The East Slavic tribes and their neighbors: history, features and interesting facts

Part of the common Slavic people, settled in the early Middle Ages, the territory of the East European Plain, formed a group of East Slavic tribes (they differed markedly from the southern and western Slavs). This conglomerate was adjacent to many different nations.

The appearance of the Eastern Slavs

Modern archeology has all the necessary materials for detailing where and how the East Slavic tribes and their neighbors lived. How did these early medieval communities form? Even in the Roman era, the Slavs inhabited the middle course of the Vistula, as well as the upper reaches of the Dniester. Hence the colonization to the east - to the territory of modern Russia and Ukraine.

In the V and VII centuries. The Slavs, who settled in the Dnieper, were neighbors with the Antes. In the 8th century, as a result of a new powerful migration wave, another culture, Romny, was formed. Its carriers were northerners. These East Slavic tribes and their neighbors inhabited the basins of the Seim, Desna and Sula rivers. From other "relatives" they were distinguished by narrow faces. The northerners settled in the copses and fields cut by forests and swamps.

Colonization of the Volga and the Oka River

In the VI century, the eastern Slavs began to colonize the future of the Russian North and the interfluve of the Volga and the Oka. Here the settlers faced two groups of neighbors - the Balts and Finno-Ugrians. The first to the north-east moved krivichi. They settled the headwaters of the Volga. The Ilmen Slovenes, which stopped in the White Lake region, penetrated to the north. Here they ran into the Pomors. Also, the Ilmens settled the pool of Mologa and the Yaroslavl Volga region. Together with the tribes mixed and ritual.

The East Slavic tribes and their neighbors divided the modern suburbs and the Ryazan region. Here vyatichi, to a lesser extent - northerners and Radimichs, acted as colonizers. Don Don Slavs also contributed. Vyatichi reached the Prony River and settled along the banks of the Moscow River. The characteristic feature of these colonizers was the temporal rings. According to them, archeologists also determined the area of settlement of Vyatichi. North-East Russia attracted settlers with a stable agricultural base and furs resources, which by that time had already been exhausted in other regions of the settlement of the Slavs. Local residents - measures (Finno-Ugrians) - were few in number and soon dissolved among the Slavs or were displaced further north.

Eastern neighbors

Having settled the headwaters of the Volga, the Slavs became neighbors of the Volga Bulgarians. They lived in the territory of modern Tatarstan. The Arabs considered them to be the most northern people in the world, professing Islam. The capital of the Volga Bulgarians was the city of Great Bulgar. His fortress has survived to this day. Military clashes between the Volga Bulgarians and the Eastern Slavs began already during the existence of a single centralized Rus, when its society ceased to be strictly tribal. Conflicts alternated with periods of peace. At this time, profitable trade along the great river brought a significant income to both sides.

The settlement of the East Slavic tribes on their eastern borders also dug into the territory inhabited by the Khazars. This people, like the Volga Bulgarians, was Turkic. At the same time, the Khazars were Jews, which was quite unusual for the then Europe. They controlled significant areas from the Don to the Caspian. The heart of the Khazar Khaganate was in the lower reaches of the Volga, where near the modern Astrakhan there was the Khazar capital Itil.

Western neighbors

The western border of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs is Volyn. From there to the Dnieper lived dulebs - the union of several tribes. Archaeologists consider it to be Prague-Korczak culture. The union included Volhynians, Drevlyane, Dregovichi and Glade. In the 7th century they survived the Avar invasion.

The East Slavic tribes and their neighbors in this region lived in the steppe belt. West of the territory began Western Slavs, primarily Poles. Relations with them worsened after the creation of Russia and the adoption of Vladimir Svyatoslavich Orthodoxy. The Poles were baptized according to the Catholic rite. Between them and the Eastern Slavs, the struggle was fought not only for Volyn, but for Galicia.

Fighting the Pechenegs

Eastern Slavs during the existence of pagan tribes were never able to colonize the Black Sea region. Here ended the so-called "Great Steppe" - a steppe belt located in the heart of Eurasia. The Black Sea region attracted a variety of nomads. In the IX century Pechenegs settled there. These hordes lived between Rus, Bulgaria, Hungary and Alanya.

Fixed in the Black Sea, the Pechenegs destroyed the settled cultures in the steppes. Disappeared Transnistrian Slavs (tivertsy), as well as Don Alans. In the 10th century, numerous Russian-Pecheneg wars began. The East Slavic tribes and their neighbors could not get on with each other. The EGE gives a lot of attention to the Pechenegs, which is not surprising. These ferocious nomads lived only at the expense of robberies and did not give rest to the people of Kiev and Pereyaslavl. In the XI century, an even more formidable enemy, the Polovtsi, came to their place.

Slavs on the Don

Slavs began to massively master the Middle Valley at the turn of the VIII - IX centuries. At this time, there are monuments of the Borshev culture. Its most important attributes (ceramics, house-building, traces of ceremonies) show that the colonizers of the Don region originated from the south-west of Eastern Europe. Don Slavs were neither northerners nor vyatichami, as the researchers had assumed until recently. In the 9th century, as a result of infiltration of the population, a burial mourning rite spread among them, which was identical to Vyatichi.

In the X century, the Russian Slavs and their neighbors in this region survived the predatory raids of the Pechenegs. Many left Podonje and returned to Pohoje. That is why we can say that the Ryazan land was populated from two sides - from the southern steppes and from the west. The return of the Slavs to the Don pool occurred only in the XII century. In this direction in the south new colonizers reached the basin of the Bityug river and fully mastered the Voronezh river basin.

Next to Balts and Finno-Ugrians

The Slavic tribes of Radimichi and Vyatichi lived side by side with the Balts - inhabitants of modern Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Their cultures have acquired some common features. This is not surprising. In short, the East Slavic tribes and their neighbors, not only traded, but also influenced each other's ethnogenesis. For example, in the ancient settlements of Vyatich, archaeologists found cervical hryvnas unnatural for other related tribes.

A peculiar Slavic culture developed around Balts and Finno-Ugrians in the Pskov Lake region. There appeared long barren mounds, which replaced the soil burial grounds. These were built only by the local East Slavic tribes and their neighbors. The history of funeral rites allows experts to become more familiar with the past of the pagans. The ancestors of the Pskovians built land-based log buildings with stoves or clay-bitten ovens (contrary to the southern custom of semi-earth animals). They also engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture. It should be noted that the Pskov long burial mounds spread to the Polotsk Dwelling and the Smolensk Dnieper. In their regions, the influence of the Balts was particularly strong.

The influence of neighbors on religion and mythology

Like many other peoples of Eastern Europe, the Eastern Slavs lived according to the patriarchal-tribal system. Because of this, they created and maintained a cult of the family and a cult of funerals. Slavs were pagans. The most important gods of their pantheon are Perun, Mokosh and Veles. The Slavic mythology was influenced by the Celts and Iranians (Sarmatians, Scythians and Alans). These parallels were manifested in the images of the gods. So, Dazhbog is similar to the Celtic deity Dagda, and Mokosh is similar to Mach.

Many pagan Slavs and their neighbors had common beliefs. The history of the Baltic mythology left the names of the gods Perkūnas (Perun) and Velnyas (Veles). The motif of the world tree and the presence of dragons (Snake Gorynycha) brings Slavic mythology closer to the German-Scandinavian one. After a single community was divided into several tribes, beliefs began to acquire regional differences. For example, residents of the Oka and the Volga have experienced a unique influence of the mythology of Finno-Ugrians.

Slavery among the Eastern Slavs

According to the official version, slavery was widespread among the Eastern Slavs of the early Middle Ages. The captives were taken, as usual, in the war. For example, Arab writers of the time claimed that the Eastern Slavs took many slaves in wars with the Hungarians (and the Hungarians, in turn, took captive Slavs into slavery). This people was in a unique position. Hungarians by origin are Finno-Ugrians. They migrated to the west and occupied territories around the middle reaches of the Danube. Thus, the Hungarians were exactly between the southern, eastern and western Slavs. In this regard, there were regular wars.

Slavs could sell slaves in Byzantium, Volga Bulgaria or Khazaria. Although most of them consisted of foreigners captured in wars, in the VIII century there were slaves and among their own kindred. The Slav could get into slavery because of a crime or violation of moral norms.

Supporters of a different version defend their point of view, according to which slavery in Russia did not exist as such. On the contrary, in these lands slaves sought because here everyone was considered free, for the Slavic paganism did not sanctify the lack of freedom (dependence, slavery) and social inequality.

Varangians and Novgorod

The prototype of the Old Russian state arose in Novgorod. It was founded by the Ilmen Slovenes. Until the 9th century their history is known rather sketchily and badly. Next to them lived Vikings, who in the Western European annals were called Vikings.

Scandinavian konungs periodically conquered the Ilmen Slovaks and forced them to pay tribute. The inhabitants of Novgorod sought protection from foreign neighbors from other neighbors, for which they were called by their commanders to reign in their place. So on the banks of the Volkhov came Rurik. His successor Oleg conquered Kiev and laid the foundations of the Old Russian state.