Tribal unions - is that? Center of the tribal union of the Drevlyane

Tribal unions - this is one of the forms of organization of society, associated with the decomposition of the primitive communal system.

The reasons for their emergence were differences in religions and dialects of the Slavs, as well as differences in vision and election paths of historical development. Tribal unions are, so to speak, the first uncertain step towards the formation of statehood.

The first mention of tribal unions

The first mention of various tribes in the territory of present-day Russia, and then - Rus appears in the "Tale of Bygone Years." However, under the notion of the tribes at that time, the chronicler implied a little different: the Slavic communities were then divided according to territoriality, and each "tribe" was located on a certain territory and included several tribal communities. "The Tale of Bygone Years" is a chronicle that most accurately described how the tribal alliances of the state were spread across the territory of the present Slavonic countries.

Foundations and signs of tribal unions

Modern historians have identified a number of signs of a tribal alliance. Communities differed by:

• Name and even type of name (territorial or generic);
• Habitat;
• Customs and laws of ancestors (this concept included funeral and marriage ceremonies, as well as legends);
• Dialect.

Tribal unions are several settlements and one big city, which is a kind of capital of a particular group of people. For the glades, for example, Kiev was the main hail, and the Krivichi had Smolensk.

From the point of view of the political order, tribal alliances were dominated by the hereditary reign, that is, the transfer of government from the prince (great husband) to his heir or elder of the clan.

Military-tribal union as a kind of tribal unions

The military tribal union is a kind of tribal union with the possible association of several such communities or parts of the tribe to seize land and protect their territories from strangers. The political way of such associations can be designated by the term "military democracy".

A vivid example of a military-tribal alliance is the Lutichi, who lived in the territories of the present German federal states (the area of the Western Pomerania and Brandenburg). The centers of their association were Radogost and Arkona. The purpose of their alliance was to seize the rich lands. So, many territories of Denmark for many years paid tribute to the Lyutis.

And it was this tribal union at the end of the tenth century that opposed German colonization and led the uprising, thereby halting the process for almost two hundred years.

The religion of the Lyutis, as well as most of the Slavic tribes, was paganism. It is not known what time period the given military-tribal alliance would have caused fear in all nearby regions, were it not for the internecine war between the tribes entering into its composition in the 11th century. After these events, a powerful and influential alliance quickly collapsed.

The development of tribal unions in Europe

By the beginning of the 7th century AD, the disunion of the Slavs began throughout Europe. The Slavs, who formed new tribal alliances, could:

• Keep the old name of the tribe;
• Name your union by the variety of places of settlement or taking into account the peculiarities of the territory;
• Give the name of the association by the name of the head of the clan.

Slavs settled more often between the two river systems, which were a kind of border of one union. Also, such resettlement was very literate in terms of agricultural development. In the absence of rivers in some areas, swamps, difficult-to-reach forests or mountains could serve as boundaries.

If conventionally divided into regions tribal union of the Eastern Slavs, it will be 4 separate groups:

• Northern tribal unions, which can include Slovenes, Krivich and Polotsk;
• Central, to which we refer Vyatichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi;
• Western, consisting of white Croats, Volhynians and Bujan;
• Southern tribal alliances, including in their composition northerners, drevlyans, glades and ulicha.

The main tribal alliances of the Eastern Slavs

, названия которых на слуху у каждого образованного человека. Glade, drevlyane, vyatichi - a tribal alliance , whose names are heard by every educated person. These are the unions that the schoolchildren paid special attention to in the process of studying history, and which, perhaps, are best remembered. Of course, the tribal unions were much larger. By the 10th century, their number had grown and fragmented so much that even the neighboring alliances could hardly understand each other's dialect. The most widely reported information about such tribes:

• Boujans;
• Volhynians;
• Vyatichi;
• Drevlyane;
• Dregovichi;
• Dulebes;
• The Ilmen Slovenes;
• Krivichi;
• Glade;
• Rhodemies;
• Northerners;
• Tivertsy;
• Ulichi.

The main activities of the Eastern Slavs of tribal unions

Undoubtedly, the basis of the activities of people of that time was agriculture. Glade, drevlyane, vyatichi - a tribal alliances that cultivated in their territories a lot of grain and garden crops. Among them were wheat, buckwheat, rye. Thriving turned out turnips, carrots, radishes, cabbages. In the tribes have already used for the conduct of agricultural activities grain loaves, millstones, sickles and hoes.

In the steppe regions, not plowed land was used, but rather farming, somewhat similar to slash-and-burn: the areas for growing crops were cleared by burning and cutting down plants, and ash was a natural fertilizer.

Eastern Slavic tribes were engaged in hunting, fishing, beekeeping and cattle breeding. Craftsmanship and trade flourished. The trade was facilitated by the presence of such a powerful navigable artery as the Dnieper.

Peculiarities of the way of unions on the example of Drevlyane

Drevlyane - tribal alliance, which occupied the territory of modern Ukrainian Polissya and Right-Bank Ukraine. In the territory of this tribal union, there were 4 rivers:

• To clean.
• Already.
• Shift.
• Black grouse.

The Dregovici, the Volhynians and the Buzhans were neighbors with the Drevlyans. The chroniclers explain the name "drevlyane" by the presence of many forests on the territories of the union and translated as "forest people".

The center of the Drevlyan tribal union is the town of Korosten. In general, the Drevlyan tribal alliance consisted of 24 settlements.

The Drevlyane people became famous thanks to the "Tale of Bygone Years" and the struggle described in detail against it in the Kyivan Rus and their tribute. For the first time the rebellious tribe obeyed Oleg's tribute, but after his death, the Drevlyans refused to pay, and Prince Igor, who tried to subdue them, was taken prisoner and brutally killed, tearing in two. Later the princes of the Drevlyan tribe tried to woo their widow.

In the Kievan Rus Drevlyane entered under Princess Olga, avenged her husband and buried alive Drevlyanskih ambassadors. However, the dowager princess did not stop there, and in the same "Tale of Bygone Years" Nestor describes the burning of the dorrevian capital of Korosteni: burning pig pieces with sulfur were attached to pigeons returning to the Drevlyan center. During the fire, more than four thousand people died. This was the decisive moment, after which the tribal union of the Drevlyans to Kiev joined.

Archaeologists and to this day find burial mounds with graves of Drevlyans: a peculiarity of their burial was that after the death of the deceased was cremated, the remains were poured into a clay urn and buried in the lower part of the mound.

Conclusion

Tribal unions - this concept, and to this day is of interest to historians and ethnographers. It occupies a certain niche in the studies of modern archaeologists and linguists.