place in 972. This is how the first period of the history of Ancient Rus ended.
After the death of Svyatoslav, turmoil began, the strugglefor the power between his sons... It stopped after the Kiev throne was occupied by his third son, Prince Vladimir. He went down in history as Vladimir I, outstanding statesman and military leader (980 - 1015)... And in Russian epics - this is Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko.
Under him, all the lands of the Eastern Slavs were finally united as part of Ancient Rus, some of which, primarily the Vyatichi, during the time of turmoil tried again to become beyond the control of the Kiev prince.
Vladimir managed to solve the main task of the foreign policy of the Russian state at that time - to organize an effective defense against the raids of the Pechenegs. For this, on the border with the steppe, several defensive lines were built with a well-thought-out system of fortresses, ramparts, signal towers. This made a sudden attack by the Pechenegs impossible and saved Russian villages and cities from their raids. It was in those fortresses that the epic heroes Ilya Muromets, Alyosha Popovich and Dobrynya Nikitich served. In battles with Russian squads, the Pechenegs suffered heavy defeats.
Vladimir made several successful military campaigns to the Polish lands, Volga Bulgaria and others.
The Kiev prince reformed the system of state administration and replaced the local princes, who continued to rule the tribes that became part of Ancient Rus, with their sons and "husbands", that is, the chiefs of the squads.
Under him, the first Russian coins appeared: gold coins and silver coins. The coins depicted Vladimir himself, as well as Jesus Christ.
The appearance of Jesus Christ on coins was not accidental. In 988, Vladimir I adopted Christianity and made it the state religion.
Christianity has penetrated into Russia for a long time. Even under Prince Igor, some of the warriors were Christians, in Kiev there was the Cathedral of St. Elijah, the grandmother of Vladimir, Princess Olga, was baptized.
The baptism of Vladimir took place in the Crimea after the victory over the Byzantine troops during the siege of the city of Korsun (Chersonesos). Vladimir demanded the Byzantine princess Anna as his wife and announced his intention to be baptized. This was happily accepted by the Byzantine side. A Byzantine princess was sent to the Kiev prince, as well as priests who christened Vladimir, his sons and squad.
Returning to Kiev, Vladimir, under pain of punishment, forced the people of Kiev and the rest of the people to be baptized. The baptism of Rus, as a rule, took place peacefully, although it met with some resistance. Only in Novgorod did the inhabitants revolt and were pacified by force of arms. Then they were christened, having driven them into the Volkhov River.
The adoption of Christianity was of great importance for the further development of Russia.
First, it strengthened the territorial unity and state power of Ancient Rus.
Secondly, having rejected paganism, Russia was now on a par with other Christian countries. There has been a significant expansion of its international ties and contacts.
Thirdly, it had a huge impact on the further development of Russian culture.
For merits in the baptism of Russia, Prince Vladimir was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church and named Equal to the Apostles.
The Russian Orthodox Church was headed by the Metropolitan, who was appointed by the Patriarch of Constantinople until the middle of the 15th century.
After the death of Vladimir I, troubles began again, in which twelve of his sons fought for the Kiev throne. The turmoil lasted four years.
During this princely feud, on the orders of one of the brothers, Svyatopolk, three other brothers were killed: Boris Rostovsky, Gleb Muromsky and Svyatoslav Drevlyansky. For these crimes Svyatopolk received the nickname "The Damned" among the people. And Boris and Gleb began to be venerated as holy martyrs.
Civil strife ended after the beginning of the reign in Kiev Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich, who received the nickname Wise from his contemporaries (1019 - 1054)... The years of his reign in history are considered the period of the highest prosperity of Ancient Russia.
Under Yaroslav, the raids of the Pechenegs stopped, which were fiercely rebuffed. In the north, in the Baltic lands, Yuryev was founded (now the city of Tartu in Estonia), on the Volga - the city of Yaroslavl. The Kiev prince managed to unite the entire Ancient Rus under his rule, that is, he finally became the sovereign prince of the Old Russian state.
Rus received wide international recognition. With many of the European ruling dynasties, Yaroslav was in kinship. His daughters were married to Hungarian, Norwegian, French kings. Yaroslav's sister married the Polish king, and her granddaughter married the German emperor. Yaroslav himself married a Swedish princess, and his son Vsevolod married a Byzantine princess, daughter of Emperor Constantine Monomakh. Born from this marriage, Yaroslav's grandson Vladimir received the nickname Monomakh. It was he who later continued the glorious deeds of his grandfather.
Yaroslav went down in history as a Russian legislator. It was under him that the first set of laws "Russian Truth" appeared, which regulated life in Ancient Russia. The law, in particular, allowed blood feud. For murder, they could take revenge on legal grounds: a son for a father and a father for a son, a brother for a brother and a nephew for an uncle.
Under Yaroslav, the rapid development of Russian culture took place: churches were built, work was carried out to teach literacy, translation from Greek and correspondence of books into Russian, a book depository was created. In 1051, shortly before the death of Yaroslav, for the first time not a Byzantine, but a Russian clergyman, Hilarion, became the Metropolitan of Kiev. He wrote that the Russian state at that time was "known and heard in all parts of the earth." With the death of Yaroslav in 1054, the second period of the history of Ancient Rus ended.
- Social and state structure of Kievan Rus
Geographically, Russia in the XI century was located from the Baltic (Varangian) and White Seas, Lake Ladoga in the north to the Black (Russian) Sea in the south, from the eastern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains in the west to the upper reaches of the Volga and Oka in the east. About 5 million people lived on vast territories. The family made up the yard, "smoke", "ten". Families made up territorial neighbors (no longer consanguineous) communities ("verv", "hundred"). Communities gravitated towards graveyards - commercial and administrative centers, in the place of which cities grew ("regiment", "thousand"). In the place of the former tribal unions, principalities ("lands") were formed.
The political system of the Old Russian state combined the institutions of the new feudal formation and the old, primitive communal one. At the head of the state was the hereditary prince, who was called the Grand Duke. He ruled with the help of the council of other princes and warriors. The rulers of other principalities were subordinate to the Kiev prince. The prince had a significant military force, which included the fleet.
The supreme power belonged to the Grand Duke, the eldest among the Rurikovichs. The prince was a legislator, military leader, supreme judge, addressee of tribute. The prince was surrounded by a squad. The guards lived in the prince's court, took part in campaigns, shared tribute and spoils of war, feasted with the prince. The prince consulted with the retinue on all matters. The Boyar Duma, which was originally composed of senior warriors, took part in the management. In all lands, the popular veche played an important role. Management was carried out by princes, mayor from boyars, voivods, elective thousand in cities, etc.
The armed forces included a professional princely squad and militia. Initially, the permanent detachments ("princes' courts") included courtyard servants, both free and dependent ("slaves"). Later, the service to the prince began to be based on his agreement with his servant (boyar) and became permanent. The word "boyar" itself takes its origin from the word "bolar" or "fighter". If necessary, in the event of a military danger, the people's volunteer corps, led by the tysyatsky, gathered, by decision of the veche meeting. The militia was made up of free people - peasants and townspeople. The militia was built according to the "decimal principle". The warriors united in tens, tens in hundreds, hundreds in thousands. Most of the commanders - tenth, sotsky, thousand - were chosen by the soldiers themselves. The warriors knew each other well. A hundred usually consisted of men from one volost, usually related to some degree of kinship. Over time, a territorial (district) principle appears to replace the decimal system. "Thousand" is replaced by a territorial unit - the army. The detachments began to be called "regiments". "Dozens" were transformed into a new territorial unit - "spear".
In 988, under Vladimir I, Christianity in the Byzantine version was adopted as the state religion instead of paganism. The Russian Orthodox Church initially supported the state and depended on it, since according to the Charter of Vladimir, proclaimed a saint, it received 10% of all income in the state for its functioning. The grand dukes actually appointed higher clergy and encouraged the development of monasteries. The principle of the predominance of secular power over spiritual is usually called caesaropapism.
In Russian cities lived the bulk of the boyar landowners who had extensive farms in the countryside. They were interested in collecting and sharing the tribute collected in the surrounding areas. This is how the state apparatus emerged in the cities, the upper strata of society were consolidated, inter-territorial ties were strengthened, that is, the process of state formation developed.
The basis of the social organization of Ancient Rus was the community. In modern domestic historical science, the prevailing opinion is that in the Old Russian state the absolute majority of the population were free communal peasants united in a rope (from the rope with which land plots were measured; the rope was also called "a hundred", later - "lip"). They were respectfully called "people", "men." They plowed, sowed, chopped and burned the forest for new arable land ("slash-and-burn system"). Could fill up a bear, elk, wild boar, catch fish, collect honey from the forest sides. The “husband” of Ancient Rus took part in the community gathering, chose the headman, participated in the trial as part of a kind of “jury” - “twelve best husbands” (called “extortion”). The ancient Rusich, together with his neighbors, pursued a horse thief, an arsonist, a murderer, participated in the armed militia in the event of large military campaigns and, together with others, fought off the raids of nomads. A free person had to control his feelings, be responsible for himself, relatives and dependent people. For premeditated murder in accordance with Russian Pravda, a set of laws of the first half of the 11th century. property was confiscated, and the family was completely turned into slavery (this procedure was called "flow and plunder"). For a tuft of hair torn from a beard or mustache, an offended free person "for moral damage" was entitled to compensation of 12 hryvnia (hryvnia is a silver bar weighing about 200 grams; now the hryvnia is the main currency in Ukraine). So the personal dignity of a free person was valued. The murder was punishable by a fine of 40 hryvnia.
The "husband" of Ancient Russia was an indisputable person liable for military service, a participant in military campaigns. By the decision of the people's veche, all combat-ready men took part in the campaign. Weapons (swords, shields, spears) were obtained, as a rule, from the prince's arsenal. Every man knew how to handle an ax, knife, bow. So, the army of Svyatoslav (965-972), including along with the squad and the people's militia, numbered up to 50-60 thousand people.
The communal population constituted an absolute majority in Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, Chernigov, Vladimir, Polotsk, Galician, Kiev and other lands. The population of the cities also made up a kind of community, among which Novgorod with its veche system is of the greatest interest.
At the same time, various life circumstances created categories of people of a different legal status. Ryadoviches called those who fell into temporary dependence on the owner on the basis of an agreement ("row") concluded with him. Purchases were made by those who lost their property and received from the owner a small plot of land and tools. Zakup worked for a loan (kupu), grazed the owner's cattle, could not leave him, could be subjected to corporal punishment, but could not be sold into slavery, retaining the chance to be ransomed for freedom. As a result of captivity, self-sale, sale for debts or for crimes, through marriage or marriage to a slave or servant, Russian people could become slaves. The right of the master in relation to the slave was not limited by anything. His murder "cost" only 5 hryvnia. Serfs were, on the one hand, the servants of the feudal lord, who were part of his personal servants and squads, even the princely or boyar administration. On the other hand, slaves (slaves of Russian society), in contrast to antique slaves, could be planted on the ground (“suffering people”, “suffering people”), worked as artisans. Lumpen-proletarians of Ancient Russia, by analogy with Ancient Rome, can be called outcasts. These were people who had lost their former social status: peasants expelled from the community; freed slaves who were ransomed to freedom (as a rule, after the death of the owner); ruined merchants and even princes "without a place", that is, they did not receive the territory in which they performed administrative functions. When considering court cases, the social status of a person played an important role, the principle was that “it is up to you to judge according to your husband”. Landowners, princes and boyars acted as owners of dependent people.
3. Feudalism of Western Europe and the socio-economic system of Ancient Rus: similarities and differences.
The emergence and development of feudal land tenure and the associated enslavement of the peasantry took place in different ways. In Western Europe, for example, in France, for military service to the king, land was first granted for life, and then as hereditary property. Over time, the peasants were attached both to the personality of the feudal landowner and to the land. The peasant had to work on his own farm and on the farm of the lord (senior, lord). The serf gave the owner a significant part of the products of his labor (bread, meat, poultry, fabrics, leather, footwear), and also performed many other duties. All of them were called feudal rent and were considered the payment of a peasant for the use of land, thanks to which his family was fed. This is how the main economic unit of the feudal mode of production arose, which in England was called the manor, in France and many other countries - the seigneur, and in Russia - the fiefdom.
In Byzantium, such a rigid system of feudal relations did not develop. In Byzantium, feudal lords were forbidden to maintain squads, build prisons on estates, and they lived, as a rule, in cities, and not in fortified castles. On charges of conspiracy, treason, any feudal owner could lose property and life itself. In all feudal societies, land was the main value. To cultivate the land, the feudal landowners used various systems of exploitation of peasant labor, without the application of which the land remained dead.
In the Russian lands, the formation of socio-economic relations inherent in feudal society had its own characteristics. Pressure from the prince and his administration had certain limits. There were many vacant lands in the country. For centuries, it was possible to leave the former place and settle 50-100 versts to the north or east. In a new place, a house could be built in a few days, a plot of arable land could be cleared in a few months. This opportunity has warmed the soul of the Russian people for many decades. The colonization of free territories, their economic development took place almost continuously. They fled from the raids of the nomads in the nearest forest. The process of feudalization, restricting the freedom of rural and urban workers was slow.
In the IX - X centuries. at the initial stage of the development of feudal relations, the direct producers were subordinated to state power. The main form of dependence of the peasants was state taxes: land tax - tribute (polyudye), court taxes ( vira, sales).
At the second stage, an individual, large land property is formed, which in Western Europe is called senior. Feudal ownership of land arose, legalized in different ways in different Russian lands, at different rates as a result of increasing property inequality and in connection with the transition of a significant part of the arable land of communes to the private property of large owners - feudal lords, princes and boyars. Agricultural communities gradually passed under the patronage of the prince and his retinue. A system of exploitation of the personally free population by the military-service nobility (squad) of the Kiev princes was formed by levying tribute. Another way of subordinating the neighboring community to the feudal lords was their capture by warriors and princes. But most often the tribal nobility turned into large owners, subjugating the community members. Communities that did not fall under the rule of the feudal lords were obliged to pay taxes to the state, which in relation to these communities acted both as the supreme power and as a feudal lord.
In the X century. arises, and in the next century, the domain of land ownership of the Kiev princes was strengthened. The main form of organizing economic life is becoming feudal fiefdom, that is, the paternal estate, transferred from father to son. In the XI century. land ownership appears among representatives of the top of the service nobility - the boyars. The princes and their noble vigilantes begin to take over various, mainly communal land plots. The process of feudalization of Russian society is underway, since the possession of land gives significant economic advantages and becomes an important political factor.
The princes of individual lands and other large, medium, small feudal lords were in vassal dependence on the grand duke. They were obliged to supply warriors to the Grand Duke, to appear at his request with a retinue. At the same time, these vassals themselves exercised government in their estates and the grand-ducal governors had no right to interfere in their internal affairs.
Each fiefdom was something like a small independent state with its own independent economy. The feudal estates were stable because they were subsistence farming. If necessary, the peasants were attracted to the "corvee", that is, to general work in favor of the owner.
In the XII - the first half of the XIII century. patrimonial land tenure continues to grow. In economic life, boyar and princely estates, as well as church, feudal in essence, land holdings come out on top. If in written sources of the XI century. There is little information about boyar and monastic estates, but in the 12th century, references to large land holdings become regular. The state-feudal form of ownership continued to play a leading role. Most of the direct producers continued to be personally free people. They depended only on state power, paying tribute and other state taxes.
4. Neighbors of Ancient Russia in the 9th-12th centuries: Byzantium, Slavic countries, Western Europe, Khazaria, Volga Bulgaria.
At the stage of the formation of the Old Russian state (862-980), the Rurikovichs solved the following tasks:
1. Expanded the sphere of their influence, subjugated all the new East Slavic and non-Slavic tribes. Rurik annexed the Finnish tribes to the Slavs - the whole, meryu, meschera. In 882 Oleg moved the center of Ancient Rus to Kiev, "the mother of Russian cities." He included the lands of the Krivichi, Drevlyans, Northerners, Radimichs, Dulebs, Tivertsy and Croats into Ancient Russia and essentially completed the unification of all East Slavic tribes within a single state. Ancient Russia included most of the East European Plain.
2. The first Rurikovichs entered into relations with neighboring established and emerging states, waged wars, sought international recognition through the signing of international agreements.
Oleg, at the head of a large army, besieged Constantinople (Constantinople), the capital of Byzantium, and concluded with it in 911 the first international treaty of equal rights for Russia. Igor, the son of Rurik and pupil of Oleg, began to fight against Pechenegs, which were completely defeated by his great-grandson Yaroslav the Wise. Igor made unsuccessful campaigns against Byzantium in 941 and 944, signed a treaty in 944. He kept in subjection the tribes conquered by Rurik and Oleg. He was killed in the Drevlyansky land for arbitrariness during the collection tribute (polyudye).
The outstanding commander Svyatoslav freed the Vyatichi from the Khazars, subjugated them to Rus, and defeated the Khazar Kaganate in 965. Svyatoslav founded Tmutarakan near the Kerch Strait and Preslavets near the mouth of the Danube. He waged a difficult war against Byzantium (the battle of Dorostol), sought to advance as much as possible in the south-western direction to areas with a more favorable climate. He signed a truce with Byzantium and was killed by the Pechenegs while returning home.
3. The first Russian rulers established trade, economic, cultural, family and dynastic relations with neighboring states and rulers. Russia did not have its own deposits of gold and silver. Therefore, at first, Byzantine denarii and Arab dirhams were used, and then their goldsmiths and silversmiths began to be minted.
During the heyday (980-1132), the content and priorities of foreign policy began to change in accordance with the increase in the economic and military power of the Russian state.
The Rurikovichs established trade, economic, cultural, family and dynastic relations with neighboring states and rulers. During its heyday (980-1132), the ancient Russian state occupied a prominent place on the political map of Europe. Political influence grew with the strengthening of economic and military power, due to the entry into the circle of Christian states. The boundaries of the Russian state, the nature of relations, the order of trade and other contacts were determined by a system of international treaties. The first such document was signed with Byzantium by Prince Oleg in 911 after a very successful military campaign. For the first time Russia acted as an equal subject of international relations. The baptism of Rus in 988 also took place under the circumstances in which Vladimir I took an active position. In exchange for help to the Byzantine emperor Basil II in the fight against internal opposition, he actually forced the emperor's sister, Anna, to be his wife. Vladimir's son Yaroslav the Wise was married to the Swedish princess Ingigerd (baptized - Irina). Through his sons and daughters Yaroslav the Wise became related to almost all European ruling houses. The Novgorod land, Galicia-Volyn, Polotsk, Ryazan and other principalities had extensive international connections.
Foreign trade played an exceptional role in the economic life of Novgorod. This was facilitated by the geographical position of the northwestern corner of Russia, adjacent to the Baltic Sea. Many artisans lived in Novgorod, who worked mainly to order. But the main role in the life of the city and the entire Novgorod land was played by merchants. Their association at the Church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa has been known since the 12th century. Its participants conducted distant, that is, overseas, foreign trade. Wax merchants united in the Ivanskoe merchant class. Pomor merchants, lower merchants and other entrepreneurial artels traded with other Russian lands. Since ancient times, Novgorod has been most closely associated with Scandinavia. In the IX-XI centuries. relations with the Danes, the Germans (especially the "Hanseatic"), and the Dutch have improved. Chronicles, acts and treaties of Novgorod for the XI-XIV centuries. record regular trips of Novgorod merchants to Narva, Revel, Dorpat, Riga, Vyborg, Abo, Stockholm, Visby (Gotland Island), Danzig, Lubeck. A Russian trading post was established in Visby. Foreign trade of Novgorodians was oriented exclusively towards the western direction. An important role was played by the re-export of Western goods deep into Russia, further to the countries of the East, and Russian and Eastern goods to the West. The region of the Neva and Ladoga areas for many centuries played the role of a kind of gateway to Eurasia, which predetermined the economic significance of this region and a fierce struggle for influence in it. Various contractual relations, kindred unions connected the Rurikovichs with their neighbors in the east, especially with the Polovtsians. Russian princes were members of many international coalitions, often relied on the support of foreign military forces, and provided their services. Most of the princes spoke, in addition to the Russian language, Greek, German, Polish, Polovtsian and others.
1. Vladimir I, Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir II successfully defended the territory of their state, strengthened the recognition of its borders by a system of treaties.
Vladimir I finally conquered Vyatichi, Radimichi, Yatvagov, annexed the lands in Galicia (Cherven, Przemysl, etc.). Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054) in 1036 utterly defeated the Pechenegs, who began to serve the Russian princes or migrated to Hungary. In 1068, the struggle of the Russian people against the Polovtsians began, which went on with varying success due to the flaring up civil strife inside the House of Rurikovich. During the reign of Vladimir II Monomakh (1113-1125), the Polovtsy suffered serious defeats, with whom predominantly peaceful relations began to develop.
2. In the east, the struggle against nomads has become protracted. The Pechenegs were defeated, powerful blows were inflicted on the Polovtsy, part of the nomads went into the service of the Russian princes.
3. With the adoption of Christianity, Russia stood on a par with most European states. But in 1054 year there was a split in Christianity. Over time took shape Catholicism and orthodoxy... The split has been going on for almost a thousand years. Byzantium and Russia became close on the basis of adherence to Orthodoxy.
During the period of feudal fragmentation, each principality pursued its own foreign policy.
1. Strengthened ties with the ruling houses of European states. Vladimir II was married to the daughter of a Byzantine emperor, from whom, according to legend, he received the symbol of supreme power - the "Monomakh's cap", the prototype of the future royal crown.
Wars were waged against neighboring neighbors, seizures were carried out, peace treaties were concluded and violated, and mutual claims accumulated. Under Vsevolod III Yuryevich (nicknamed the Big Nest) (1176-1212), the center of the Russian state actually moved to the richest city of Vladimir. Vsevolod subjugated the Ryazan principality, made campaigns against the Kama Bulgarians.
2. The rulers of the principalities in the struggle against their relatives in the "House of Rurikovich" increasingly turned to foreign states for help (Poland, Hungary, Sweden, etc.). This was often accompanied by concessions of territories, privileges for foreign merchants, etc. Foreign policy activities were carried out directly by the princes from the House of Rurikovich, who usually spoke European and Eastern languages, conducted diplomatic correspondence, sent their trusted representatives from among the boyars and wealthy merchants as ambassadors.
3. Russian rulers underestimated the danger from the east. The Russian regiments, even having united with the Polovtsy, suffered a catastrophic defeat on the Kalka River (a tributary of the Don) in 1223 from the large forward forces of the Mongol-Tatars, led by the commander of Genghis Khan. No conclusions were drawn from this defeat, and the Mongol invasion of 1237/38. caught the Russian lands by surprise. The policy of "walking apart, hitting together" was inconsistent and proved ineffective.
5. Old Russian culture of the 9th-12th centuries.
1. Culture and beliefs of the Eastern Slavs
The ancient Slavs were people of Vedic culture, therefore it would be more correct to call the ancient Slavic religion not paganism, but Vedism. This is a peaceful religion of a highly cultured agricultural people, akin to other religions of the Vedic root - Ancient India, Ancient Greece.
According to the Veles book (presumably written by the Novgorod priests no later than the 9th century, dedicated to the god of wealth and wisdom Veles and resolving the dispute over the origin of the Slavs), there was an archaic Trinity-Triglav: Svarog (Svarozhich) is a heavenly god, Perun is a thunderer, Veles (Volos) is a destroyer god The universe. There were also maternal cults. The fine arts and folklore of the ancient Slavs were inextricably linked with paganism. The main deities of the Slavs were: Svarog (god of the sky) and his son Svarozhich (god of fire), Rod (god of fertility), Stribog (god of cattle), Perun (god of thunder).
The disintegration of clan relations was accompanied by the complication of cult rites. So, the funeral of princes and nobility turned into a solemn ritual, during which huge hills - mounds were poured over the dead, one of his wives or a slave was burned with the deceased, they celebrated a feast, i.e. commemoration, accompanied by military competitions. Archaic folk holidays: New Year's fortune-telling, Shrovetide were accompanied by incantatory magical rites, which were a kind of prayers to the gods for general well-being, harvest, deliverance from thunderstorms and hail.
Not a single culture of a spiritually developed people can exist without writing. Until now, it was believed that the Slavs did not know writing before the missionary activities of Cyril and Methodius, but a number of scientists (S.P. Obnorsky, D.S. Likhachev, etc.) pointed out that that there is undeniable evidence of the presence of writing among the Eastern Slavs long before the baptism of Rus. It was suggested that the Slavs had their own original writing system: nodular writing, its signs were not written down, but transmitted by means of knots tied with threads, which were wrapped in books-balls. The memory of this letter remained in the language and folklore: for example, we still talk about the "thread of the story", "the intricacies of the plot," and we also tie knots for memory. Knot-pagan writing was very complex and accessible only to a select few - priests and the highest nobility. Obviously, the nodular writing system could not compete with the simpler, logically perfect writing system based on the Cyrillic alphabet.
2. The adoption of Christianity by Russia and its significance in the development of Russian culture
The adoption of Christianity by Russia is the most important event in the cultural life of that period. The nature of the historical choice made in 988 by Prince Vladimir was not accidental. The chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" contains a long story about the doubts of Vladimir and his boyars when choosing a faith. However, the prince made his choice in favor of Greek Orthodox Christianity. The decisive factor in turning to the religious and ideological experience of Byzantium was the traditional political, economic, cultural ties of Kievan Rus with Byzantium. Around 988, Vladimir was baptized himself, baptized his squad and boyars, and under pain of punishment forced the people of Kiev and all Russians in general to be baptized. The baptism of the rest of Russia took a long time. In the Northeast, the conversion of the population to Christianity was completed only by the end of the 11th century. Baptism has met with resistance more than once. The most famous uprising took place in Novgorod. Novgorodians agreed to be baptized only after the princely warriors set fire to the rebellious city. Many ancient Slavic beliefs entered the Christian canon in Russia. The Thunderer Perun became Elijah the prophet, Veles became St. Blasius, the holiday of Kupala turned into the day of St. John the Baptist, Pancakes are a reminder of pagan sun worship. Preserved belief in lower deities - goblin, brownies, mermaids and the like. However, all these are just remnants of paganism, which do not make an Orthodox Christian a pagan.
The adoption of Christianity by Russia had a progressive meaning, it contributed to the development of feudal relations in ancient Russian society, sanctifying the relationship of domination and subordination ("let the servant of his master fear", "there is no power not from God"); the church itself became a major landowner. Christianity introduced humanistic values into the morals and customs of ancient Russian society (“do not kill”, “do not steal”, “love your neighbor as yourself”). The adoption of Christianity strengthened the unity of the country and the central government. The international position of Russia has changed qualitatively - from a pagan barbarian state it has turned into a European Christian state. The development of culture received a powerful impetus: liturgical books in the Slavic language, icon painting, fresco painting, mosaic, flourished, stone architecture flourished, the first schools were opened at monasteries, and literacy spreads.
3. Old Russian literature
Russian literature was born in the first half of the 11th century. among the ruling class and was elitist. The leading role in the literary process was played by the church, therefore, along with the secular, church literature received great development. The material for writing was parchment, specially made calfskin, birch bark. Paper finally replaces parchment only in the 15th-16th centuries. They wrote in ink and cinnabar using goose pens. An Old Russian book is a voluminous manuscript composed of notebooks sewn into a wooden binding, covered with embossed leather. In the 11th century. In Russia, luxurious books with cinnabar letters and artistic miniatures appear. Their binding was bound in gold or silver, decorated with pearls and precious stones. This is the "Ostromir Gospel" written by deacon Gregory for the Novgorod mayor Ostromir in 1057.
At the heart of the literary language is the living spoken language of Ancient Rus, at the same time, in the process of its formation, an important role was played by the language closely related to it, although foreign in origin, the language of Old Slavonic or Church Slavonic. On its basis, church writing developed in Russia, and divine services were conducted.
One of the genres of Old Russian literature was the chronicle - a weather presentation of events. The chronicler not only described historical events, but also had to give them an assessment that would meet the interests of the prince-customer. The oldest surviving chronicle dates back to 1113. It went down in history under the name "The Tale of Bygone Years", as is commonly believed, was created by the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor. The "Story" is distinguished by the complexity of its composition and the variety of materials included in it.
One of the oldest monuments of Old Russian literature is the famous "Word about Law and Grace" (1037-1050) of the prince's priest in Berestovo and the future first Kiev Metropolitan Hilarion. The content of the Lay was the substantiation of the state ideological concept of Ancient Rus, the definition of its place among other peoples and states, and its contribution to the spread of Christianity.
At the beginning of the 12th century. In ancient Russian culture, newer literary genres are formed: teachings and walking (travel notes). The most striking examples are the "Instructions for Children", compiled in his declining years by the Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir Monomakh, and also created by one of his associates, Abbot Daniel, the famous "Walking", describing his journey through the holy places through Constantinople and Crete to Jerusalem.
At the end of the 12th century. the most famous of the poetic works of Old Russian literature was created - "The Tale of Igor's Regiment" (came down to us in the only list that died during a fire in 1812 in Moscow), the plot of which was a description of an unsuccessful campaign against the Polovtsians of the Novgorod-Seversk prince Igor Svyatoslavich (1185). The unknown author of the Lay apparently belonged to the nobility of the retinue. The main idea of the work was the need for the unity of Russian princes in the face of external danger, his appeal is aimed at ending civil strife and princely strife.
The legal code of Russia was "Russkaya Pravda", which contains, first of all, the norms of criminal, inheritance, commercial and procedural legislation and is the main source of legal, social and economic relations of the Eastern Slavs. Most modern researchers associate the Ancient Truth with the name of the Kiev prince Yaroslav the Wise. The approximate period of its creation is 1019-1054. The norms of Russkaya Pravda were gradually codified by the Kiev princes.
4. Construction and architecture.
With the advent of Christianity to Russia, the construction of religious buildings and monasteries began widely. Unfortunately, the monuments of ancient Russian wooden architecture have not survived to this day. One of the first central monasteries was Kiev-Pechersk, founded in the middle. 11th century Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves. Pechery, or caves, are the places where Christian ascetics originally settled, and around which a settlement arose, which turned into a communal monastery. Monasteries became centers for the dissemination of spiritual knowledge.
At the end of the 10th century. stone construction began in Russia. One of the first stone buildings in Kiev was the Tithe Church of the Assumption of the Virgin, erected by Greek craftsmen and destroyed during the invasion of Batu in 1240. Excavations made it possible to find out that it was a powerful structure of thin bricks, decorated with carved marble, mosaics, and frescoes. The Byzantine cross-domed church became the main architectural form in Ancient Russia. Archaeological excavations of this most ancient temple of Russia made it possible to establish that this building with an area of about 90 sq.m. crowned, according to the chronicle, with 25 tops, i.e. heads, was grandiose in design and execution. In the 30s of the XI century. the stone Golden Gate was built with a gateway church of the Annunciation.
The St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod became an outstanding piece of architecture in Kievan Rus. It is much stricter than the Kiev one, has 5 domes, much more powerful and more severe walls built from local limestone. There are no bright mosaics in the interior, but only frescoes, but not as dynamic as in Kiev, and an excess of ornamental decorations of pagan antiquity with a clearly visible pattern of nodular writing.
5. Crafts.
In Kievan Rus, handicrafts were highly developed: pottery, metalworking, jewelry, beekeeping, etc. In the 10th century. a potter's wheel appears. By the middle of the XI century. the first known sword with a Russian inscription: "Lyudota forged" belongs to. Since that time, Russian swords have been found in archaeological excavations in the Baltic States, Finland, Scandinavia.
The jewelry technique of Russian craftsmen was very complex, and the products of Rus were in great demand on the world market at that time. Many ornaments are made using the grain technique: a pattern consisting of many balls was soldered onto the product. Decorative and applied art was enriched with techniques brought from Byzantium: filigree - soldering thin wire and balls, niello - pouring a silver surface with a black background, enamel - creating a colored pattern on a metal surface.
6. The Middle Ages as a stage in the historical process in Western Europe, in the East and in Russia.
Technologies, industrial relations and methods of exploitation, political systems, ideology and social psychology.
The emergence and development of feudal land tenure and the associated enslavement of the peasantry took place in different ways. In Western Europe, for example, in France, for military service to the king, land was first granted for life, and then as hereditary property. Farmers working on the land were dependent on the owner. Over time, the peasants were attached both to the personality of the landowner-feudal lord and to the land. The peasant had to work on his own farm and on the farm of the lord (senior, lord). The serf gave the owner a significant part of the products of his labor (bread, meat, poultry; textiles, leather, shoes), and also performed many other duties. All of them were called feudal rent and were considered the payment of a peasant for the use of land, thanks to which his family was fed. This is how the main economic unit of the feudal mode of production arose, which in England was called the manor, in France and many other countries - the seigneur, and in Russia - the fiefdom.
In Byzantium, such a rigid system of feudal relations did not develop (see above). In Byzantium, feudal lords were forbidden to maintain squads, to build prisons in estates, and they lived, as a rule, in cities, and not in fortified castles. On charges of conspiracy, treason, any feudal owner could lose property and life itself.
The "queen" of all sciences was theology (translated from Greek "doctrine of God"; theology). Theologians interpreted the Holy Scriptures, explained the world around them from Christian positions. For a long time, philosophy was in the position of a "servant of theology." Priests, especially monks, were the most educated people of their time. They knew the works of ancient authors, ancient languages, and especially respected the teachings of Aristotle. The language of the Catholic Church was Latin. Therefore, access to knowledge for "simple people" was actually closed.
Theological controversies were often artificial. Dogmatism and scholasticism became widespread. Dogma translated from Greek means "opinion, teaching, decree." By "dogmatism" is meant one-sided, ossified thinking, operating with dogmas, that is, positions taken on faith as an immutable truth, unchanging under any circumstances. The tendency to dogmatism has survived safely to this day. The term "scholasticism" and the well-known word "school" have a common origin from the Greek word meaning "school, scholar." During the Middle Ages, scholasticism was most widespread. It was a type of religious philosophy that combined theological and dogmatic approaches with rationalistic methods and interests in formal logical problems.
At the same time, in the depths of theology, over time, rationalism appeared (translated from Latin "reason, reasonable"). The gradual recognition that truth can be obtained not only through faith, divine revelation, but also through knowledge, rational explanation, contributed to the gradual liberation of the natural sciences (medicine, alchemy, geography, etc.) from the strict control of the church.
The Church made sure that the peasant, artisan, merchant, any ordinary person of the Middle Ages felt himself sinful, dependent, insignificant. The daily life of the "little man" was under the comprehensive control of the priest, feudal lord and community. The sacrament of confession, obligatory for everyone, forced a person to evaluate his actions and thoughts, taught him to self-discipline and self-restraint. It was not accepted and dangerous to stand out from the general gray mass. The clothes of men and especially women were of a simple cut, and did not have to accentuate the texture of the body.
The people of the Middle Ages were characterized by fear of the Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment, which was expected more than once in a state of mass history and panic.
Of course, not everywhere, not always, and not everything was so gloomy. In the spiritual culture of the Middle Ages, in the life of people, the dominant religious culture was opposed by heresies, the remnants of paganism, and folk culture. The people were entertained by wandering actors - jugglers (buffoons). During the holidays, mummers walked through the streets of villages and towns (at Christmas), dances, competitions and games were held in the squares. During the "holidays of fools", parodying the church service, the lower clergy put on monstrous masks right in the church, sang daring songs, feasted and played dice. Clever clergymen understood that explosions of unbridled, "worldly" fun allowed them to "let off steam", brighten up a rather difficult, dull everyday life. In many European countries, modern festivals, carnivals, traditional events originated in the Middle Ages.
For a long time, monasteries were the centers of spiritual culture. At the beginning of the second millennium, universities competed with them.
7. Reasons, nature and features of the period of feudal fragmentation. Russian lands in the XII-XIV centuries.
Modern researchers understand by feudal fragmentation the period of the XII-XV centuries. in the history of our country, when on the territory of Kievan Rus, from several dozen to several hundred large states were formed and functioned. Feudal fragmentation was a natural result of the previous political and economic development of society, the so-called period of the early feudal monarchy.
There are four most significant reasons for the feudal fragmentation of the Old Russian state.
The main reason was political. The vast expanses of the East European Plain, numerous tribes of both Slavic and non-Slavic origin, at different stages of development - all this contributed to the decentralization of the state. Over time, the appanage princes, as well as the local feudal nobility in the person of the boyars, began to undermine the foundation under the state building with their independent separatist actions. Only strong power, concentrated in the hands of one person, the prince, could keep the state organism from decay. And the great Kiev prince could no longer completely control the policy of local princes from the center, more and more princes left from under his power, and in the 30s. XII century he only controlled the area around Kiev. Appanage princes, sensing the weakness of the center, now did not want to share their income with the center, and the local boyars actively supported them in this.
The next reason for feudal fragmentation was social. By the beginning of the XII century. the social structure of ancient Russian society became more complicated: large boyars, clergy, merchants, artisans, and urban lower classes appeared. These were new, actively developing strata of the population. In addition, a nobility was born, serving the prince in exchange for land grants. His social activity was very high. In each center, the appanage princes had an impressive force in the person of the boyars with their vassals, the wealthy elite of the cities, and church hierarchs. The increasingly complex social structure of society also contributed to the isolation of lands.
The economic reason also played a significant role in the disintegration of the state. Within the framework of a single state, independent economic regions were formed over three centuries, new cities arose, large patrimonial possessions of the boyars, monasteries and churches arose. The natural character of the economy provided the rulers of each region with the opportunity to secede from the center and exist as an independent land or principality.
In the XII century. contributed to the feudal fragmentation and foreign policy situation. Russia during this period did not have serious opponents, since the grand dukes of Kiev did a lot to ensure the security of their borders. A little less than a century will pass, and Russia will face a formidable enemy in the person of the Mongol-Tatars, but the process of the disintegration of Russia by this time will have gone too far, there will be no one to organize the resistance of the Russian lands.
All major Western European states experienced a period of feudal fragmentation, but in Western Europe, the engine of fragmentation was the economy. In Russia, in the process of feudal fragmentation, the political component was dominant. In order to receive material benefits, the local nobility - princes and boyars - had to gain political independence and strengthen their destiny, to achieve sovereignty. The boyars became the main force of the process of separation in Russia.
At first, feudal fragmentation contributed to the rise of agriculture in all Russian lands, the flourishing of handicrafts, the growth of cities, and the rapid development of trade. But over time, constant strife between the princes began to drain the strength of the Russian lands, weaken their defenses in the face of external danger. Disunity and constant enmity with each other led to the disappearance of many principalities, but most importantly, they became the cause of extraordinary hardships for the people during the period of the Mongol-Tatar invasion.
In conditions of feudal fragmentation, the exploitation of the peasantry intensified, the number of free communes gradually decreased, the community fell under the rule of farmers. Previously free community members became feudally dependent. The deterioration of the position of the peasants and urban lower classes was expressed in various forms, uprisings against the feudal lords became more frequent.
In the XII-XIII centuries. so-called immunities have become widespread. Immunity is the granting of a special letter to the landowner (letter immunity), in accordance with which he exercised independent management and legal proceedings in his fiefdom. At the same time, he was responsible for the fulfillment of state duties by the peasants. Over time, the owner of the immunity charter became the sovereign and obeyed the prince only formally.
In the social development of Russia, the hierarchical structure of feudal land tenure and, accordingly, senior-vassal relations within the class of feudal lords are quite clearly manifested.
The main overlord was the Grand Duke, who exercised supreme power and was the owner of all the land of this principality.
Boyars, being vassals of the prince, had their own vassals - medium and small feudal lords. The Grand Duke handed out estates, immunity letters and was obliged to resolve controversial issues between feudal lords, to protect them from oppression by neighbors.
A typical feature of the period of feudal fragmentation was the palace-fiefdom system of government. The center of this system was the princely court, and the administration of the princely lands and the state was not delimited. Palace officials (butler, equestrian, falconer, chasnichny, etc.) performed national duties, managing certain territories, collecting taxes and taxes.
Legal issues in the period of feudal fragmentation were resolved on the basis of "Russian Truth", customary law, various treaties, letters, charters and other documents.
Interstate relations were regulated by treaties and charters ("finished", "row", "kissing of the cross"). In Novgorod and Pskov in the 15th century. appeared their own legal collections, developed in the development of "Russian Truth" and Church Statutes. In addition, they implemented the norms of customary law of Novgorod and Pskov, letters of princes and local legislation.
8. Mongol-Tatar invasion of Russia and its impact on the economic, political, social and cultural development of the country. The struggle of the Russian people against foreign invaders (XIII-XV centuries).
The Russian state, formed on the border of Europe with Asia, which reached its heyday in the 10th - early 11th century, at the beginning of the 12th century split into many principalities. This disintegration took place under the influence of the feudal mode of production. The external defense of the Russian land was especially weakened. The princes of individual princedoms pursued their own separate policy, reckoning primarily with the interests of the local feudal nobility and entered into endless internecine wars. This led to the loss of centralized control and to a strong weakening of the state as a whole. At the beginning of the 13th century, the Mongol state was formed in Central Asia. By the name of one of the tribes, these peoples were also called Tatars. Subsequently, all the nomadic peoples with whom Russia fought were called Mongolo-Tatars. In 1206, a congress of the Mongol nobility, the kurultai, was held, at which Temuchin was elected the leader of the Mongol tribes, who received the name Genghis Khan (Great Khan). As in other countries, at an early stage in the development of feudalism, the state of the Mongol-Tatars was distinguished by its strength and solidity. The nobility was interested in expanding pastures and organizing predatory campaigns against neighboring agricultural peoples, which were at a higher level of development. Most of them, like Russia, experienced a period of feudal fragmentation, which greatly facilitated the implementation of the conquest plans of the Mongol-Tatars. Then they invaded China, conquered Korea and Central Asia, defeated the allied forces of the Polovtsian and Russian princes on the Kalka River (1223). Reconnaissance in force showed that it is possible to conduct aggressive campaigns against Russia and its neighbors only by organizing an all-Mongol campaign against the countries of Europe. At the head of this campaign was the grandson of Genghis Khan - Batu, who inherited from his grandfather all the territories in the west, "where the foot of the Mongol horse will set foot." In 1236 the Mongol-Tatars captured the Volga Bulgaria, and in 1237 they subdued the nomadic peoples of the steppe. In the fall of 1237, the main forces of the Mongol-Tatars, having crossed the Volga, concentrated on the Voronezh River, aiming at the Russian lands.
In 1237 Ryazan came under the first blow. The Vladimir and Chernigov princes refused to help Ryazan. The battle was very hard. The Russian squad left the encirclement 12 times, Ryazan held out for 5 days. "One resident of Ryazan fought with a thousand, and two with ten thousand" - this is how the chronicle writes about this battle. But Batu's superiority in strength was great, and Ryazan fell. The entire city was destroyed.
The battle of the Vladimir-Suzdal army with the Mongol-Tatars took place near the city of Kolomna. In this battle, the Vladimir army perished, predetermining the fate of North-Eastern Russia. In mid-January, Batu takes Moscow, then, after a 5-day siege, Vladimir. After the capture of Vladimir, Batu dismembers his army into several parts. All cities in the north, except Torzhok, surrendered almost without a fight.
After Torzhok, Baty does not go to Novgorod, but turns south. The turn from Novgorod is usually explained by spring floods. But there are other explanations: firstly, the campaign did not fit into the deadlines, and secondly, Batu could not defeat the combined forces of North-Eastern Russia in one or two battles, using numerical and tactical superiority.
Batu is combing the entire territory of Russia using the tactics of a hunting raid. The city of Kozelsk was declared the gathering point for the khan's troops. Kozelsk held out for 7 weeks, and withstood the general assault. Batu, however, took the city by cunning and did not spare anyone, he killed everyone up to the infants. Batu ordered to destroy the city to the ground, plow the land and fill this place with salt so that this city would never be revived. On his way, Batu destroyed everything, including villages, as the main productive force in Russia.
In 1240, after a 10-day siege of Kiev, which ended with the capture and complete plunder of the latter, Batu's troops invaded the states of Europe, where they terrified and fear the inhabitants. In Europe, it was announced that the Mongols had escaped from hell, and everyone was waiting for the end of the world.
But Russia still resisted. In 1241 Batu returned to Russia. In 1242, Batu was in the lower reaches of the Volga, where he set up his new capital - Saray-Batu. The Horde yoke was established in Russia by the end of the 13th century, after the creation of the state of Batu - the Golden Horde, which stretched from the Danube to the Irtysh.
Already the first consequences of the conquest campaigns of the Mongols were catastrophic for the Slavic lands: the fall and destruction of the role of cities, the decline of crafts and trade, demographic losses - physical destruction, slavery and flight became factors that significantly reduced the population in southern Russia, the destruction of a significant part of the feudal elite.
The essence of the Golden Horde invasion as a historical phenomenon lies in the formation and strengthening of a stable system of dependence of the Russian lands on the conquerors. The Golden Horde invasion manifested itself primarily in 3 spheres: economic (the system of taxes and duties - tribute, plow, underwater, duties, feed, agile, etc.), political (the Horde's approval of princes on the tables and its issuance of labels for land management) , military (the duty of the Slavic principalities to delegate their soldiers to the Mongol army and take part in its military campaigns). to monitor the preservation and strengthening of the system of dependence, the khan's governors in the Russian lands, the Baskaks, were called upon. In addition, with the aim of weakening Russia, the Golden Horde practiced periodic devastating campaigns for almost the entire period of its own domination.
The Mongol-Tatar invasion caused great damage to the Russian state. Enormous damage was done to the economic, political and cultural development of Rus. The old agricultural centers and the once developed territories were desolate and fell into decay. Russian cities were subjected to massive devastation. Many crafts have become simpler and sometimes disappeared. Tens of thousands of people were killed or taken into slavery. The unceasing struggle that the Russian people waged against the invaders forced the Mongolo-Tatars to abandon the creation of their own administrative bodies of power in Russia. Rus retained its statehood. This was also facilitated by the lower level of cultural and historical development of the Tatars. In addition, the Russian lands were unsuitable for breeding nomadic cattle breeding. The main meaning of enslavement was to receive tribute from the conquered people. The tribute was very high. The tribute to the khan alone was 1300 kg of silver per year. In addition, deductions from trade duties and various taxes went to the khan's treasury. There were 14 types of tribute in total in favor of the Tatars.
Russian principalities made attempts to disobey the horde. However, the forces to overthrow the Tatar-Mongol yoke were still not enough. Realizing this, the most far-sighted Russian princes - Alexander Nevsky and Daniil Galitsky - took a more flexible policy towards the Horde and the Khan. Realizing that an economically weak state will never be able to withstand the Horde, Alexander Nevsky embarked on a course to restore and raise the economy of the Russian lands.
In the summer of 1250 the Khan of the Mighty sent his ambassadors to Daniel Galitsky with the words: "Give Galich!" Realizing that the forces are unequal, and fighting the khan's army, he dooms his lands to complete plunder, Daniel goes to the Horde to bow to Batu and recognize his strength. As a result, the Galician lands are included in the Horde as autonomous entities. They kept their land, but were dependent on the khan. Thanks to such a soft policy, the Russian land was saved from complete plunder and destruction. As a result of this, a slow recovery and recovery of the economy of the Russian lands began, which ultimately led to the Battle of Kulikovo and the overthrow of the Tatar-Mongol yoke.
In the difficult years of the Mongol invasion, the Russian people had to repel the onslaught of German and Swedish feudal lords. The purpose of this campaign was the capture of Ladoga, and in case of success, and Novgorod itself. The plundering goals of the campaign, as usual, were covered with phrases that its participants were trying to spread among the Russian people the "true faith" - Catholicism.
At dawn on a July day in 1240, the Swedish flotilla unexpectedly appeared in the Gulf of Finland and, passing along the Neva, stood at the mouth of the Izhora. A temporary Swedish camp was set up here. Prince of Novgorod Alexander Yaroslavich (son of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich), having received a message from the chief of the Izhorian naval guard Pelgusia about the arrival of enemies, gathered in Novgorod his small squad and part of the Novgorod militia. Considering that the Swedish army was much more numerous than the Russian, Alexander decided to strike the Swedes with an unexpected blow. On the morning of July 15, the Russian army suddenly attacked the Swedish camp. The cavalry squad fought its way to the center of the location of the Swedish troops. At the same time, the Novgorodian militia on foot, following along the Neva, attacked enemy ships. Three ships were captured and destroyed. By blows along the Izhora and Neva, the Swedish army was overturned and pushed back into a corner formed by two rivers. The ratio of the forces of change
