About 200 peoples live on Russian territory. The history of some of them goes back to distant millennia BC. We found out which indigenous peoples of Russia are the most ancient and from whom they originated.

Slavs

There are many hypotheses about the origin of the Slavs - some attribute them to the Scythian tribes from Central Asia, some to the mysterious Aryans, some to the Germanic peoples. Hence different views about the age of an ethnic group, to which it is customary to add a couple of extra millennia “for the sake of respectability.”

The first person to try to determine age Slavic people, there was a monk Nestor, taking the biblical tradition as a basis, he began the history of the Slavs with the Babylonian pandemonium, which divided humanity into 72 nations: “From these 70 and 2 languages ​​the Slovenian language was born...”.

From an archaeological point of view, the first culture that can be called Proto-Slavic was the so-called culture of podklosh burials, which received its name from the custom of covering cremated remains with a large vessel, in Polish “klesh”, that is, “upside down”. It originated between the Vistula and Dnieper in the 5th century BC. To some extent, we can assume that its representatives were Proto-Slavs.

Bashkirs

Southern Urals and the adjacent steppes - the territories where the Bashkir ethnic group formed, have been an important center of interaction between cultures since ancient times. The archaeological diversity of the region baffles researchers and adds the question of the origin of the people to the long list of “mysteries of history.”

Today, there are three main versions of the origin of the Bashkir people. The most “archaic” - Indo-Iranian says that the main element in the formation of the ethnos were the Indo-Iranian Sako-Sarmatian, Dakho-Massaget tribes of the early Iron Age (III-IV centuries BC), whose place of settlement was the Southern Urals. According to another, Finno-Ugric version, the Bashkirs are “siblings” of the current Hungarians, since they together descended from the Magyars and the Eney tribe (in Hungary - Eno). This is supported by the Hungarian legend, recorded in the 13th century, about the Magyars’ journey from the East to Pannonia (modern Hungary), which they made in order to take possession of Attila’s inheritance.

Based on medieval sources in which Arab and Central Asian authors equate the Bashkirs and Turks, a number of historians believe that these peoples are related.

According to the historian G. Kuzeev, the ancient Bashkir tribes (Burzyan, Usergan, Bailar, Surash and others) emerged on the basis of Turkic early medieval communities in the 7th century AD and subsequently mixed with Finno-Ugric tribes and tribal groups of Sarmatian origin. In the 13th century, historical Bashkortostan was invaded by nomadic Kipchakized tribes, who shaped the appearance of modern Bashkirs.

The versions of the origin of the Bashkir people are not limited to this. Passionate about philology and archeology, public figure Salavat Gallyamov put forward a hypothesis according to which the ancestors of the Bashkirs once came from ancient Mesopotamia and through Turkmenistan reached the Southern Urals. However, in the scientific community this version is considered a “fairy tale”.

Mari or Cheremis

The history of the Finno-Ugric people of the Mari begins at the beginning of the first millennium BC, along with the formation of the so-called Ananyin archaeological culture in the Volga-Kama region (VIII-II centuries BC).

Some historians identify them with the semi-legendary Fyssagetae - an ancient people who, according to Herodotus, lived near the Scythian lands. Of these, the Mari subsequently emerged, settling from the right bank of the Volga between the mouths of the Sura and Tsivil.

During times early Middle Ages they were in close cooperation with the Gothic, Khazar tribes and Volga Bulgaria. The Mari were annexed to Russia in 1552, after the conquest of the Kazan Khanate.

Sami

Ancestors northern people The Sami - the Komsa culture - came to the north in the Neolithic era, when these lands were freed from the glacier. The Sami ethnos, whose name translates as “land” itself, traces its roots back to the carriers of the ancient Volga culture and the Dauphinian Caucasian population. The second ones, known in scientific world as a culture of reticulated ceramics, they inhabited a wide territory from the middle Volga region to the north of Fennoscandia, including Karelia, in the 2nd-1st millennium BC.

According to the historian I. Manyukhin, having mixed with the Volga tribes, they formed an ancient Sami historical community of three related cultures: the late Kargopol in Belozerye, Kargopolye and South-East Karelia, the Luukonsaari in Eastern Finland and Western Karelia, the Kjelmo and “Arctic”, in northern Karelia, Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Kola Peninsula.

Along with this, the Sami language emerged and the physical appearance of the Lapps took shape ( Russian designation Sami), which is characteristic of these peoples today - short stature, wide-set Blue eyes and blond hair.

Probably the first written mention of the Sami dates back to 325 BC and is found in the ancient Greek historian Pytheas, who mentioned a certain people “Fenni” (finoi). Subsequently, Tacitus wrote about them in the 1st century AD, talking about the wild Fenian people living in the area of ​​Lake Ladoga. Today the Sami live in Russia in the Murmansk region with the status of an indigenous population.

Peoples of Dagestan

On the territory of Dagestan, where remains of human settlements dating back to the 6th millennium BC are found, many peoples can boast of their ancient origins. This especially applies to the peoples of the Caucasian type - the Dargins and Laks. According to historian V. Alekseev, the Caucasian group formed on the same territory that it occupies now on the basis of the most ancient local population Late Stone Age.

Vainakh

The Vainakh peoples, which include the Chechens (“Nokhchi”) and Ingush (“Galgai”), as well as many peoples of Dagestan, belong to the ancient Caucasian anthropological type, as the Soviet anthropologist Prof. Debets, “the most Caucasian of all Caucasians.” Their roots should be sought in the Kura-Araks archaeological culture that lived in the territory North Caucasus in the 4th and early 3rd millennium BC, as well as in the Maikop culture, which inhabited the foothills of the North Caucasus during the same period.

Mention of the Vainakhs in written sources is found for the first time in Strabo, who in his “Geography” mentions certain “Gargarei” living in the small foothills and plains of the Central Caucasus.

In the Middle Ages, the formation of the Vainakh peoples was strongly influenced by the state of Alania in the foothills of the North Caucasus, which fell in the 13th century under the hooves of the Mongol cavalry.

Yukaghirs

The small Siberian people of the Yukaghirs (“people of the Mezlots” or “distant people”) can be called the most ancient on the territory of Russia. According to the historian A. Okladnikov, this ethnic group emerged in the Stone Age, approximately in the 7th millennium BC in the east of the Yenisei.

Anthropologists believe that this people, genetically isolated from their closest neighbors - the Tungus, represents the oldest layer of the autochthonous population of polar Siberia. Their archaic nature is also evidenced by the long-preserved custom of matrilocal marriage, when after marriage the husband lives on his wife’s territory.

Until the 19th century, numerous Yukaghir tribes (Alai, Anaul, Kogime, Lavrentsy and others) occupied a vast territory from the Lena River to the mouth of the Anadyr River. In the 19th century, their numbers began to decline significantly as a result of epidemics and civil strife. Some of the tribes were assimilated by the Yakuts, Evens and Russians. According to the 2002 census, the number of Yukaghirs decreased to 1,509 people.

Slavic tribes on the territory of Russia in the 10th century.

The end of Igor's war with Byzantium and the exchange of peaceful embassies contributed to the fact that the first accurate data about Slavic tribes and cities appeared in Byzantine sources. In the Notes of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, information about Rus' was recorded from the words of the Byzantines who traveled with an embassy to Kyiv, or the Russian ambassadors who arrived in Constantinople in 944 to conclude a peace treaty. The emperor's essay describes in most detail the journey through the Dnieper rapids, which was fraught with mortal risk. The Scandinavian (Russian) and Slavic names of most rapids are reproduced in the Notes. According to linguists, Slavic names thresholds were subject to less distortion in the Byzantine record than the Scandinavian ones. This indicated that the compilers of the Notes used Slavic sources of information. The knowledge of the person who provided information about Rus' to the imperial officials was limited primarily to the Kyiv district. Of the seven Slavic cities named in the Notes, four were located in Southern Rus'. Their names (Kiova, Chernigoga, Vusegrad and Vyatichev) are conveyed more accurately, while the names of two cities outside the Kyiv region are distorted beyond recognition (Meliniski and Teliutsy). The last name cannot be deciphered at all. Among the Slavic tribes are Kriviteins (Krivichi), Lendzanins (Lendzyans) and Derevlenins (Verviaans, Drevlyans). The author of the Notes received more than detailed information and therefore mentions them twice. In addition to them, the Northerners (Severii), Druguvits (Dregovichi) and Ultins (Ulichi) are named. The names of the tribes of Slovenians, Polotsk, Vitichi, Volynians, Tivertsi, who lived far from Kyiv, do not appear in the Notes. The compilers of the Notes showed great awareness of Kyiv and the Kyiv region. However, the Byzantine list of Slavic tribes does not include the Polyans who lived in Kyiv itself. At the same time, the authors of the Notes talk about certain Lendzians who are absent from the Tale of Bygone Years. There is an assumption about the identity of these tribes. As established in the literature, the word “Ledzyan” reproduces the self-name of the Poles (lendjane; Russian Lyadsky, Poles). The word "glade" has the same meaning. The names of the glades of the Wielkopolska lands and the glades from the Kyiv region are the same. The order in which tribes are listed in the Notes of Constantine Porphyrogenitus is noteworthy. The Lendzyans are mentioned in one case next to the Krivichi, and in the other - next to the Ulitsch and Drevlyans. If the neighbors of the Lendzyans were the Krivichi (on the one hand), the Drevlyans and the Ulichs (on the other), then this means that they lived precisely in those places that, according to the chronicle, were occupied by the Polyans and Radimichi. This small tribe also remained unknown to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, like the Polyan tribe. It can be suggested that the small tribes of the Polans and Radimichi were fragments of a large tribe that maintained unity in the middle of the 10th century, but disintegrated in the 11th-12th centuries. A reflection of this fact were the memories of the common ancestors and the common origin of the tribes, recorded by the chronicler. “The Radimichi and the Vyatichi,” Nestor asserted, “from the Poles: there were two brothers in the Lyakhs - Radim and the other Vyatko, and the gray-haired Radim came to Sezha, and was called Radimichi, and Vyatko sat with his family on Otse, from him he was nicknamed Vyatichi". Radom was one of the oldest cities in Poland. The words "Radim" and "radimichi" correspond with this toponym.

The inhabitants of Kyiv considered themselves Polyans, which determined the attitude of the chroniclers to this tribe: “Men are wise in the sense, they are called Polyans, from them there are Polyans in Kiev to this day.” The wise Polans had the custom of being “meek and quiet”; they had a “marriage custom” towards their relatives. On the contrary, the Radimichi, Vyatichi and their neighbors “live in the forest, like every beast, eating everything unclean and blasphemous before the fathers...”. The obvious bias of the judgment put Nestor in a difficult position. If he admitted that the glades have common ancestors with the Radimichi and Vyatichi, then discussions about the special wisdom and virtues of the glades would have lost their basis. It becomes clear why the chronicler decided to pass over in silence the question of the origin of the glades, although the problem of the origin of this tribe and its first prince Kiy was one of the most pressing. The Poles, Nestor wrote, settled on the Vistula, and “from those Poles it was called the glade”; “in the same way, the Slovenians came and sat down along the Dnieper and crossed the clearing, and the Druzians, the Drevlyans, sat down in the forests”; “to the glades who lived in these mountains,” etc. Having explained that the Drevlyans got their name because they lived in the forest, the chronicler left the reader completely unaware of why the future Kievans, having settled “on the mountains,” began to be called “glades.” Having named the Polish glades and the Kyiv glades on the same page, the learned scribe did not explain the relationship between these tribes. Meanwhile, the name of the Greater Poland Poles-Polyans strictly correlated with the name of the Kyiv Lendzyan-Polyans. The name Kiova (Arabic: Kuyavia) is close to the toponym Kuyavia in Poland. In the contract Prince of Kyiv Igor 944, one of the senior Kyiv “archons” (kings) bore the name Volodislav, characteristic of the Poles.

Researchers expressed surprise that the tiny tribe of the Polyans played such a prominent role in the history of Rus'. In fact, the small tribe could hardly survive, much less subjugate the much more powerful tribes that surrounded it and occupied vast territories. According to Nestor, the glades were “offended” by their closest neighbors - the Drevlyans, a tribe by no means a large one. The notes of Constantine Porphyrogenitus explain the matter. Until the middle of the 10th century. the Polyans, Radimichi, and, probably, the Vyatichi retained their belonging to a single tribe of Lendzyans, which was not inferior in number and power to the union of the Krivichi or Ilmen Slovenes. The Norman conquest accelerated the collapse of this tribe. The Lendzians who lived in the Dnieper region submitted to the Rus, while the Vyatichi remained under the rule of the Khazars for a long time. Old tribal ties were destroyed in the Slavic lands, which were first developed by the Normans. These lands were also the first to undergo Christianization.

Konstantin Porphyrogenitus described in detail the polyudie of the Rus. In this description there are no glades and radimichi. The Rus did not go to Polyudye to the Lendzians (Polyans, Radimichi) for the reason that the lands of the Lendzians in the Dnieper region became their habitat, while the Vyatichi still remained tributaries of the Khazars.

Nestor was an educated monk, a talented and conscientious writer. His description of the life and customs of the ancient Slavs was by no means fiction. The chronicler only followed the impressions of contemporary life. By the beginning of the 12th century. the Kyiv glades not only received baptism, but were also imbued with the Christian spirit, while their former fellow tribesmen Radimichi and Vyatichi still remained pagans. In the middle of the 10th century. The Lendzians throughout the entire territory from Kyiv to the lands of the Radimichi beyond the Dnieper and the Vyatichi on the Oka remained pagans. Only after the adoption of Christianity did the differences between the capital and the periphery come to the surface.

The legend about the Polish origin of the glades was known to Nestor. But he was dominated by the evil of the day - friction between the Christian capital and the pagan outskirts, disputes over whose volost - Kiev or Novgorod - was ancient, “who began the first princedom in Kiev,” etc. Answering all these questions, the Kiev chronicles set out the legend of Kiev . The chronicle story about the three brothers, the founders of Kyiv, apparently was based on a folklore plot. Three brothers Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv sailed and sat on three mountains (Kyiv Mountain, Shchekovitsa and Khorivitsa), while their sister Lybid sat under a mountain on the Lybid River. The legend about the brothers - the founders of a city or state can be found in folklore sources of many countries. The Kyiv chroniclers did not fail to report on the origin of Rurik, Radim, Vyatko, etc. and kept silent about the origin of the ancestor of all Kiev residents - the first Kyiv prince. This significantly reduces historical value legends about Kiya.

Who inhabited the territory of the Orenburg region in ancient times and the Middle Ages?

History of geographical research and development of the region

When did the first information about the region's territory appear?

The most ancient information about the territory of our region is provided by the Greek historian and traveler Herodotus. In the "History", written by Herodotus in the middle of the 5th century. BC, the Caspian Sea is described, behind which there is a “plain in an immense space”, beyond which “the land is rocky and uneven”, and behind it “stand high impassable mountains”. In Herodotus’s description one can discern the endless plains of the Caspian lowland, the “rocky and uneven” General Syrt and the “high and impassable” Ural Mountains.

The first map with the image of the river. Ural and the mountains of the Southern Urals in the 2nd century. AD compiled by the Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy. On the map of Asia he showed the river. Daix (Ural), in the upper reaches of which were the Rimmikai (Ural) mountains.

But neither Herodotus nor Ptolemy were in the territory of our region. The first famous traveler to visit our region was the Arab writer Ibn Fadlan. In 921-922 As part of an embassy heading to Volga Bulgaria (the territory of modern Tatarstan), he crossed the western regions of what is now the Orenburg region.

In the X-XII centuries. The Arabs were already well aware of the r. Ruza (Ural) and r. Magra (Sakmara). Western merchants and missionaries also repeatedly crossed the South Ural steppes. Among them are the ambassador of the Pope Palazio Carpini (1246), the ambassador of the French king Willem Rubruk (1253), the Italian brothers Nicolo and Mateo Polo (1265) - the father and uncle of the famous Marco Polo.

IN late XVI V. the famous “Big Drawing” appeared - a huge road map of the Moscow state and the adjacent lands of the Volga and Trans-Ural regions. Unfortunately, the map itself has not survived. Only the description of the map has survived to this day - “Book Big Drawing"(1627). It says: “The Yaik River flowed level with Oraltovaya Mountain (Southern Urals) against the upper reaches of the Tobol River. The Yaik River flowed into the Khvalynsk Sea, and the channels of the Yaik River to the sea were 1050 versts... The Yuryuk Samar (Sakmara) River ... fell into the Yaik against the Aralt Mountains with right side... fell into Yaik, on the left side of Yaik, the Ilez River, below Mount Tustebi, in our opinion that Solyanaya Mountain, they break salt in it...”

Who inhabited the territory of the Orenburg region in ancient times and the Middle Ages?

In the ancient and Middle Ages, the expanses of the southern Urals and Trans-Urals served as habitats, nomads and an arena of movement for various tribes and peoples (Appendix 1). The abundance of pastures and fertile lands, rivers and lakes rich in fish, deposits of copper and iron ores have long contributed to the development of our region. By the 2nd century BC e. In the steppes of the Urals and Kazakhstan, an economic structure developed that combined nomadic cattle breeding, primitive agriculture and metallurgy, as well as trade with neighbors.

In the eastern part of the Orenburg region (Kvarken district), the remains of ancient cities of the Bronze Age, covering the 3rd-2nd millennium BC, were discovered. e. It is believed that these cities were built by the ancient Aryans, who then moved from the South Ural steppes to the west and became the basis for the formation of many peoples of foreign Europe.

For many centuries, the Ural-Caspian region was the gateway to great migrations. Waves of peoples, one after another, rolled onto the Orenburg steppes, displacing each other, leaving traces of their presence in archaeological monuments and geographical names. In the 1st century BC e. The Orenburg region was the site of a thousand-year residence of Sarmatian tribes engaged in nomadic cattle breeding. From the 4th to the 13th centuries, our region was inhabited, successively, by the Huns, Avars, Guzes, Pechenegs, Bulgars, Polovtsians, and Mongol-Tatars.

During this period, various parts of the region's territory were part of the state entities that existed in the Middle Ages. In the 9th century. southwestern Orenburg region was the northeastern outskirts Khazar Khaganate. In the 12th century. the northwestern part of the region was part of Volga Bulgaria. Over the next two centuries, the entire territory of the Orenburg region was within the Golden Horde. In the XV-XVII centuries, after the collapse of the Mongol-Tatar state, Northern part The region became a place of nomadic Bashkirs, the uluses of the Nogai Horde were located in the area between the Volga and the Urals, and the lands of the Kazakh zhuzes stretched along the left bank of the Urals and to the south.

HISTORY OF UKRAINE

To be continued.

At the beginning of the first millennium BC new era on the territory of modern Ukraine was the first of historical peoples- Cimmerians, who belonged to the Thracian (Thracian - in Bulgarian language) tribes. The Cimmerians were replaced by the Scythians in the 7th century BC. The first mention of them is found in the Greek historian Herodotus, who himself sailed on a ship up the Dnieper and traveled along the Black Sea steppes. The Greeks at that time colonized the northern Black Sea coast. The colonies of Tire (at the mouth of the Dniester, which they called Tiras - modern Tiraspol), Olbia (at the mouth of the Dnieper), Chersonesus (near modern Sevastopol), Theodosia (Feodosia), Pontikapaeus (modern Kerch), Tanais (at the mouth of the Don), Phanagoria and others.
The most ancient sources mention that the Scythians drove cattle through the Kerch Strait, which was shallow at that time.
For 4 millennia the level Sea of ​​Azov did not decrease by more than ten and did not increase by more than one meter compared to the current situation. In ancient times, the Kerch Strait was called the Cimmerian Bosporus, that is, the “bull ford of the Cimmerians.” Parts of the buildings of the ancient cities of Olbia, Chersonesos, Phanagoria and others are currently at the bottom of the sea.
The ancient Greeks called the Sea of ​​Azov “Meotis limine” - “lake of the Meotians,” the people who lived on its shores (the Cimmerians were just crossing the ford). The Romans gave it the ironic name “Palus Maeotis” - “swamp of the Maeotians”.
The Cimmerians came down from historical arena in the 7th century BC, They lived in a territory whose borders ran along the northern shores of the Black Sea, from the mouth of the Danube to Chisinau, Kiev, Kharkov, Novocherkassk, Krasnodar and Novorossiysk. The geographer also wrote about them ancient world Strabo.
Despite the fact that different tribes lived in these places, the Greeks called them all Scythians (sketes). The lands of these tribes extended from the Danube to the Don. The Scythians were divided into nomads (on the left bank of the Dnieper) and grain growers (on both banks of the Dnieper), who sowed grain for sale. Actually, Scythian written sources have not survived; they are available only to the Greeks, Arabs and Romans. The Scythians called themselves Skolots. This name, according to Herodotus, meant “king”.
The Scythians worshiped a sky god named Patsay (compare with the surname of the Russian cosmonaut Patsayev). In 630 BC they went on campaigns to Assyria, Media, the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, and Egypt. Egyptian pharaoh Psametichos I bought them off. They then returned to Mesopotamia, from where King Cyaxares drove them out. The Scythians lasted in history for 500 years.

The Chalcolithic (Copper Age) and Neolithic periods are represented by the Trypillian, Sredny Stog and a number of other cultures.

The Bronze Age period is characterized by the Yamnaya, Catacomb, Srubnaya, Belogrudov culture and a number of other archaeological cultures.

Scythians, an Iranian-speaking people from Central Asia, in the 7th century. BC e. drove the Cimmerians out of the Ukrainian steppes. Around the same period, the Greeks began to found the first colonies in the Northern Black Sea region. It is believed that the Scythians created the first state on the territory of modern Ukraine. Around 200 BC e. The Scythians are replaced by the Sarmatians. In the 3rd century AD e. The Goths moved from the north-west to the territory of Ukraine, and here they created their kingdom of Oium - the second public education on the territory of Ukraine. The Chernyakhov archaeological culture on the Right Bank and in the Black Sea region, which existed at the turn of the 2nd-3rd - the turn of the 4th-5th centuries, is also closely associated with the Gothic era.

In 375, the Goths were defeated by the Huns, who came from the depths of Asia, and moved across the Danube, into the Roman Empire, where they eventually created their own kingdoms. The power of the Huns, having suffered several defeats of the Romans and allies, quickly loses strength and disintegrates.

After the invasion of the Huns, hegemony over the current territory of Ukraine at the end of the 5th century passed to Slavic tribes Antes and Sklavins, represented respectively by the Penkovo ​​(also partly Kolochin) and Prague-Korchatsky archaeological cultures. Soon the left bank part of the territory of Ukraine with Tavria becomes dependent on the Khazar Khaganate (Saltovo-Mayak archaeological culture).

The northwestern regions of Ukraine are currently considered the most likely place of origin of the Slavs.

At the end of the first millennium, the Slavic tribes on the territory of Ukraine included the Polyans, Drevlyans, Northerners, Buzhans, Tivertsy, Ulichs, Volynians and others.

The first mentions of the Slavs are found in written sources of the 5th-6th centuries. But modern archeology claims that the first tribes Ancient Rus' lived on the territory of present-day Russia even before our era.
Initially, the peoples who lived until the IV-VI centuries. in the area between the Oder and Vistula rivers, near the Dnieper River, they were called Wends. Later they began to be called Slavs. The Veneds were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, knew crafts, and built fortified houses. All members of the tribe worked equally, there was no social inequality. This way of life made the Slavs a civilized and developed people. Our ancestors were among the first to build cities and large settlements, establish roads and trade relations.
Historians count several tribes that lived in Ancient Rus' from the 6th to the 11th centuries.
The Krivichi occupied a vast territory of modern Vitebsk, Mogilev, Smolensk, and Pskov regions. The main cities of the family were Smolensk and Polotsk. This tribe is one of the most numerous in Ancient Rus'. They are divided into two groups: Pskov and Polotsk-Smolensk. Part tribal union Krivichians included Polotsk residents.
Vyatichi were the most eastern tribe Ancient Rus', they lived along the banks of the Moscow River and in the upper reaches of the Oka. Their lands were located on the territory of modern Moscow, Oryol, Ryazan and other neighboring regions. Central City- Dedoslavl, its exact location has not yet been established. The people maintained paganism for a long time and resisted the Christianity imposed by Kiev. The Vyatichi were a warlike and capricious tribe.
The Ilmen Slovenes were neighbors with the Krivichi, inhabiting the lands near Lake Ilmen, which gave the tribe its name. According to written sources, they, together with other peoples, called on the Varangians, related to the Slovenes, to rule the lands of Ancient Rus'. The warriors of the tribal union were part of Prince Oleg's squad and took part in the campaigns of Vladimir Svyatoslavich.
Together with the Vyatichi and Krivichi they formed the people of the Great Russians.
The Dulebs are one of the most ancient clans of the Slavs. They lived in the area of ​​tributaries of the Pripyat River. Little information has been preserved about them. Written sources of that time indicate that the Dulebs participated in the military campaigns of Prince Oleg. Two groups later emerged from the people: the Volynians and the Drevlyans. Their lands belonged to Kievan Rus.
The Volynians lived near the Bug and near the source of the Pripyat. Some researchers claim that the Volynians and Buzhans are the same tribe. In the territory occupied by this Slavic family, there were up to 230 cities.
The Drevlyans lived in the Polesie region, on the right bank of the Dnieper River. The name of the tribe comes from the habitat of the clan - forests. They were mainly engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. IN historical sources it is indicated that the tribe was peaceful and almost did not fight. Associated with the Drevlyans famous story about the murder of Prince Igor in 945. Princess Olga, Igor's widow, burned them main city- Iskorosten, later known as Vruchiy.
The Polyans lived on the territory of present-day Kyiv and near the Dnieper River. Their settlements were located in the very center of the East Slavic lands. The culture of the glades was very developed, which is why Kyiv subjugated the peoples of other tribes by the 9th century. The most major cities Kyiv, Belgorod, Zvenigorod are considered tribes. It is believed that the name of the genus comes from their habitat - fields.
The Radimichi inhabited Upper Transnistria, the basin of the Sozh River and its tributaries. The founder of this tribal union was Radim, his brother Vyatko founded the Vyatichi people. Archaeologists note the similarity of the customs of these tribes. IN last time Radimichi appear in the records of sources dating back to 1169. Their territories later became part of the Smolensk and Chernigov principalities.
Dregovichi are one of the most mysterious and little-studied tribes of Ancient Rus'. Presumably they settled in the middle part of the Pripyat basin. The exact boundaries of their lands have not yet been established. The Dregovichi moved from the south to the Neman River.
Northerners lived near the Desna until about the 9th-10th centuries. The name of the tribe does not come from their geographical location. Researchers suggest that the word translates as “black.” This theory is confirmed by the fact that the main city of the tribe was Chernigov. They were mainly engaged in agriculture.
Tivertsy inhabited the area between the Dniester and Prut rivers. Currently, these lands are located on the territory of Ukraine and Moldova. In the 12th century, the tribe left these lands due to military aggression from neighboring principalities. Subsequently, the Tiverts mixed with other peoples.
The streets occupied the territory of the lower Dnieper. Their main city was called Peresechen. For a long time the tribe resisted the attempts of the capital of Ancient Rus' to subjugate them.
All the tribes of Ancient Rus' had their own customs and way of life, but they were united by a common faith and religion, language, and culture.