We know from history books that the Slavs are one of the largest ethnic communities in the Old World. However, it is not completely clear who they were or where they came from. Let's try to study this meager information bit by bit, and also dwell on more reliable facts about the life, way of life, culture and beliefs of these tribes.

Who are they?

Let's try to find out who the Slavs are, where they came from to Europe and why they left their homeland. There are several versions on this issue. Some historians believe that they did not come from anywhere, but lived here from the moment the world was created. Other scholars consider them to be descendants of the Scythians or Sarmatians, others refer to other peoples that came out of the depths of Asia, including the Aryans. But it is unrealistic to draw exact conclusions, each hypothesis has its drawbacks and white spots.

It is generally accepted to consider the Slavs an Indo-European people who ended up in the Old World during the Great Migration. He lost contact with his relatives due to the long distance and went his own way of development. But the theory has many adherents that this ethnic community came from Asia after the Flood, assimilating with the locals along the way and founding centers of civilizations - the Etruscans, Greeks and Romans, and then settled the Balkans, the banks of the Vistula, the Dniester and the Dnieper. believes that the Slavs came to Russia after

The name of the ethnic group causes no less controversy. Some researchers are convinced that the Slavs mean “literate people who speak the word”, others translate the name as “glorious” or look for its origins in the name of the Dnieper - Slavutych.

The main occupations of our ancestors

So, we found out that the Slavs are nomadic tribes that have settled. They were united by a common language, beliefs and traditions. And what were the occupations of the Slavs? There are no options, of course, this is agriculture. In the forested areas, the site had to be prepared first by cutting down the trees and uprooting the stumps. In the forest-steppe regions, grass was first burned out, and then the earth was fertilized with ashes, loosened and planted seeds. Of the tools used plow, plow, harrow. From agricultural crops, they grew millet, rye, wheat, barley, peas, hemp, and flax.

The remaining occupations of the Slavs were aimed at the production of tools for agriculture (blacksmithing), as well as for household needs (pottery). Animal husbandry was highly developed: our ancestors bred sheep, horses, goats, pigs. In addition, they used the gifts of the forest: they collected mushrooms, berries, honey from forest bees, hunted wild birds and animals. This is what they traded with their neighbors, and marten skins are considered to be the first money.

culture

The quiet life of the Slavs favored the development of culture. Agriculture remained the main occupation of the community, but arts and crafts (weaving, jewelry, wood, bone and metal carving, cooperage, leatherwork) also developed. They also had the beginnings of writing.

Our ancestors lived in communities, they made important decisions at a general meeting. The community owned meadows, arable land, and pastures. But each person could have their own property and livestock. At the head of the tribal union was the prince, who relied on the boyars-patrimonials. These were respected people who were elected during the national assembly, then they turned into local nobility.

In everyday life, the Slavs were unpretentious, easily endured the vagaries of the weather, hunger. But they remained proud, freedom-loving, brave and loyal to their community, their family. The guest was always greeted with bread and salt, offering the best that was available in the house.

Restless neighbors

The Slavs settled between Europe and Asia, in lands with a unique supply of resources and fertile soil. They occupied a vast territory almost painlessly, since there was enough space for everyone. But the riches of the land attracted robbers. The restless neighbors of the Slavs - nomadic Avars, Khazars, Pechenegs and Polovtsy - constantly raided the villages. Our ancestors had to unite against them and beat the uninvited guests together. This taught them military science, constant readiness for danger, frequent change of habitat, endurance. But the Slavs themselves were non-belligerent, friendly, they respected the rights of others, they never had slaves.

Instead of a conclusion

Before Prince Vladimir baptized Russia, the Slavs were pagans. They worshiped the forces of nature, built temples and created idols, made sacrifices (not human) to them. The cult of ancestors, including the dead, was especially developed. Christianity allowed the ancient Russian state to become closer to Europe, but at the same time it stole a lot. Objects of material, spiritual and cultural value were destroyed, what distinguished the Slavs from other peoples was lost. A certain symbiosis appeared, which, although it had elements of the previous culture, was formed under the influence of Byzantium. But that, as they say, is another story...

Settlement of the Slavs. Slavs, Wends - the earliest news about the Slavs under the name of Wends, or Venets, dates back to the end of 1-2 thousand AD. e. and belong to Roman and Greek writers - Pliny the Elder, Publius Cornelius Tacitus and Ptolemy Claudius. According to these authors, the Wends lived along the Baltic coast between the Stetinsky Gulf, into which the Odra flows, and the Danzing Gulf, into which the Vistula flows; along the Vistula from its headwaters in the Carpathian Mountains to the coast of the Baltic Sea. The name Veneda comes from the Celtic vindos, which means "white".

By the middle of the VI century. Wends were divided into two main groups: Sklavins (Sclaves) and Antes. As for the later self-name "Slavs", its exact meaning is not known. There are suggestions that the term "Slavs" contains an opposition to another ethnic term - the Germans, derived from the word "mute", that is, speaking an incomprehensible language. The Slavs were divided into three groups:
- oriental;
- southern;
- Western.

Slavic peoples

1. Ilmen Slovenes, the center of which was Novgorod the Great, which stood on the banks of the Volkhov River, which flowed from Lake Ilmen and on whose lands there were many other cities, which is why the Scandinavians neighboring them called the possessions of Slovenes "gardarika", that is, "the land of cities." These were: Ladoga and Beloozero, Staraya Russa and Pskov. The Ilmen Slovenes got their name from the name of Lake Ilmen, which is in their possession and was also called the Slovenian Sea. For residents remote from real seas, the lake, 45 versts long and about 35 wide, seemed huge, which is why it bore its second name - the sea.

2. Krivichi, who lived in the interfluve of the Dnieper, Volga and Western Dvina, around Smolensk and Izborsk, Yaroslavl and Rostov the Great, Suzdal and Murom. Their name came from the name of the founder of the tribe, Prince Kriv, who apparently received the nickname Krivoy, from a natural deficiency. Subsequently, the people called Krivich a person who is insincere, deceitful, capable of prevaricating, from whom you will not expect the truth, but you will encounter falsehood. Moscow subsequently arose on the lands of the Krivichi, but you will read about this later.

3. Polochans settled on the Polot River, at its confluence with the Western Dvina. At the confluence of these two rivers stood the main city of the tribe - Polotsk, or Polotsk, the name of which is also produced by the hydronym: "the river along the border with the Latvian tribes" - lats, years. Dregovichi, Radimichi, Vyatichi and northerners lived to the south and southeast of the Polochans.

4. Dregovichi lived on the banks of the river Accept, getting their name from the words "dregva" and "dryagovina", meaning "swamp". Here were the cities of Turov and Pinsk.

5. Radimichi, who lived in the interfluve of the Dnieper and Sozha, were called by the name of their first prince Radim, or Radimir.

6. The Vyatichi were the easternmost ancient Russian tribe, having received their name, like the Radimichi, on behalf of their progenitor, Prince Vyatko, which was an abbreviated name Vyacheslav. Old Ryazan was located in the land of the Vyatichi.

7. The northerners occupied the rivers of the Desna, the Seimas and the Courts and in ancient times were the northernmost East Slavic tribe. When the Slavs settled as far as Novgorod the Great and Beloozero, they retained their former name, although its original meaning was lost. In their lands there were cities: Novgorod Seversky, Listven and Chernigov.

8. The meadows that inhabited the lands around Kyiv, Vyshgorod, Rodnya, Pereyaslavl were called so from the word "field". The cultivation of the fields became their main occupation, which led to the development of agriculture, cattle breeding and animal husbandry. The glades went down in history as a tribe, to a greater extent than others, contributing to the development of ancient Russian statehood. The neighbors of the glades in the south were Rus, Tivertsy and Ulichi, in the north - the Drevlyans and in the west - the Croats, Volynians and Buzhans.

9. Russia is the name of one, far from the largest East Slavic tribe, which, because of its name, became the most famous both in the history of mankind and in historical science, because in disputes over its origin, scientists and publicists broke many copies and spilled rivers of ink . Many eminent scientists - lexicographers, etymologists and historians - derive this name from the name of the Normans, Russ, which was almost universally accepted in the 9th-10th centuries. The Normans, known to the Eastern Slavs as the Varangians, conquered Kyiv and the surrounding lands around 882. During their conquests, which took place for 300 years - from the 8th to the 11th centuries - and covered all of Europe - from England to Sicily and from Lisbon to Kyiv - they sometimes left their name behind the conquered lands. For example, the territory conquered by the Normans in the north of the Frankish kingdom was called Normandy. Opponents of this point of view believe that the name of the tribe comes from the hydronym - the river Ros, from which later the whole country began to be called Russia. And in the XI-XII centuries, Rus began to be called the lands of Rus, glades, northerners and Radimichi, some territories inhabited by streets and Vyatichi. Supporters of this point of view consider Russia no longer as a tribal or ethnic union, but as a political state formation.

10. Tivertsy occupied spaces along the banks of the Dniester, from its middle course to the mouth of the Danube and the shores of the Black Sea. The most probable seems to be their origin, their names from the river Tivr, as the ancient Greeks called the Dniester. Their center was the city of Cherven on the western bank of the Dniester. The Tivertsy bordered on the nomadic tribes of the Pechenegs and Polovtsians and, under their blows, retreated to the north, mixing with the Croats and Volynians.

11. The streets were the southern neighbors of the Tivertsy, occupying lands in the Lower Dnieper, on the banks of the Bug and the Black Sea coast. Their main city was Peresechen. Together with the Tivertsy, they retreated to the north, where they mixed with the Croats and Volynians.

12. The Drevlyans lived along the Teterev, Uzh, Uborot and Sviga rivers, in Polissya and on the right bank of the Dnieper. Their main city was Iskorosten on the Uzh River, and besides, there were other cities - Ovruch, Gorodsk, several others, whose names we do not know, but their traces remained in the form of settlements. The Drevlyans were the most hostile East Slavic tribe in relation to the Polans and their allies, who formed the Old Russian state with its center in Kyiv. They were decisive enemies of the first Kyiv princes, even killed one of them - Igor Svyatoslavovich, for which the prince of the Drevlyans Mal, in turn, was killed by Igor's widow, Princess Olga. The Drevlyans lived in dense forests, getting their name from the word "tree" - a tree.

13. Croats who lived around the city of Przemysl on the river. San, called themselves white Croats, in contrast to the tribe of the same name with them, who lived in the Balkans. The name of the tribe is derived from the ancient Iranian word "shepherd, guardian of cattle", which may indicate its main occupation - cattle breeding.

14. The Volynians were a tribal association formed on the territory where the Duleb tribe had previously lived. Volynians settled on both banks of the Western Bug and in the upper reaches of the Pripyat. Their main city was Cherven, and after Volyn was conquered by the Kievan princes, a new city, Vladimir-Volynsky, was set up on the Luga River in 988, which gave its name to the Vladimir-Volyn principality that formed around it.

15. In addition to the Volhynians, the Buzhans, located on the banks of the Southern Bug, entered the tribal association that arose in the habitat of the Dulebs. There is an opinion that the Volhynians and Buzhans were one tribe, and their independent names came about only due to different habitats. According to written foreign sources, the Buzhans occupied 230 "cities" - most likely, these were fortified settlements, and the Volynians - 70. Be that as it may, these figures indicate that Volyn and the Bug region were rather densely populated.

South Slavs

The southern Slavs included Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Zakhlumlians, Bulgarians. These Slavic peoples were strongly influenced by the Byzantine Empire, whose lands they settled after predatory raids. In the future, some of them, having mixed with the Turkic-speaking Kachevniks, the Bulgarians, gave rise to the Bulgarian kingdom, the predecessor of modern Bulgaria.

The Eastern Slavs included Polans, Drevlyans, Northerners, Dregovichi, Radimichi, Krivichi, Polochans, Vyatichi, Slovenes, Buzhans, Volhynians, Dulebs, Ulichs, Tivertsy. The advantageous position on the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks accelerated the development of these tribes. It was this branch of the Slavs that gave rise to the most numerous Slavic peoples - Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.

Western Slavs are Pomeranians, Obodrichs, Vagrs, Polabs, Smolins, Glinians, Lyutichs, Velets, Ratari, Drevans, Ruyans, Lusatians, Czechs, Slovaks, Koshubs, Slovenians, Moravans, Poles. Military clashes with the Germanic tribes forced them to retreat to the east. The obodrich tribe was especially militant, bringing bloody sacrifices to Perun.

neighboring nations

As for the lands and peoples bordering on the Eastern Slavs, this picture looked like this: Finno-Ugric tribes lived in the north: Cheremis, Chud Zavolochskaya, all, Korela, Chud. These tribes were mainly engaged in hunting and fishing and were at a lower level of development. Gradually, during the settlement of the Slavs to the northeast, most of these peoples were assimilated. To the credit of our ancestors, it should be noted that this process was bloodless and was not accompanied by mass beatings of the conquered tribes. Typical representatives of the Finno-Ugric peoples are the Estonians - the ancestors of modern Estonians.

The Balto-Slavic tribes lived in the northwest: Kors, Zemigola, Zhmud, Yatvingians and Prussians. These tribes were engaged in hunting, fishing and agriculture. They were famous as brave warriors, whose raids terrified their neighbors. They worshiped the same gods as the Slavs, bringing them numerous bloody sacrifices.

In the west, the Slavic world bordered on the Germanic tribes. The relationship between them was very tense and was accompanied by frequent wars. Western Slavs were pushed east, although almost all of East Germany was once inhabited by Slavic tribes of Lusatians and Sorbs.

In the southwest, the Slavic lands bordered on Byzantium. Its Thracian provinces were inhabited by a Romanized Greek-speaking population. Numerous kachevniks settled here, coming from the steppes of Eurasia. Such were the Ugrians, the ancestors of the modern Hungarians, the Goths, the Heruli, the Huns and other nomads.

In the south, in the boundless Eurasian steppes of the Black Sea region, numerous tribes of cattle breeders roamed. Here passed the path of the great migration of peoples. Often, Slavic lands also suffered from their raids. Some tribes, such as Torks or black heels, were allies of the Slavs, others - the Pechenegs, Guzes, Kipchaks, Polovtsy were at enmity with our ancestors.

In the east, the Slavs were adjacent to the Burtases, the related Mordovians and the Volga-Kama Bulgars. The main occupation of the Bulgars was trade along the Volga River with the Arab Caliphate in the south and the Permian tribes in the north. In the lower reaches of the Volga, the lands of the Khazar Kaganate with its capital in the city of Itil were located. The Khazars were at enmity with the Slavs until Prince Svyatoslav destroyed this state.

Occupations and life

The oldest Slavic settlements excavated by archaeologists date back to the 5th-4th centuries BC. The finds obtained during the excavations allow us to reconstruct the picture of people's life: their occupations, way of life, religious beliefs and customs.

The Slavs did not strengthen their settlements in any way and lived in buildings slightly deepened into the soil, or in ground houses, the walls and roof of which were supported on pillars dug into the ground. Pins, brooches, clasps, rings were found on the settlements and in the graves. The discovered ceramics are very diverse - pots, bowls, jugs, goblets, amphoras...

The most characteristic feature of the culture of the Slavs of that time was a kind of funeral ritual: the dead relatives were burned by the Slavs, and heaps of burnt bones were covered with large bell-shaped vessels.

Later, the Slavs, as before, did not fortify their settlements, but sought to build them in hard-to-reach places - in swamps or on high banks of rivers and lakes. They settled mainly in places with fertile soils. We already know much more about their way of life and culture than about their predecessors. They lived in ground pillar houses or semi-dugouts, where stone or adobe hearths and stoves were arranged. They lived in semi-dugouts in the cold season, and in ground buildings - in the summer. In addition to dwellings, household structures and cellar pits were also found.

These tribes were actively engaged in agriculture. Archaeologists during excavations more than once found iron coulters. Often there were grains of wheat, rye, barley, millet, oats, buckwheat, peas, hemp - such crops were cultivated by the Slavs at that time. They also raised livestock - cows, horses, sheep, goats. Among the Wends there were many artisans who worked in iron and pottery workshops. The set of things found in the settlements is rich: various ceramics, brooches, clasps, knives, spears, arrows, swords, scissors, pins, beads...

The funeral ritual was also simple: the burnt bones of the dead were usually poured into a pit, which was then buried, and a simple stone was placed over the grave to mark it.

Thus, the history of the Slavs can be traced far into the depths of time. The formation of the Slavic tribes took a long time, and this process was very complex and confusing.

Archaeological sources from the middle of the first millennium AD are successfully supplemented by written ones. This allows us to more fully imagine the life of our distant ancestors. Written sources report about the Slavs from the first centuries of our era. They are known at first under the name of the Wends; later, the authors of the 6th century, Procopius of Caesarea, Mauritius the Strategist and Jordanes, give a detailed description of the way of life, occupations and customs of the Slavs, calling them Wends, Antes and Slavs. “These tribes, the Sclavins and the Antes, are not ruled by one person, but since ancient times they have been living in the rule of the people, and therefore they consider happiness and misfortune in life to be a common thing,” wrote the Byzantine writer and historian Procopius of Caesarea. Procopius lived in the first half of the 6th century. He was the closest adviser to the commander Belisarius, who led the army of Emperor Justinian I. Together with the troops, Procopius visited many countries, endured the hardships of campaigns, experienced victories and defeats. However, his main business was not to participate in battles, not to recruit mercenaries and not to supply the army. He studied the manners, customs, social order and military methods of the peoples surrounding Byzantium. Procopius also carefully collected stories about the Slavs, and he especially carefully analyzed and described the military tactics of the Slavs, devoting many pages of his famous work “The History of the Wars of Justinian” to it. The slave-owning Byzantine Empire sought to conquer neighboring lands and peoples. The Byzantine rulers also wanted to enslave the Slavic tribes. In their dreams, they saw obedient peoples, regularly paying taxes, supplying slaves, bread, furs, timber, precious metals and stones to Constantinople. At the same time, the Byzantines did not want to fight the enemies themselves, but sought to quarrel them among themselves and, with the help of some, suppress others. In response to attempts to enslave them, the Slavs repeatedly invaded the empire and devastated entire regions. The Byzantine commanders understood that it was difficult to fight the Slavs, and therefore they carefully studied their military affairs, strategy and tactics, and looked for vulnerabilities.

At the end of the 6th and beginning of the 7th century, another ancient author lived, who wrote the essay “Strategikon”. For a long time it was thought that this treatise was created by Emperor Mauritius. However, later scientists came to the conclusion that the "Strategikon" was written not by the emperor, but by one of his generals or advisers. This work is like a textbook for the military. During this period, the Slavs increasingly disturbed Byzantium, so the author paid a lot of attention to them, teaching his readers how to deal with strong northern neighbors.

“They are numerous, hardy,” wrote the author of the “Strategikon”, “they easily endure heat, cold, rain, nakedness, lack of food. They have a large variety of livestock and fruits of the earth. They settle in forests, near impassable rivers, swamps and lakes, arrange many exits in their dwellings due to the dangers that happen to them. They love to fight with their enemies in places overgrown with dense forests, in gorges, on cliffs, they profitably use ambushes, surprise attacks, tricks, day and night, inventing many different ways. They are also experienced in crossing rivers, surpassing all people in this respect. They courageously withstand being in the water, while they hold in their mouths specially made large reeds hollowed out inside, reaching the surface of the water, while lying on their backs at the bottom of the river they breathe with the help of them ... Each is armed with two small spears, some also have shields . They use wooden bows and small arrows dipped in poison."

The Byzantine was especially struck by the love of freedom of the Slavs. “The tribes of the Antes are similar in their way of life,” he noted, “in their customs, in their love of freedom; they can in no way be persuaded into slavery or submission in their own country.” The Slavs, according to him, are friendly to foreigners arriving in their country, if they come with friendly intentions. They do not take revenge on their enemies either, keeping them in captivity for a short time, and usually offer them either to leave for a ransom to their homeland, or to remain to live among the Slavs in the position of free people.

From the Byzantine chronicles the names of some Antes and Slavic leaders are known - Dobrita, Ardagast, Musokia, Progost. Under their leadership, numerous Slavic troops threatened the power of Byzantium. Apparently, it was to such leaders that the famous Ant treasures from the treasures found in the Middle Dnieper belonged. The treasures included expensive Byzantine items made of gold and silver - goblets, jugs, dishes, bracelets, swords, buckles. All this was decorated with the richest ornaments, images of animals. In some treasures, the weight of gold things exceeded 20 kilograms. Such treasures became the prey of the Antes leaders in distant campaigns against Byzantium.

Written sources and archaeological materials testify that the Slavs were engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture, cattle breeding, fishing, hunting animals, picking berries, mushrooms, and roots. Bread has always been difficult for a working person, but slash-and-burn agriculture was perhaps the most difficult. The main tool of the farmer who took up the undercut was not a plow, not a plow, not a harrow, but an ax. Having chosen a site of a high forest, the trees were thoroughly cut down, and for a year they dried up on the vine. Then, having dumped the dry trunks, they burned the plot - they arranged a raging fiery "fall". They uprooted the unburned remains of thick stumps, leveled the ground, loosened it with a plow. They sowed directly into the ashes, scattering the seeds with their hands. In the first 2-3 years, the harvest was very high, the land fertilized with ash gave birth generously. But then it was depleted and it was necessary to look for a new site, where the whole difficult process of cutting was repeated again. There was no other way to grow bread in the forest zone then - the whole land was covered with large and small forests, from which for a long time - for centuries - the peasant conquered the arable land piece by piece.

The Ants had their own metalworking craft. This is evidenced by the casting molds found near the city of Vladimir-Volynsky, clay spoons, with the help of which molten metal was poured. The Ants were actively engaged in trade, exchanging furs, honey, wax for various decorations, expensive dishes, and weapons. They swam not only along the rivers, they also went out to sea. In the 7th-8th centuries, Slavic squads on boats plowed the waters of the Black and other seas.

The oldest Russian chronicle - "The Tale of Bygone Years" tells us about the gradual settlement of Slavic tribes over vast areas of Europe.

“In the same way, those Slavs came and settled along the Dnieper and called themselves a glade, and other Drevlyans, since they live in forests; while others sat down between Pripyat and the Dvina and were called Dregovichi ... ”Further, the chronicle speaks of the Polochans, Slovenes, northerners, Krivichi, Radimichi, Vyatichi. "And so the Slavic language spread and the letter was called Slavic."

The Polyans settled on the Middle Dnieper and later became one of the most powerful East Slavic tribes. A city arose in their land, which later became the first capital of the Old Russian state - Kyiv.

So, by the 9th century, the Slavs settled in the vast expanses of Eastern Europe. Within their society, based on patriarchal-tribal foundations, the prerequisites for the creation of a feudal state gradually matured.

As for the life of the Slavic eastern tribes, the initial chronicler left us the following news about him: "... each lived with his own family, separately, in his own places, each owned his own family." We have now almost lost the meaning of gender, we still have derivative words - kindred, kinship, relative, we have a limited concept of the family, but our ancestors did not know the family, they knew only the clan, which meant the entire set of degrees of relationship, both the closest and the most remote; clan also meant the totality of relatives and each of them; Initially, our ancestors did not understand any social connection outside the clan, and therefore used the word "clan" also in the sense of a compatriot, in the sense of a people; the word tribe was used to denote ancestral lines. The unity of the clan, the connection of the tribes was supported by a single ancestor, these ancestors had different names - elders, zhupans, lords, princes, etc.; the last name, apparently, was especially in use among the Russian Slavs and, according to word production, has a generic meaning, meaning the eldest in the family, the ancestor, the father of the family.

The vastness and virginity of the country inhabited by the Eastern Slavs gave relatives the opportunity to move out at the first new displeasure, which, of course, should have weakened the strife; there was plenty of room, at least there was no need to quarrel over it. But it could happen that the special conveniences of the area tied relatives to it and did not allow them to move out so easily - this could especially happen in cities, places chosen by the family for special convenience and fenced, fortified by the common efforts of relatives and entire generations; consequently, in the cities, the strife must have been stronger. About the urban life of the Eastern Slavs, from the words of the chronicler, one can only conclude that these enclosed places were the abode of one or several separate clans. Kyiv, according to the chronicler, was the dwelling of the family; when describing the internecine strife that preceded the calling of the princes, the chronicler says that the clan stood up against the clan; from this it is clearly seen how developed the social structure was, it is clear that before the calling of the princes it had not yet crossed the tribal line; the first sign of communication between separate clans living together should have been common gatherings, councils, veche, but at these gatherings we also see after some elders who have all the meaning; that these vechas, gatherings of elders, ancestors could not satisfy the social need that arose, the need of the outfit, could not create ties between the contiguous clans, give them unity, weaken the tribal identity, tribal selfishness - the proof is tribal strife, ending in the calling of princes.

Despite the fact that the original Slavic city is of great historical importance: city life, like life together, was much higher than the scattered life of childbirth in special places, in cities more frequent clashes, more frequent strife should have rather led to the realization of the need for an outfit, a government start . The question remains: what was the relationship between these cities and the population living outside them, was this population independent of the city or subordinated to it? It is natural to assume that the city was the first stay of settlers, from where the population spread throughout the country: the clan appeared in a new country, settled in a convenient place, fenced off for greater security, and then, as a result of the reproduction of its members, filled the entire surrounding country; if we assume the eviction from the cities of the younger members of the clan or clans living there, then it is necessary to assume connection and subordination, subordination, of course, tribal - younger to elders; we shall see clear traces of this subordination later in the relations of the new towns or suburbs to the old towns from which they received their population.

But besides these tribal relations, the connection and subordination of the rural population to the urban one could also be strengthened for other reasons: the rural population was scattered, the urban population was copulated, and therefore the latter always had the opportunity to reveal its influence over the former; in case of danger, the rural population could find protection in the city, necessarily adjoined the latter, and for this reason alone could not maintain an equal position with it. We find an indication of such an attitude of cities towards the district population in the annals: for example, it is said that the family of the founders of Kyiv held a reign among the meadows. But on the other hand, we cannot assume great accuracy, certainty in these relations, because even after, in historical time, as we will see, the relationship of the suburbs to the older city did not differ in certainty, and therefore, speaking about the subordination of villages to cities, about the connection of clans between themselves, their dependence on one center, we must strictly distinguish this subordination, connection, dependence in pre-Rurik times from subordination, connection and dependence, which began to assert themselves little by little after the calling of the Varangian princes; if the villagers considered themselves younger than the townspeople, then it is easy to understand to what extent they recognized themselves as dependent on the latter, what significance the foreman of the city had for them.

There were, apparently, few cities: we know that the Slavs liked to live absent-mindedly, according to clans, to which forests and swamps served instead of cities; all the way from Novgorod to Kyiv, along the course of a large river, Oleg found only two cities - Smolensk and Lyubech; the Drevlyans mention cities other than Korosten; in the south there should have been more cities, there was more need for protection from the invasion of wild hordes, and because the place was open; the Tivertsy and Uglichs had towns that survived even in the time of the chronicler; in the middle lane - among the Dregovichi, Radimichi, Vyatichi - there is no mention of cities.

In addition to the advantages that a city (i.e., a fenced place within whose walls one numerous or several separate clans live) could have over the district scattered population, it could, of course, happen that one clan, the strongest in material resources, received an advantage over other clans. that the prince, the head of one clan, in his personal qualities, got the upper hand over the princes of other clans. Thus, among the southern Slavs, of whom the Byzantines say that they have many princelings and no single sovereign, sometimes there are princes who, by their personal merits, stand out ahead, such as, for example, the famous Lavritas. So in our well-known story about Olga's revenge among the Drevlyans, Prince Mal is first in the foreground, but we note that here it is still impossible to accept Mal as the prince of the entire Drevlyan land, we can accept that he was only the prince of Korosten; that only Korostenians under the predominant influence of Mal took part in the murder of Igor, while the rest of the Drevlyans took their side after a clear unity of benefits, this is directly indicated by the legend: “Olga, rush with her son to Iskorosten city, as if they had killed her husband byahu.” Mal, as the main instigator, was also sentenced to marry Olga; the existence of other princes, other rulers of the land, is indicated by the legend in the words of the Drevlyansk ambassadors: “Our princes are kind, even they have destroyed the essence of the Derevsky land,” this is also evidenced by the silence that the chronicle keeps about Mala throughout the entire struggle with Olga.

Tribal life stipulated common, inseparable property, and, conversely, community, inseparability of property served as the strongest bond for members of the clan, the separation also required the termination of the clan connection.

Foreign writers say that the Slavs lived in crappy huts, located at a great distance from each other, and often changed their place of residence. Such fragility and frequent change of dwellings were the result of the constant danger that threatened the Slavs both from their own tribal strife and from the invasions of alien peoples. That is why the Slavs led the way of life that Mauritius speaks of: “They have inaccessible dwellings in forests, near rivers, swamps and lakes; in their houses they arrange many exits just in case; they hide the necessary things under the ground, having nothing superfluous outside, but living like robbers.

The same cause, acting for a long time, produced the same effects; life in constant expectation of enemy attacks continued for the Eastern Slavs even when they were already under the power of the princes of Rurik's house, the Pechenegs and Polovtsy replaced the Avars, Kozars and other barbarians, the princely strife replaced the strife of the clans that rebelled against each other, therefore, could not disappear and the habit of changing places, running from the enemy; that is why the people of Kiev tell the Yaroslavichs that if the princes do not protect them from the wrath of their elder brother, they will leave Kyiv and go to Greece.

The Polovtsy were replaced by the Tatars, princely feuds continued in the north, as soon as princely feuds begin, the people leave their homes, and with the cessation of strife, they return back; in the south, incessant raids strengthen the Cossacks, and after that, in the north, dispersing scattered from any kind of violence and severity was nothing for the inhabitants; at the same time, it must be added that the nature of the country greatly favored such migrations. The habit of being content with little and always being ready to leave the dwelling supported in the Slav an aversion to an alien yoke, as Mauritius noted.

Tribal life, which stipulated disunity, enmity and, consequently, weakness between the Slavs, also necessarily determined the manner of waging war: not having one common leader and being at enmity with each other, the Slavs avoided any correct battles, where they would have to fight with united forces on flat and open areas. They loved to fight enemies in narrow, impassable places, if they attacked, they attacked in a raid, suddenly, by cunning, they loved to fight in the forests, where they lured the enemy to flight, and then, returning, inflicted a defeat on him. That is why the emperor Mauritius advises attacking the Slavs in winter, when it is inconvenient for them to hide behind bare trees, snow prevents the movement of the fleeing, and then they have little food.

The Slavs were especially distinguished by the art of swimming and hiding in rivers, where they could stay much longer than people of another tribe, they kept under water, lying on their backs and holding a hollowed out reed in their mouths, the top of which went out along the surface of the river and thus conducted air to the hidden swimmer. The armament of the Slavs consisted of two small spears, some had shields, hard and very heavy, they also used wooden bows and small arrows smeared with poison, very effective if a skilled doctor did not give an ambulance to the wounded.

We read in Procopius that the Slavs, entering the battle, did not put on armor, some did not even have a cloak or shirt, only ports; In general, Procopius does not praise the Slavs for their neatness, he says that, like the Massagetae, they are covered with dirt and all kinds of uncleanness. Like all nations living in the simplicity of life, the Slavs were healthy, strong, easily endured cold and heat, lack of clothing and food.

Contemporaries say about the appearance of the ancient Slavs that they all look alike: they are tall, stately, their skin is not completely white, their hair is long, dark blond, their face is reddish

Dwelling of the Slavs

In the south, in the Kyiv land and around it, during the time of the Old Russian state, the main type of dwelling was a semi-dugout. They began to build it by digging a large square pit-pit about a meter deep. Then, along the walls of the pit, they began to build a frame, or walls of thick blocks, reinforced with pillars dug into the ground. The log house also rose from the ground by a meter, and the total height of the future dwelling with the aboveground and underground parts thus reached 2-2.5 meters. On the south side, an entrance was arranged in the log house with earthen steps or a ladder leading into the depths of the dwelling. Having put a log house, they took up the roof. It was made gable, like in modern huts. They were densely covered with boards, a layer of straw was applied on top, and then a thick layer of earth. The walls that towered above the ground were also sprinkled with soil taken out of the pit, so that wooden structures were not visible from the outside. Earthen backfill helped keep the house warm, retained water, protected from fires. The floor in the semi-dugout was made of well-trodden clay, but boards were usually not laid.

Having finished with the construction, they took up another important job - they were building a furnace. They arranged it in the depths, in the corner farthest from the entrance. They made stone stoves, if there was any stone in the vicinity of the city, or clay. Usually they were rectangular, about a meter by a meter in size, or round, gradually tapering upwards. Most often in such a stove there was only one hole - a firebox through which firewood was laid and smoke went straight into the room, warming it. On top of the stove, sometimes an earthenware brazier was arranged, similar to a huge clay pan tightly connected to the stove itself - food was cooked on it. And sometimes, instead of a brazier, a hole was made at the top of the oven - pots were inserted there, in which stew was cooked. Benches were set up along the walls of the semi-dugout, and plank beds were put together.

Life in such a dwelling was not easy. The dimensions of the semi-dugouts are small - 12-15 square meters, in bad weather water oozed inside, cruel smoke constantly corroded the eyes, and daylight entered the room only when the small front door was opened. Therefore, Russian craftsmen woodworkers persistently looked for ways to improve their homes. We tried different methods, dozens of ingenious options, and gradually, step by step, we achieved our goal.

In the south of Russia, they worked hard to improve the semi-dugouts. Already in the X-XI centuries, they became taller and more spacious, as if grown out of the ground. But the main finding was elsewhere. In front of the entrance to the semi-dugout, they began to build light vestibules, wicker or plank. Now the cold air from the street no longer fell directly into the dwelling, but before it warmed up a little in the hallway. And the stove-heater was moved from the back wall to the opposite, the one where the entrance was. Hot air and smoke from it now exited through the door, simultaneously warming the room, in the depths of which it became cleaner and more comfortable. And in some places, clay chimneys have already appeared. But the most decisive step was taken by ancient Russian folk architecture in the north - in Novgorod, Pskov, Tver, Polissya and other lands.

Here, already in the 9th-10th centuries, dwellings became ground-based and log huts quickly replaced semi-dugouts. This was explained not only by the abundance of pine forests - a building material available to everyone, but also by other conditions, for example, the close occurrence of groundwater, which was dominated by constant dampness in semi-dugouts, which forced them to be abandoned.

Log buildings were, firstly, much more spacious than semi-dugouts: 4-5 meters long and 5-6 meters wide. And there were simply huge ones: 8 meters long and 7 wide. Mansions! The size of the log house was limited only by the length of the logs that could be found in the forest, and the pines grew tall!

Log cabins, like semi-dugouts, were covered with a roof with earthen backfill, and then they did not arrange any ceilings in the houses. The huts were often adjoined on two or even three sides by light galleries connecting two or even three separate residential buildings, workshops, storerooms. Thus, it was possible, without going outside, to go from one room to another.

In the corner of the hut there was a stove - almost the same as in a semi-dugout. They heated it, as before, in a black way: the smoke from the firebox went straight into the hut, rose up, giving off heat to the walls and ceiling, and went out through the smoke hole in the roof and high-lying narrow windows to the outside. Having heated the hut, the hole-smoke flue and small windows were closed with latches. Only in rich houses the windows were mica or - quite rarely - glass.

Soot caused a lot of inconvenience to the inhabitants of the houses, first settling on the walls and ceiling, and then falling from there in large flakes. In order to somehow fight the black "bulk", wide shelves were arranged at a two-meter height above the benches that stood along the walls. It was on them that the soot fell, without disturbing those sitting on the benches, which was regularly removed.

But smoke! Here is the main problem. “I couldn’t endure the smoky sorrows,” exclaimed Daniil the Sharpener, “you can’t see the heat!” How to deal with this all-pervading scourge? Craftsmen builders have found a way out, alleviating the situation. They began to make the huts very high - 3-4 meters from the floor to the roof, much higher than those old huts that have survived in our villages. With skillful use of the stove, the smoke in such high mansions rose under the roof, and below the air remained slightly smoky. The main thing is to heat the hut well by night. A thick earthen backfill did not allow heat to escape through the roof, the upper part of the log house warmed up well during the day. Therefore, it was there, at a height of two meters, that they began to arrange spacious beds on which the whole family slept. In the daytime, when the stove was heated and smoke filled the upper half of the hut, there was no one on the floor - life was going on below, where fresh air from the street was constantly supplied. And in the evening, when the smoke came out, the beds turned out to be the warmest and most comfortable place ... This is how a simple person lived.

And who is richer, built a more complicated hut, hired the best craftsmen. In a spacious and very high log house - the longest trees were chosen for it in the surrounding forests - they made another log wall that divided the hut into two unequal parts. In the larger one, everything was like in a simple house - the servants stoked the black stove, the acrid smoke rose up and warmed the walls. He also warmed the wall that separated the hut. And this wall gave off heat to the next compartment, where a bedroom was arranged on the second floor. Even though it was not as hot here as in the smoky neighboring room, but there was no “smoky sorrow” at all. Smooth, calm warmth flowed from the log partition wall, which also exuded a pleasant resinous smell. Clean and comfortable quarters turned out! They decorated them, like the whole house outside, with wooden carvings. And the richest did not skimp on the color paintings, they invited skilled painters. Cheerful and bright, fabulous beauty sparkled on the walls!

House after house stood up on the city streets, one more intricate than the other. The number of Russian cities also multiplied rapidly, but one thing is worth mentioning in particular. Back in the 11th century, a fortified settlement arose on the twenty-meter Borovitsky Hill, which crowned a pointed cape at the confluence of the Neglinnaya River with the Moscow River. The hill, divided by natural folds into separate sections, was convenient for both settlement and defense. Sandy and loamy soils contributed to the fact that rainwater from the vast top of the hill immediately rolled into rivers, the land was dry and suitable for various construction.

Steep fifteen-meter cliffs protected the village from the north and south - from the side of the Neglinnaya and Moskva rivers, and in the east it was fenced off from the adjacent spaces by a rampart and a moat. The first fortress of Moscow was wooden and disappeared from the face of the earth many centuries ago. Archaeologists managed to find its remains - log fortifications, ditches, ramparts with a palisade on the ridges. The first detinets occupied only a small piece of the modern Moscow Kremlin.

The place chosen by the ancient builders was exceptionally successful not only from the military and construction points of view.

In the southeast, right from the city fortifications, a wide Podil descended to the Moskva River, where trading rows were located, and on the shore - constantly expanding moorings. Visible from afar to boats sailing along the Moscow River, the town quickly became a favorite trading place for many merchants. Craftsmen settled in it, acquired workshops - blacksmith, weaving, dyeing, shoemaking, jewelry. The number of builders-woodworkers increased: a fortress should be built, and a fence should be built, moorings should be built, streets should be paved with wooden planks, houses, shopping arcades and temples of God should be rebuilt ...

The early Moscow settlement grew rapidly, and the first line of earthen fortifications, built in the 11th century, soon found itself inside the expanding city. Therefore, when the city had already occupied a large part of the hill, new, more powerful and extensive fortifications were erected.

By the middle of the 12th century, the city, already completely rebuilt, began to play an important role in the defense of the growing Vladimir-Suzdal land. Increasingly, princes and governors with squads appear in the border fortress, regiments stop before campaigns.

In 1147 the fortress was first mentioned in chronicles. Prince Yuri Dolgoruky arranged a military council here with the allied princes. “Come to me, brother, in Moscow,” he wrote to his relative Svyatoslav Olegovich. By this time, the city, through the efforts of Yuri, was already very well fortified, otherwise the prince would not have dared to gather his comrades-in-arms here: the time was turbulent. Then no one knew, of course, the great fate of this modest city.

In the XIII century, it will be twice wiped off the face of the earth by the Tatar-Mongols, but will be revived and will begin slowly at first, and then gain strength faster and more energetically. No one knew that the small border village of the Vladimir principality would become the heart of Russia revived after the Horde invasion.

No one knew that it would become a great city on earth and the eyes of mankind would turn to it!

The customs of the Slavs

Caring for a child began long before he was born. From time immemorial, the Slavs tried to protect expectant mothers from all sorts of dangers, including supernatural ones.

But now the time has come for the child to be born. The ancient Slavs believed that birth, like death, breaks the invisible boundary between the worlds of the dead and the living. It is clear that such a dangerous business had no reason to take place near a human dwelling. Among many peoples, a woman in labor retired to the forest or to the tundra so as not to harm anyone. Yes, and the Slavs usually gave birth not in the house, but in another room, most often in a well-heated bathhouse. And in order for the mother's body to open more easily and release the child, the woman's hair was untwisted, in the hut the doors and chests were opened, the knots were untied, and the locks were opened. Our ancestors also had a custom similar to the so-called kuvada of the peoples of Oceania: the husband often screamed and moaned instead of his wife. What for? The meaning of the kuvada is extensive, but, among other things, the researchers write: in this way, the husband aroused the possible attention of evil forces, distracting them from the woman in labor!

Ancient people considered the name an important part of the human personality and preferred to keep it secret so that the evil sorcerer could not "take" the name and use it to induce damage. Therefore, in ancient times, the real name of a person was usually known only to parents and a few closest people. All the rest called him by the name of the family or by a nickname, usually of a protective nature: Nekras, Nezhdan, Nezhelan.

The pagan under no circumstances should have said: “I am such and such”, because he could not be completely sure that his new acquaintance deserved full trust, that he was a person in general, and an evil spirit to me. At first, he answered evasively: “They call me ...” And even better, even if it was not said by him, but by someone else.

growing up

Children's clothing in Ancient Russia, both for boys and girls, consisted of one shirt. Moreover, not sewn from a new canvas, but always from the old clothes of the parents. And it's not about poverty or stinginess. It was simply believed that the child was not yet strong both in body and soul - let the parental clothes protect him, protect him from damage, the evil eye, evil witchcraft ... boys and girls received the right to adult clothes, not just reaching a certain age, but only when could prove their “maturity” by deed.

When a boy began to become a young man, and a girl - a girl, it was time for them to move into the next "quality", from the category of "children" to the category of "youth" - future brides and grooms, ready for family responsibility and procreation. But bodily, physical maturation still meant little in itself. I had to pass the test. It was a kind of maturity test, physical and spiritual. The young man had to endure severe pain, taking a tattoo or even a brand with the signs of his family and tribe, of which he became a full member from now on. For the girls, too, there were trials, although not so painful. Their goal is to confirm maturity, the ability to freely express will. And most importantly, both were subjected to the ritual of "temporary death" and "resurrection".

So, the old children "died", and instead of them, new adults were "born". In ancient times, they also received new “adult” names, which, again, outsiders should not have known. They also handed out new adult clothes: for boys - men's pants, for girls - poneva, a kind of checkered skirts that were worn over a shirt on a belt.

This is how adulthood began.

Wedding

In all fairness, researchers call an old Russian wedding a very complex and very beautiful performance that lasted several days. Each of us saw the wedding, at least in the movies. But how many people know why at a wedding the main character, the center of everyone's attention, is the bride, and not the groom? Why is she wearing a white dress? Why is she wearing a photo?

The girl had to "die" in her former family and "be born again" in another, already married, "manly" woman. These are the complex transformations that took place with the bride. Hence the increased attention to her, which we now see at weddings, and the custom of taking the husband's surname, because the surname is a sign of the family.

What about the white dress? Sometimes you have to hear that it, they say, symbolizes the purity and modesty of the bride, but this is wrong. In fact, white is the color of mourning. Yes exactly. Black in this capacity appeared relatively recently. White, according to historians and psychologists, has been for mankind the color of the Past, the color of Memory and Oblivion since ancient times. From time immemorial, such importance was attached to it in Russia. And another "mourning-wedding" color was ... red, "black", as it was also called. It has long been included in the attire of brides.

Now about the veil. More recently, this word simply meant "handkerchief." Not the current transparent muslin, but a real thick scarf, which tightly covered the bride's face. Indeed, from the moment of consent to marriage, she was considered “dead”, the inhabitants of the World of the Dead, as a rule, are invisible to the living. No one could see the bride, and the violation of the ban led to all sorts of misfortunes and even to untimely death, because in this case the border was violated and the Dead World “broke through” into ours, threatening with unpredictable consequences ... For the same reason, the young took each other by the hand exclusively through handkerchief, and also did not eat or drink throughout the wedding: after all, at that moment they “were in different worlds”, and only people belonging to the same world, moreover, to the same group, can touch each other, and even more so, eat together , only "their" ...

At the Russian wedding, many songs sounded, moreover, mostly sad ones. The heavy veil of the bride gradually swelled from sincere tears, even if the girl was walking for her beloved. And the point here is not in the difficulties of living married in the old days, or rather, not only in them. The bride left her family and moved to another. Therefore, she left the spiritual patrons of the former kind and handed herself over to new ones. But there is no need to offend and annoy the former, to look ungrateful. So the girl cried, listening to plaintive songs and trying her best to show her devotion to her parental home, her former relatives and her supernatural patrons - deceased ancestors, and in even more distant times - totem, a mythical progenitor animal ...

The funeral

Traditional Russian funerals contain a huge number of rituals designed to pay the last tribute to the deceased and at the same time win, drive away the hated Death. And the departed promise resurrection, a new life. And all these rituals, partly preserved to this day, are of pagan origin.

Feeling the approach of death, the old man asked his sons to take him out into the field and bowed on all four sides: “Mother damp Earth, forgive and accept! And you, free light, father, forgive me if you offended me ... ”then he lay down on a bench in the holy corner, and his sons dismantled the earthen roof of the hut over him, so that the soul would fly out more easily, so that the body would not torment. And also - so that she doesn’t take it into her head to stay in the house, disturb the living ...

When a noble man died, widowed or not having time to marry, a girl often went to the grave with him - a “posthumous wife”.

In the legends of many peoples close to the Slavs, there is a bridge to the pagan paradise, a wonderful bridge, through which only the souls of the kind, courageous and just are able to pass. According to scientists, the Slavs also had such a bridge. We see it in the sky on clear nights. Now we call it the Milky Way. The most righteous people without interference fall through it directly into the bright iriy. Deceivers, vile rapists and murderers fall down from the star bridge - into the darkness and cold of the Lower World. And for others, who managed to do good and bad things in earthly life, a faithful friend - a shaggy black Dog - helps to cross the bridge ...

Now they consider it worthy to talk about the deceased necessarily with sadness, this is what serves as a sign of eternal memory and love. Meanwhile, this was not always the case. Already in the Christian era, a legend was recorded about inconsolable parents who dreamed of their dead daughter. She could hardly keep up with the other righteous people, as she had to carry two full buckets with her all the time. What was in those buckets? Tears of parents...

You can also remember. That a commemoration - an event that would seem to be purely sad - even now very often ends in a cheerful and noisy feast, where something mischievous is remembered about the deceased. Think about what laughter is. Laughter is the best weapon against fear, and humanity has long understood this. The ridiculed Death is not terrible, laughter drives it away, as Light drives Darkness away, makes it give way to Life. Cases are described by ethnographers. When a mother started dancing at the bedside of a seriously ill child. It's simple: Death will appear, see the fun and decide that "the wrong address." Laughter is a victory over Death, laughter is a new life...

crafts

Ancient Russia in the medieval world was widely famous for its craftsmen. At first, among the ancient Slavs, the craft was domestic in nature - everyone dressed skins for themselves, tanned leather, weaved linen, sculpted pottery, made weapons and tools. Then the artisans began to engage only in a certain trade, preparing the products of their labor for the entire community, and the rest of its members provided them with agricultural products, furs, fish, and animals. And already in the period of the early Middle Ages, the production of products on the market began. At first it was custom-made, and then the goods began to go on free sale.

Talented and skilled metallurgists, blacksmiths, jewelers, potters, weavers, stone-cutters, shoemakers, tailors, representatives of dozens of other professions lived and worked in Russian cities and large villages. These ordinary people made an invaluable contribution to the creation of the economic power of Russia, its high material and spiritual culture.

The names of the ancient artisans, with few exceptions, are unknown to us. Objects preserved from those distant times speak for them. These are both rare masterpieces and everyday things, in which talent and experience, skill and ingenuity are invested.

blacksmith craft

Blacksmiths were the first ancient Russian professional artisans. The blacksmith in epics, legends and fairy tales is the personification of strength and courage, goodness and invincibility. Iron was then smelted from swamp ores. Ore was mined in autumn and spring. It was dried, fired and taken to metal-smelting workshops, where metal was obtained in special furnaces. During excavations of ancient Russian settlements, slags are often found - waste products of the metal-smelting process - and pieces of ferruginous bloom, which, after vigorous forging, became iron masses. The remains of blacksmith workshops were also found, where parts of forges were found. The burials of ancient blacksmiths are known, in which their tools of production - anvils, hammers, tongs, chisels - were placed in their graves.

Old Russian blacksmiths supplied plowmen with coulters, sickles, scythes, and warriors with swords, spears, arrows, battle axes. All that was necessary for the economy - knives, needles, chisels, awls, staples, fish hooks, locks, keys and many other tools and household items - were made by talented craftsmen.

Old Russian blacksmiths achieved special art in the production of weapons. Items found in the burials of Chernaya Mohyla in Chernigov, necropolises in Kyiv and other cities are unique examples of ancient Russian crafts of the 10th century.

A necessary part of the costume and attire of an ancient Russian person, both women and men, were various jewelry and amulets made by jewelers from silver and bronze. That is why clay crucibles, in which silver, copper, and tin were melted, are often found in ancient Russian buildings. Then the molten metal was poured into limestone, clay or stone molds, where the relief of the future decoration was carved. After that, an ornament in the form of dots, cloves, circles was applied to the finished product. Various pendants, belt plaques, bracelets, chains, temporal rings, rings, neck torcs - these are the main types of products of ancient Russian jewelers. For jewelry, jewelers used various techniques - niello, granulation, filigree filigree, embossing, enamel.

The blackening technique was rather complicated. First, a “black” mass was prepared from a mixture of silver, lead, copper, sulfur and other minerals. Then this composition was applied to bracelets, crosses, rings and other jewelry. Most often depicted griffins, lions, birds with human heads, various fantastic animals.

Graining required completely different methods of work: small silver grains, each of which was 5-6 times smaller than a pinhead, were soldered to the smooth surface of the product. What labor and patience, for example, was worth soldering 5,000 such grains to each of the kolts that were found during excavations in Kyiv! Most often, granulation is found on typical Russian jewelry - lunnitsa, which were pendants in the form of a crescent.

If instead of grains of silver, patterns of the finest silver, gold wires or strips were soldered onto the product, then a filigree was obtained. From such threads-wires, sometimes an incredibly intricate pattern was created.

The technique of embossing on thin gold or silver sheets was also used. They were strongly pressed against a bronze matrix with the desired image, and it was transferred to a metal sheet. Embossing performed images of animals on kolts. Usually it is a lion or a leopard with a raised paw and a flower in its mouth. Cloisonne enamel became the pinnacle of ancient Russian jewelry craftsmanship.

The enamel mass was glass with lead and other additives. Enamels were of different colors, but red, blue and green were especially loved in Russia. Enamel jewelry went through a difficult path before becoming the property of a medieval fashionista or a noble person. First, the entire pattern was applied to the future decoration. Then a thin sheet of gold was applied to it. Partitions were cut from gold, which were soldered to the base along the contours of the pattern, and the spaces between them were filled with molten enamel. The result was an amazing set of colors that played and shone under the sun's rays in different colors and shades. The centers for the production of jewelry from cloisonné enamel were Kyiv, Ryazan, Vladimir...

And in Staraya Ladoga, in the layer of the 8th century, an entire industrial complex was discovered during excavations! The ancient Ladoga residents built a pavement of stones - iron slags, blanks, production wastes, fragments of foundry molds were found on it. Scientists believe that a metal-smelting furnace once stood here. The richest treasure trove of handicraft tools, found here, is apparently associated with this workshop. The hoard contains twenty-six items. These are seven small and large pliers - they were used in jewelry and iron processing. A miniature anvil was used to make jewelry. An ancient locksmith actively used chisels - three of them were found here. Sheets of metal were cut with jewelry scissors. Drills made holes in the tree. Iron objects with holes were used to draw wire in the production of nails and rook rivets. Jewelry hammers, anvils for chasing and embossing ornaments on silver and bronze jewelry were also found. Finished products of an ancient craftsman were also found here - a bronze ring with images of a human head and birds, rook rivets, nails, an arrow, knife blades.

The finds at the settlement of Novotroitsky, in Staraya Ladoga and other settlements excavated by archaeologists indicate that already in the 8th century the craft began to become an independent branch of production and was gradually separated from agriculture. This circumstance was of great importance in the process of the formation of classes and the creation of the state.

If for the 8th century we know so far only a few workshops, and in general the craft was of a domestic nature, then in the next, 9th century, their number increases significantly. Masters now produce products not only for themselves, their families, but for the entire community. Long-distance trade relations are gradually strengthening, various products are sold on the market in exchange for silver, furs, agricultural products and other goods.

In the ancient Russian settlements of the 9th-10th centuries, archaeologists have unearthed workshops for the production of pottery, foundry, jewelry, bone carving and others. The improvement of labor tools, the invention of new technology made it possible for individual members of the community to produce alone various things necessary for the household, in such quantities that they could be sold.

The development of agriculture and the separation of crafts from it, the weakening of tribal ties within communities, the growth of property inequality, and then the emergence of private property - the enrichment of some at the expense of others - all this formed a new mode of production - feudal. Together with him, the early feudal state gradually arose in Russia.

Pottery

If we start leafing through thick volumes of inventories of finds from archaeological excavations of cities, towns and burial grounds of Ancient Russia, we will see that the bulk of the materials are fragments of clay vessels. They stored food supplies, water, cooked food. Unpretentious clay pots accompanied the dead, they were smashed at feasts. Pottery in Russia has passed a long and difficult path of development. In the 9th-10th centuries, our ancestors used hand-made ceramics. At first, only women were engaged in its production. Sand, small shells, pieces of granite, quartz were mixed with clay, sometimes fragments of broken ceramics and plants were used as additives. Impurities made clay dough strong and viscous, which made it possible to make vessels of various shapes.

But already in the 9th century, an important technical improvement appeared in the South of Russia - the potter's wheel. Its spread led to the isolation of a new craft specialty from other work. Pottery is passed from the hands of women to male artisans. The simplest potter's wheel was fixed on a rough wooden bench with a hole. An axle was inserted into the hole, holding a large wooden circle. A piece of clay was placed on it, having previously sprinkled ash or sand on the circle so that the clay could easily be separated from the tree. The potter sat on a bench, rotated the circle with his left hand, and formed the clay with his right. Such was the hand-made potter's wheel, and later another appeared, which was rotated with the help of the feet. This freed up a second hand to work with clay, which significantly improved the quality of the manufactured dishes and increased labor productivity.

In different regions of Russia, dishes of different shapes were prepared, and they also changed over time.
This allows archaeologists to accurately determine in which Slavic tribe this or that pot was made, to find out the time of its manufacture. The bottoms of the pots were often marked with crosses, triangles, squares, circles, and other geometric shapes. Sometimes there are images of flowers, keys. The finished dishes were fired in special kilns. They consisted of two tiers - firewood was placed in the lower one, and ready-made vessels were laid in the upper one. Between the tiers, a clay partition was arranged with holes through which hot air flowed upward. The temperature inside the forge exceeded 1200 degrees.
Vessels made by ancient Russian potters are diverse - these are huge pots for storing grain and other supplies, thick pots for cooking food on fire, frying pans, bowls, krinks, mugs, miniature ritual utensils and even toys for children. Vessels were decorated with ornaments. The most common was a linear-wavy pattern; decorations in the form of circles, dimples, and denticles are known.

For centuries, the art and skill of ancient Russian potters has been developed, and therefore it has reached high perfection. Metalworking and pottery were perhaps the most important of the crafts. In addition to them, weaving, leather and tailoring, processing of wood, bone, stone, building production, glassmaking, well known to us from archaeological and historical data, flourished widely.

Bone cutters

Russian bone carvers were especially famous. The bone is well preserved, and therefore the finds of bone products were found in abundance during archaeological excavations. Many household items were made from bone - handles of knives and swords, piercings, needles, weaving hooks, arrowheads, combs, buttons, spears, chess pieces, spoons, polishes and much more. Composite bone combs are an adornment of any archaeological collection. They were made of three plates - to the main one, on which cloves were cut, two side plates were attached with iron or bronze rivets. These plates were decorated with intricate ornaments in the form of wickerwork, patterns of circles, vertical and horizontal stripes. Sometimes the ends of the crest ended with stylized images of horse or animal heads. The combs were placed in ornamented bone cases, which protected them from breakage and protected them from dirt.

Most often, chess pieces were also made from bone. Chess has been known in Russia since the 10th century. Russian epics tell about the great popularity of the wise game. At the chessboard, controversial issues are peacefully resolved, princes, governors and heroes who come from the common people compete in wisdom.

Dear guest, yes the ambassador is formidable,
Let's play checkers and chess.
And went to Prince Vladimir,
They sat down at the oak table,
They brought them a chessboard...

Chess came to Russia from the East along the Volga trade route. Initially, they had very simple shapes in the form of hollow cylinders. Such finds are known in Belaya Vezha, on the Taman settlement, in Kyiv, in Timerev near Yaroslavl, in other cities and villages. Two chess pieces were found at the Timerevsky settlement. By themselves, they are simple - the same cylinders, but decorated with drawings. One figurine is scratched with an arrowhead, wickerwork and a crescent moon, while the other is depicted with a real sword - an exact image of a genuine sword of the 10th century. Only later did chess acquire forms close to modern, but more substantive. If the boat is a copy of a real boat with rowers and warriors. Queen, pawn - human pieces. The horse is like a real one, with precisely cut details and even with a saddle and stirrups. Especially many such figurines were found during excavations of the ancient city in Belarus - Volkovysk. Among them there is even a pawn-drummer - a real foot soldier, dressed in a long, floor-length shirt with a belt.

glassblowers

At the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries, glassmaking began to develop in Russia. Craftsmen make beads, rings, bracelets, glassware and window glass from multi-colored glass. The latter was very expensive and was used only for temples and princely houses. Even very rich people sometimes could not afford to glaze the windows of their homes. At first, glassmaking was developed only in Kyiv, and then masters appeared in Novgorod, Smolensk, Polotsk and other cities of Russia.

“Stefan wrote”, “Bratilo did” - from such autographs on products we recognize a few names of ancient Russian masters. Far beyond the borders of Russia there was fame about the craftsmen who worked in its cities and villages. In the Arab East, in the Volga Bulgaria, Byzantium, the Czech Republic, Northern Europe, Scandinavia and many other lands, the products of Russian artisans were in great demand.

Jewelers

Archaeologists who excavated the Novotroitskoye settlement were also expecting very rare finds. Very close to the surface of the earth, at a depth of only 20 centimeters, a treasure trove of jewelry made of silver and bronze was found. From the way the treasure was hidden, it is clear that its owner did not hide the treasures in a hurry, when some danger was approaching, but calmly collected things dear to him, strung them on a bronze neck torc and buried them in the ground. So there was a silver bracelet, a temple ring made of silver, a bronze ring and small temple rings made of wire.

Another treasure was hidden just as neatly. The owner didn't come back for it either. First, archaeologists discovered a hand-molded, small, serrated clay pot. Inside a modest vessel lay real treasures: ten oriental coins, a ring, earrings, pendants for earrings, a belt tip, belt plaques, a bracelet and other expensive things - all made of pure silver! Coins were minted in various eastern cities in the 8th-9th centuries. Complementing the long list of things found during the excavations of this settlement are numerous items made of ceramics, bone, and stone.

People here lived in semi-dugouts, each of which housed an oven made of clay. The walls and roof of the dwellings were supported on special pillars.
In the dwellings of the Slavs of that time, stoves and hearths made of stones are known.
The medieval oriental writer Ibn-Roste in his work “The Book of Precious Jewels” described the Slavic dwelling as follows: “In the land of the Slavs, the cold is so strong that each of them digs out a kind of cellar in the ground, which covers it with a wooden gabled roof, which we see among Christians. churches, and upon this roof he puts earth. They move to such cellars with the whole family and, taking a few firewood and stones, they heat them red-hot on fire, when the stones are heated to the highest degree, they pour water over them, which causes steam to spread, heating the dwelling to the point that they take off their clothes. In such housing they remain until the very spring. At first, scientists believed that the author confused the dwelling with the bath, but when the materials of archaeological excavations appeared, it became clear that Ibn-Roste was right and accurate in his reports.

Weaving

A very stable tradition depicts "exemplary", that is, thrifty, hardworking women and girls of Ancient Russia (as well as other contemporary European countries), most often busy at the spinning wheel. This also applies to the "good wives" of our chronicles, and fairy-tale heroines. Indeed, in an era when literally all everyday necessities were made by hand, the first duty of a woman, in addition to cooking, was to sheathe all family members. Spinning threads, making fabrics and dyeing them - all this was done independently, at home.

Work of this kind was started in the fall, after the end of the harvest, and they tried to complete it by the spring, by the beginning of a new agricultural cycle.

They began to teach girls to do housework from the age of five or seven, the girl spun her first thread. “Non-spun”, “netkaha” - these were extremely offensive nicknames for teenage girls. And one should not think that among the ancient Slavs, hard female labor was the lot of only the wives and daughters of the common people, and girls from noble families grew up as loafers and white-handed women, like “negative” fairy-tale heroines. Not at all. In those days, princes and boyars, according to a thousand-year tradition, were elders, leaders of the people, to some extent mediators between people and Gods. This gave them certain privileges, but there were no less duties, and the well-being of the tribe directly depended on how successfully they coped with them. The wife and daughters of a boyar or a prince were not only "obliged" to be the most beautiful of all, they had to be "out of competition" behind the spinning wheel.

The spinning wheel was an inseparable companion of a woman. A little later we will see that Slavic women even managed to spin ... on the go, for example, on the road or looking after cattle. And when young people gathered for gatherings on autumn and winter evenings, games and dances usually began only after the “lessons” brought from home (that is, work, needlework) had dried up, most often a tow, which should have been spun. At gatherings, boys and girls looked at each other, made acquaintances. "Nepryakha" had nothing to hope for here, even if she were the first beauty. Starting the fun without completing the "lesson" was considered unthinkable.

Linguists testify that the ancient Slavs did not call any fabric “cloth”. In all Slavic languages, this word meant only linen.

Apparently, in the eyes of our ancestors, no fabric could compare with linen, and there is nothing to be surprised at. In winter, linen fabric warms well, in summer it cools the body. Connoisseurs of traditional medicine claim that linen clothes protect human health.

They guessed about the flax harvest in advance, and the sowing itself, which usually took place in the second half of May, was accompanied by sacred rites designed to ensure good germination and good growth of flax. In particular, flax, like bread, was sown exclusively by men. Having prayed to the Gods, they went out into the field naked and carried seed grain in sacks sewn from old trousers. At the same time, the sowers tried to step wide, swaying at every step and shaking their bags: according to the ancients, tall, fibrous flax should have swayed under the wind. And of course, the first was a respected, righteous life man, to whom the Gods bestowed luck and a “light hand”: what he doesn’t touch, everything grows and blooms.

Particular attention was paid to the phases of the moon: if they wanted to grow long, fibrous flax, it was sown "for a young month", and if "full in grain" - then on the full moon.

To sort the fiber well and smooth it in one direction for the convenience of spinning, flax was carded. They did this with the help of large and small combs, sometimes special ones. After each combing, the comb removed coarse fibers, while fine, high-grade fibers - tow - remained. The word "kudel", related to the adjective "kudlaty", exists in the same meaning in many Slavic languages. The process of combing flax was also called “poking”. This word is related to the verbs "close", "open" and means in this case "separation". The finished tow could be attached to a spinning wheel - and a thread could be spun.

Hemp

Mankind met with hemp, most likely, earlier than with flax. According to experts, one of the indirect evidence of this is the willing consumption of hemp oil. In addition, some peoples, to which the culture of fibrous plants came through the Slavs, first borrowed hemp from them, and flax - later.

The term for cannabis is quite rightly called "wandering, oriental" by language experts. This is probably directly related to the fact that the history of the use of cannabis by people goes back to primitive times, to an era when there was no agriculture ...

Wild hemp is found both in the Volga region and in Ukraine. From ancient times, the Slavs paid attention to this plant, which, like flax, gives both oil and fiber. In any case, in the city of Ladoga, where our Slavic ancestors lived among the ethnically diverse population, in the layer of the 8th century, archaeologists discovered hemp seeds and hemp ropes, which, according to ancient authors, Russia was famous for. In general, scientists believe that hemp was originally used specifically for twisting ropes and only later began to be used for making fabrics.

Hemp fabrics were called by our ancestors "zamashny" or "leather" - both by the name of male hemp plants. It was in bags sewn from old "zamushny" pants that they tried to put hemp seed during spring sowing.

Hemp, unlike flax, was harvested in two steps. Immediately after flowering, male plants were chosen, and female plants were left until the end of August in the field - to "wear" oily seeds. According to somewhat later information, hemp in Russia was grown not only for fiber, but also specifically for oil. They threshed and soaked (more often soaked) hemp in almost the same way as flax, but they didn’t crush it with a pulp, but pounded it in a mortar with a pestle.

Nettle

In the Stone Age, fishing nets were woven from hemp along the shores of Lake Ladoga, and these nets were found by archaeologists. Some peoples of Kamchatka and the Far East still maintain this tradition, but the Khanty not so long ago made not only nets, but even clothes from nettles.

According to experts, nettle is a very good fibrous plant, and it is found everywhere near human habitation, which each of us has repeatedly seen, in the full sense of the word, in our own skin. “zhiguchka”, “zhigalka”, “strekavoy”, “fire-nettle” called her in Russia. The word "nettle" itself is considered by scientists to be related to the verb "to sprinkle" and the noun "crop" - "boiling water": whoever burned with nettles at least once, no explanation is required. Another branch of related words indicates that nettles were considered fit for spinning.

Bast and matting

Initially, ropes were made from bast, as well as from hemp. Bast ropes are mentioned in Scandinavian mythology. But, according to ancient authors, even before our era, coarse fabric was also made from bast: Roman historians mention the Germans, who put on “bast cloaks” in bad weather.

Fabric made from cattail fibers, and later from bast - matting - was used by the ancient Slavs mainly for household purposes. Clothing made from such fabric in that historical era was not just “non-prestigious” - it was, frankly, “socially unacceptable”, meaning the last degree of poverty to which a person could sink. Even in difficult times, such poverty was considered shameful. As for the ancient Slavs, a man dressed in a mat was either surprisingly offended by fate (in order to become so impoverished, it was necessary to lose all relatives and friends at once), or he was expelled by his family, or he was a hopeless parasite who doesn’t care, if only don't work. In a word, a person who has a head on his shoulders and hands, able to work and at the same time dressed in a mat, did not arouse sympathy among our ancestors.

The only allowed type of matting clothing was a raincoat; perhaps such cloaks were seen by the Romans among the Germans. There is no reason to doubt that our ancestors, the Slavs, who were just as accustomed to bad weather, also used them.

For thousands of years, matting served faithfully, and new materials appeared - and in one historical moment we forgot what it is.

Wool

Many reputable scientists believe that woolen fabrics appeared much earlier than linen or linen: humanity, they write, first learned to process skins obtained by hunting, then tree bark, and only later became acquainted with fibrous plants. So the very first thread in the world, most likely, was woolen. In addition, the magical meaning of fur completely extended to wool.

Wool in the ancient Slavic economy was mainly sheep. Our ancestors sheared sheep with spring shears, not very different from modern ones, designed for the same purpose. They were forged from one strip of metal, the handle was bent in an arc. Slavic blacksmiths were able to make self-sharpening blades that did not dull during work. Historians write that before the advent of scissors, wool was apparently collected during molting, combed out with combs, cut off with sharp knives, or ... animals were shaved, since razors were known and used.

To clean the wool from debris, before spinning it was “beaten” with special devices on wooden grates, disassembled by hand or combed with iron and wooden combs.

In addition to the most common sheep, they used goat, cow and dog hair. Cow wool, according to somewhat later materials, was used, in particular, for the manufacture of belts and blankets. But dog hair from ancient times to this day is considered healing, and, apparently, not in vain. "Hooves" made of dog hair were worn by people suffering from rheumatism. And if you believe the popular rumor, with its help it was possible to get rid of not only ailments. If you weave a ribbon from dog hair and tie it on your arm, leg or neck, it was believed that the most ferocious dog would not pounce ...

Spinning wheels and spindles

Before the prepared fiber turned into a real thread, suitable for inserting it into the eye of a needle or threading it into a loom, it was necessary to: pull a long strand out of the tow; twist it stronger so that it does not spread with the slightest effort; wind up.

The easiest way to twist an elongated strand is to roll it between your palms or on your knee. The thread obtained in this way was called by our great-grandmothers "verch" or "suchanina" (from the word "twist", that is, "twist"); it was used for woven bedding and rugs, which did not require special strength.

It is the spindle, and not the familiar and well-known spinning wheel, that is the main tool in such spinning. The spindles were made of dry wood (preferably birch) - possibly on a lathe, well known in ancient Russia. The length of the spindle could vary from 20 to 80 cm. One or both ends of it were pointed, the spindle has this shape and is “bare”, without a wound thread. At the upper end, a "beard" was sometimes arranged for tying a loop. In addition, the spindles are "grassroots" and "top", depending on which end of the wooden rod was put on the whorl - a clay or stone drilled weight. This detail was extremely important for the technological process and, in addition, was well preserved in the ground.

There is reason to believe that women valued whorls very much: they carefully marked them so as not to inadvertently “swap” at gatherings when games, dances and fuss began.

The word "whorl", rooted in the scientific literature, is, generally speaking, incorrect. "Spun" - that's how the ancient Slavs pronounced, and in this form this term still lives where hand spinning has been preserved. "Spinning wheel" was called and is called a spinning wheel.

It is curious that the fingers of the left hand (thumb and forefinger), pulling the yarn, as well as the fingers of the right hand, busy with the spindle, had to be moistened with saliva all the time. In order not to dry up in the mouth - and after all, they often sang while spinning - the Slavic spinner put sour berries next to her in a bowl: cranberries, lingonberries, mountain ash, viburnum ...

Both in Ancient Russia and Scandinavia during the Viking times, portable spinning wheels were used: a tow was tied to one of its ends (if it was flat, with a spatula), or they were put on it (if it was sharp), or strengthened in some other way (for example, in flier). The other end was inserted into the belt - and the woman, holding the whorl with her elbow, worked standing up or even on the move, when she walked into the field, drove the cow, the lower end of the spinning wheel was stuck into the hole of the bench or a special board - “bottom” ...

Krosna

The terms of weaving, and, in particular, the names of the details of looms, sound the same in different Slavic languages: according to linguists, this indicates that our distant ancestors were by no means “non-weaving” and, not content with imported ones, they themselves made beautiful fabrics. Quite weighty clay and stone weights with holes were found, inside of which thread wear is clearly visible. Scientists came to the conclusion that these were weights that gave tension to the warp threads on the so-called vertical looms.

Such a camp is a U-shaped frame (krosna) - two vertical beams connected at the top by a crossbar that can rotate. The warp threads are attached to this crossbar, and then the finished fabric is wound around it - therefore, in modern terminology, it is called the “commodity shaft”. The cross was placed obliquely, so that the part of the warp that appeared behind the thread-separating bar hung down, forming a natural shed.

In other varieties of the vertical mill, the cross was placed not obliquely, but straight, and instead of a thread, strings were used like those with which weaved braid. The birches were hung from the upper crossbar on four strings and moved back and forth, changing the throat. And in all cases, the spent ducks were “nailed” to the already woven fabric with a special wooden spatula or comb.

The next important step in technological progress was the horizontal loom. Its important advantage lies in the fact that the weaver works while sitting, moving the heddle threads with his feet, standing on the steps.

Trade

The Slavs have long been famous as skilled merchants. This was largely facilitated by the position of the Slavic lands on the way from the Varangians to the Greeks. The importance of trade is evidenced by the numerous finds of trade scales, weights and silver Arab coins - dihrems. The main goods coming from the Slavic lands were: furs, honey, wax and grain. The most active trade was with Arab merchants along the Volga, with the Greeks along the Dnieper and the countries of Northern and Western Europe on the Baltic Sea. Arab merchants brought to Russia a large amount of silver, which served as the main monetary unit in Russia. The Greeks supplied the Slavs with wines and textiles. From the countries of Western Europe came long double-edged swords, swords were a favorite weapon. The main trade routes were rivers, from one river basin boats were dragged to another on special roads - portages. It was there that large trading settlements arose. The most important trade centers were Novgorod (which controlled northern trade) and Kyiv (which controlled the young direction).

Armament of the Slavs

Modern scientists subdivide the swords of the 9th - 11th centuries, found on the territory of Ancient Russia, into almost two dozen types and subtypes. However, the differences between them come down mainly to variations in the size and shape of the handle, and the blades are almost the same type. The average length of the blade was about 95 cm. Only one heroic sword 126 cm long is known, but this is an exception. He was indeed found along with the remains of a man who possessed the article of a hero.
The width of the blade at the handle reached 7 cm, towards the end it gradually tapered. In the middle of the blade was a "dol" - a wide longitudinal recess. It served to somewhat lighten the sword, which weighed about 1.5 kg. The thickness of the sword in the area of ​​the valley was about 2.5 mm, on the sides of the valley - up to 6 mm. The dressing of the sword was such that it did not affect the strength. The tip of the sword was rounded. In the 9th - 11th centuries, the sword was a purely chopping weapon and was not intended for stabbing. Speaking of cold steel made of high-quality steel, the words "damask steel" and "Damascus steel" immediately come to mind.

Everyone has heard the word "damask steel", but not everyone knows what it is. In general, steel is an alloy of iron with other elements, mainly carbon. Damask steel is a grade of steel that has long been famous for its amazing properties that are difficult to combine in one substance. the damask blade was capable of cutting iron and even steel without dulling: this implies high hardness. At the same time, it did not break, even when bent into a ring. The contradictory properties of damask steel are explained by the high carbon content and, in particular, its inhomogeneous distribution in the metal. This was achieved by slowly cooling molten iron with the mineral graphite, a natural source of pure carbon. Blade. forged from the resulting metal was subjected to etching and a characteristic pattern appeared on its surface - wavy whimsical light stripes on a dark background. The background turned out dark gray, golden - or reddish-brown and black. It is to this dark background that we owe the Old Russian synonym for damask steel - the word "kharalug". In order to obtain metal with an uneven carbon content, Slavic blacksmiths took strips of iron, twisted them together through one and then forged many times, folded several times again, twisted, "gathered like an accordion", cut along, forged again, etc. Strips of beautiful and very strong patterned steel were obtained, which were etched to reveal the characteristic herringbone pattern. This steel made it possible to make swords thin enough, without loss of strength. It was thanks to her that the blades straightened, being doubled.

Prayers, incantations and spells were an integral part of the technological process. The work of a blacksmith could be compared to a kind of sacred ceremony. Therefore, the sword does not function as a powerful amulet.

A good damask sword was bought for an equal amount of gold by weight. Not every warrior had a sword - it was a professional weapon. But not every sword owner could boast of a real Kharaluzh sword. Most had simpler swords.

The hilts of ancient swords were richly and variously decorated. Masters skillfully and with great taste combined noble and non-ferrous metals - bronze, copper, brass, gold and silver - with a relief pattern, enamel, niello. Our ancestors especially loved the floral pattern. Precious jewelry was a kind of gift to the sword for faithful service, signs of love and gratitude to the owner.

They carried swords in scabbards made of leather and wood. The sheath with the sword was located not only at the waist, but also behind the back, so that the handles stuck out behind the right shoulder. The shoulder harness was willingly used by riders.

A mysterious connection arose between the sword and its owner. It was impossible to say unequivocally who owned whom: a warrior with a sword, or a sword with a warrior. The sword was addressed by name. Some swords were considered a gift from the gods. Belief in their sacred power was felt in the legends about the origin of many famous blades. Having chosen a master for himself, the sword faithfully served him until his death. According to the legends, the swords of the ancient heroes jumped out of their scabbards and fervently rang, anticipating the battle.

In many military burials next to a man lies his sword. Often such a sword was also "killed" - they tried to break it, bend it in half.

Our ancestors swore by their swords: it was assumed that a just sword would not listen to the perjurer, or even punish him. The swords were trusted to administer "God's judgment" - a judicial duel, which sometimes ended the trial. Before that, the sword was placed at the statue of Perun and conjured in the name of the formidable God - "Do not let untruth be committed!"

Those who carried the sword had a completely different law of life and death, other relationships with the Gods than other people. These warriors stood at the highest rung of the military hierarchy. The sword is a companion of true warriors, filled with courage and military honor.

Saber Knife Dagger

The saber first appeared in the 7th-8th centuries in the Eurasian steppes, in the zone of influence of nomadic tribes. From here, this type of weapon began to spread among the peoples who had to deal with nomads. Starting from the 10th century, she pressed the sword a little and became especially popular among the warriors of Southern Russia, who often had to deal with nomads. After all, according to its purpose, the saber is a weapon of maneuverable conng combat. . Due to the bend of the blade and the slight inclination of the handle, the saber in battle not only cuts, but also cuts, it is also suitable for stabbing.

The saber of the 10th - 13th centuries is curved slightly and evenly. They were made in much the same way as swords: there were blades made of the best grades of steel, there were also simpler ones. In the shape of the blade, they resemble checkers of the 1881 model, but are longer and suitable not only for horsemen, but also for footmen. In the 10th - 11th centuries, the length of the blade was about 1 m with a width of 3 - 3.7 cm, in the 12th century it lengthened by 10 - 17 cm and reached a width of 4.5 cm. The bend also increased.

They carried a saber in a scabbard, both at the belt and behind the back, as it was more convenient for anyone.

The Sdavians contributed to the penetration of the saber into Western Europe. According to experts, it was the Slavic and Hungarian craftsmen who made the so-called saber of Charlemagne at the end of the 10th century - the beginning of the 11th century, which later became the ceremonial symbol of the Holy Roman Empire.

Another type of weapon that came to Russia from the outside is a large combat knife - "scramasax". The length of this knife reached 0.5 m, and the width was 2-3 cm. Judging by the surviving images, they were worn in a sheath near the belt, which were located horizontally. They were used only in heroic martial arts, when finishing off a defeated enemy, as well as during especially stubborn and cruel battles.

Another type of edged weapon, which was not widely used in pre-Mongolian Russia, is a dagger. For that era, they were found even less than the Scramasaxes. Scientists write that the dagger entered the equipment of a European knight, including a Russian one, only in the 13th century, in the era of strengthening protective armor. The dagger served to defeat the enemy, dressed in armor, during close hand-to-hand combat. Russian daggers of the 13th century are similar to Western European ones and have the same elongated triangular blade.

A spear

Judging by archaeological data, the most widespread types of weapons were those that could be used not only in battle, but also in peaceful everyday life: hunting (bow, spear) or household (knife, ax) Military clashes occurred often, but the main occupation of the people they never were.

Spearheads very often come across to archaeologists both in burials and on the sites of ancient battles, second only to arrowheads in terms of the number of finds. The spearheads of pre-Mongol Rus were divided into seven types, and for each type, changes were traced over the course of centuries, from IX to XIII.
The spear served as a stabbing hand-to-hand weapon. Scientists write that the spear of a foot warrior of the 9th-10th centuries with a total length somewhat exceeded human height of 1.8 - 2.2 m. A socketed tip up to half a meter long and weighing 200 - 400g. It was fastened to the shaft with a rivet or a nail. The shapes of the tips were different, but, according to archaeologists, elongated triangular ones prevailed. The thickness of the tip reached 1 cm, the width - up to 5 cm. Tips were made in different ways: all-steel, there were also those where a strong steel strip was placed between two iron ones and went out to both edges. Such blades were self-sharpening.

Archaeologists also come across tips of a special kind. Their weight reaches 1 kg, the width of the feather is up to 6 cm, the thickness is up to 1.5 cm. The length of the blade is 30 cm. The inner diameter of the sleeve reaches 5 cm. These tips are shaped like a laurel leaf. In the hands of a mighty warrior, such a spear could pierce any armor; in the hands of a hunter, it could stop a bear or a wild boar. Such a weapon was called a "spear". Rogatin is an exclusively Russian invention.

The spears used by horsemen in Russia were 3.6 cm long and had tips in the form of a narrow tetrahedral rod.
For throwing, our ancestors used special darts - "sulits". Their name comes from the word "promise" or "throw". The sulica was a cross between a spear and an arrow. The length of its shaft reached 1.2 - 1.5 m. They were attached to the side of the shaft, entering the tree only with a curved lower end. This is a typical disposable weapon that must have often been lost in combat. Sulits were used both in battle and in hunting.

battle ax

This type of weapon, one might say, was unlucky. Epics and heroic songs do not mention axes as the “glorious” weapons of the heroes; in chronicle miniatures, only foot militias are armed with them.

Scientists explain the rarity of its mention in chronicles and its absence in epics by the fact that the ax was not very convenient for the rider. Meanwhile, the early Middle Ages in Russia passed under the sign of the cavalry coming to the fore as the most important military force. In the south, in the steppe and forest-steppe expanses, the cavalry early acquired decisive importance. In the north, in the conditions of rugged wooded terrain, it was more difficult for her to turn around. Foot combat prevailed here for a long time. The Vikings also fought on foot - even if they came to the battlefield on horseback.

Battle axes, being similar in shape to the workers that lived in the same places, not only did not exceed them in size and weight, but, on the contrary, were smaller and lighter. Archaeologists often write not even “battle axes”, but “battle axes”. Old Russian monuments also mention not “huge axes”, but “light axes”. A heavy ax that must be carried with two hands is a woodcutter's tool, not a warrior's weapon. He really has a terrible blow, but his severity, and therefore slowness, gives the enemy a good chance to dodge and get the ax-bearer with some more maneuverable and light weapon. And besides, the ax must be carried on oneself during the campaign and “tirelessly” wave it in battle!

Experts believe that Slavic warriors were familiar with battle axes of various types. There are among them those who came to us from the west, there are those from the east. In particular, the East gave Russia the so-called coinage - a battle hatchet with a butt extended in the form of a long hammer. Such a butt device provided a kind of counterweight to the blade and made it possible to strike with excellent accuracy. Scandinavian archaeologists write that the Vikings, when they came to Russia, it was here that they got acquainted with the coinage and partly took them into service. Nevertheless, in the 19th century, when decisively all Slavic weapons were declared to be either Scandinavian or Tatar in origin, the coinage was recognized as a "Viking weapon".

A much more characteristic type of weapon for the Vikings were axes - wide-bladed axes. The length of the blade of the ax was 17-18 cm, the width was also 17-18 cm, Weight 200 - 400g. They were also used by the Russians.

Another type of battle axes - with a characteristic straight upper edge and a blade drawn down - is more common in the north of Russia and is called "Russian-Finnish".

Developed in Russia and its own kind of battle axes. The design of such axes is surprisingly rational and perfect. Their blade is somewhat curved downwards, which not only chopping, but also cutting properties were achieved. The shape of the blade is such that the efficiency of the ax approached 1 - all the impact force was concentrated in the middle part of the blade, so that the blow was truly crushing. Small processes - "cheeks" were placed on the sides of the butt, the back part was lengthened with special capes. They protected the handle. Such an ax could deliver a powerful vertical blow. Axes of this type were both working and fighting. Since the 10th century, they have spread widely in Russia, becoming the most massive.

The ax was a universal companion of a warrior and faithfully served him not only in battle, but also at a halt, as well as when clearing a road for troops in a dense forest.

Mace, club, cudgel

When they say “mace”, they most often imagine that monstrous pear-shaped and, apparently, all-metal weapon that artists love to hang on the wrist or on the saddle of our hero Ilya Muromets. Probably, it should emphasize the heavy power of the epic character, who, neglecting the sophisticated "lord's" weapons like a sword, crushes the enemy with one physical force. It is also possible that fairy-tale heroes also played their role here, who, if they order a mace from a blacksmith, then certainly a “hundred-pound” one ...
Meanwhile, in life, as usual, everything was much more modest and efficient. The Old Russian mace was an iron or bronze (sometimes filled with lead from the inside) pommel weighing 200-300 g, mounted on a handle 50-60 cm long and 2-6 cm thick.

The handle in some cases was sheathed for strength with a copper sheet. As scientists write, the mace was used mainly by mounted warriors, it was an auxiliary weapon and served to deliver a quick, unexpected blow in any direction. The mace seems to be a less formidable and deadly weapon than a sword or spear. However, let's listen to historians who point out that not every battle of the early Middle Ages turned into a fight "to the last drop of blood." Quite often, the chronicler ends the battle scene with the words: "... and on that they parted, and there were many wounded, but few killed." Each side, as a rule, did not want to exterminate the enemy without exception, but only to break his organized resistance, to force him to retreat, and those who fled were not always pursued. In such a battle, it was not at all necessary to bring a “hundred-pound” mace and drive the enemy into the ground up to his ears. It was quite enough to “stun” him - to stun him with a blow to the helmet. And the maces of our ancestors coped with this task perfectly.

Judging by the archaeological finds, maces entered Russia from the nomadic South-East at the beginning of the 11th century. Among the oldest finds, tops in the form of a cube with four pyramidal spikes arranged crosswise predominate. With some simplification, this form gave cheap mass weapons that spread among peasants and ordinary townspeople in the 12th-13th centuries: maces were made in the form of cubes with cut corners, while the intersections of the planes gave a semblance of spikes. On some tops of this type there is a protrusion on the side - a "caller". Such maces served to crush heavy armor. In the 12th-13th centuries, pommels of a very complex shape appeared - with spikes sticking out in all directions. Jacob, that there was always at least one spike on the line of impact. Such maces were made mainly of bronze. Initially, the part was cast from wax, then an experienced craftsman gave the pliable material the desired shape. Bronze was poured into the finished wax model. For the mass production of maces, clay molds were used, which were made from a finished pommel.

In addition to iron and bronze, in Russia they also made heads for maces from "kapk" - a very dense growth that is found on birch trees.

Maces were mass weapons. However, a gilded mace made by a skilled craftsman sometimes became a symbol of power. Such maces were trimmed with gold, silver, and precious stones.

The very name "mace" is found in written documents starting from the 17th century. And before that, such a weapon was called a "hand wand" or "cue". This word also had the meaning of "hammer", "heavy stick", "club".

Before our ancestors learned how to make metal pommel, they used wooden clubs, clubs. They were worn at the waist. In battle, they tried to hit the enemy on the helmet with them. Sometimes clubs were thrown. Another name for the club was "horn", or "horn".

Flail

A flail is a rather weighty (200-300 g) bone or metal weight attached to a belt, chain or rope, the other end of which was fixed on a short wooden handle - “flail” - or simply on the hand. Otherwise, the flail is called the "combat weight".

If the reputation of a privileged, “noble” weapon with special sacred properties has been attached to the sword from the deepest antiquity, then the flail, according to the established tradition, is perceived by us as a weapon of the common people and even purely robbers. Dictionary of the Russian language S.I. Ozhegova gives a single phrase as an example of the use of this word: “Robber with a flail”. The dictionary of V. I. Dal interprets it more broadly as a “hand-held road weapon”. Indeed, small in size, but effective in business, the flail was imperceptibly placed in the bosom, and sometimes in the sleeve, and could do good service to the person who was attacked on the road. The dictionary of V. I. Dahl gives some idea of ​​the methods of handling this weapon: “... a flying brush ... is wound, circling, on a brush and develops in a big way; they fought in two flails, in both streams, dissolving them, circling them, hitting and picking them up in turn; there was no hand-to-hand attack against such a fighter ... "
“A brush with a fist, and good with it,” the proverb said. Another proverb aptly characterizes a person who hides a robber's burrow behind external piety: ""Have mercy, Lord!" - and a flail behind the belt!

Meanwhile, in ancient Russia, the flail was primarily a weapon of a warrior. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was believed that the flails were brought to Europe by the Mongols. But then the flails were dug up along with Russian things of the 10th century, and in the lower reaches of the Volga and Don, where nomadic tribes lived, who used them as early as the 4th century. Scientists write: this weapon, like maces, is extremely convenient for the rider. That, however, did not prevent the foot soldiers from appreciating it.
The word "brush" does not come from the word "brush", which at first glance seems obvious. Etymologists deduce it from the Turkic languages, in which similar words have the meaning of "stick", "club".
By the second half of the 10th century, flail was used throughout Russia, from Kyiv to Novgorod. Tassels of those times were usually made from elk horn - the densest and heaviest bone available to the artisan. They were pear-shaped, with a drilled longitudinal hole. A metal rod was passed into it, equipped with an eyelet for a belt. On the other hand, the rod was riveted. On some flails, carvings, signs of princely property, images of people and mythological creatures are distinguishable.

Bone flails existed in Russia as early as the 13th century. Bone was gradually replaced by bronze and iron. In the 10th century, they began to make flails filled with heavy lead from the inside. Sometimes a stone was placed inside. Tassels were decorated with a relief pattern, notch, blackening. The peak of the flail's popularity in pre-Mongolian Russia came in the 13th century. At the same time, he gets to neighboring peoples - from the Baltic states to Bulgaria.

Bow and arrows

The bows used by the Slavs, as well as by the Arabs, Persians, Turks, Tatars and other peoples of the East, far surpassed Western European ones - Scandinavian, English, German and others - both in terms of their technical perfection and combat effectiveness.
In Ancient Russia, for example, there was a kind of measure of length - "shooting" or "shooting", about 225 m.

compound bow

By the 8th - 9th centuries AD, a complex bow was used everywhere throughout the European part of modern Russia. The art of archery required training from an early age. Small, up to 1 m long, children's bows made of elastic juniper were found by scientists during excavations of Staraya Ladoga, Novgorod, Staraya Russa and other cities.

Compound bow device

The shoulder of the bow consisted of two wooden planks glued together longitudinally. On the inside of the bow (facing the shooter) was a juniper bar. It was unusually smoothly planed, and where it was adjacent to the outer plank (birch), the ancient master made three narrow longitudinal grooves for filling with glue to make the connection more durable.
The birch plank that made up the back of the bow (the outer half in relation to the shooter) was somewhat rougher than the juniper. Some researchers considered this to be the negligence of the ancient master. But others drew attention to a narrow (about 3-5 cm) strip of birch bark, which completely, spirally, wrapped around the bow from one end to the other. On the inner, juniper plank, the birch bark still held exceptionally firmly, while for unknown reasons it “peeled off” from the birch back. What's the matter?
Finally, we noticed an imprint of some longitudinal fibers left in the adhesive layer both on the birch bark braid and on the back itself. Then they noticed that the shoulder of the bow had a characteristic bend - outward, forward, towards the back. The end was especially strongly bent.
All this suggested to scientists that the ancient bow was also reinforced with tendons (deer, elk, bull).

It was these tendons that arched the shoulders of the bow in the opposite direction when the bowstring was removed.
Russian bows began to be reinforced with horn stripes - “valances”. From the 15th century, steel valances appeared, sometimes mentioned in epics.
The handle of the Novgorod bow was lined with smooth bone plates. The length of the coverage of this handle was about 13 cm, just about the hand of an adult man. In the context of the handle had an oval shape and very comfortable fit in the palm of your hand.
The arms of the bow were most often of equal length. However, experts point out that the most experienced shooters preferred such proportions of the bow, in which the middle point was not in the middle of the handle, but at its upper end - the place where the arrow passes. Thus, complete symmetry of the effort during firing was ensured.
Bone overlays were also attached to the ends of the bow, where the loop of the bowstring was put on. In general, they tried to strengthen those places of the bow (they were called "knots") with bone overlays, where the joints of its main parts - the hilt, shoulders (otherwise horns) and ends - fell. After gluing the bone linings onto the wooden base, their ends were again wound with tendon threads soaked in glue.
The wooden base of the bow in Ancient Russia was called "kibit".
The Russian word "bow" comes from the roots that meant "to bend" and "arc". He is related to such words as “out of the BEAM”, “LUKOMORYE”, “Slyness”, “LUKA” (a part of the saddle) and others, also associated with the ability to bend.
Onions, which consisted of natural organic materials, reacted strongly to changes in air humidity, to heat and frost. Everywhere, quite definite proportions were assumed with a combination of wood, glue and tendons. This knowledge was also fully owned by the ancient Russian masters.

Many bows were required; in principle, each person had the necessary skills to make a good weapon for himself, but it is better if the bow was made by an experienced craftsman. Such masters were called "archers". The word "archer" has established itself in our literature as the designation of the shooter, but this is not true: he was called the "archer".

bowstring

So, the ancient Russian bow was not “just” a stick that was somehow cut off and bent. In the same way, the bowstring that connected its ends was not “just” a rope. To the materials from which it was made, the quality of workmanship was subject to no less requirements than to the bow itself.
The bowstring was not supposed to change its properties under the influence of natural conditions: stretch (for example, from dampness), swell, twist, dry out in the heat. All this spoiled the bow and could make shooting ineffective, if not impossible.
Scientists have proven that our ancestors used bowstrings from different materials, choosing those that were best suited for a given climate - and medieval Arabic sources tell us about the silk and vein bowstrings of the Slavs. The Slavs also used bowstrings from the "intestinal string" - specially treated animal intestines. String bowstrings were good for warm and dry weather, but they were afraid of dampness: when wet, they stretched out a lot.
Rawhide strings were also in use. Such a bowstring, if properly made, was suitable for any climate and was not afraid of any bad weather.
As you know, the bowstring was not put on tightly on the bow: during breaks in use, it was removed so as not to keep the bow taut and weaken it in vain. Tied, too, not anyhow. There were special knots, because the ends of the strap had to be intertwined in the ears of the bowstring so that the tension of the bow tightly clamped them, preventing them from slipping. On the preserved bowstrings of ancient Russian bows, scientists found knots that were considered the best in the Arab East.

In ancient Russia, the case for arrows was called "tul". The meaning of this word is "receptacle", "shelter". In the modern language, such of its relatives as "tula", "torso" and "tuli" have been preserved.
The ancient Slavic tul most often had a shape close to cylindrical. Its frame was rolled up from one or two layers of dense birch bark and often, although not always, covered with leather. The bottom was made of wood, about a centimeter thick. It was glued or nailed to the base. The length of the body was 60-70 cm: the arrows were laid with the tips down, and with a longer length, the plumage would be sure to wrinkle. To protect the feathers from bad weather and damage, the bodies were supplied with tight covers.
The very shape of the body was dictated by the concern for the safety of the arrows. Near the bottom, it expanded to 12-15 cm in diameter, in the middle of the body its diameter was 8-10 cm, at the neck the body again expanded somewhat. In such a case, the arrows were held tightly, at the same time their plumage was not crushed, and the arrowheads did not cling when pulled out. Inside the body, from the bottom to the neck, there was a wooden plank: a bone loop was attached to it with straps for hanging. If iron rings were taken instead of a bone loop, they were riveted. The tul could be decorated with metal plaques or carved bone inlays. They were riveted, glued or sewn, usually in the upper part of the body.
Slavic warriors, on foot and on horseback, always wore a tulle on the right at the waist, on a waist belt or a cross over shoulder. And so that the neck of the body with arrows sticking out of it looked forward. The warrior had to draw the arrow as fast as he could, because in battle his life depended on it. And besides, he had with him arrows of various types and purposes. Different arrows were required in order to hit the enemy without armor and dressed in chain mail, in order to knock down a horse under him or cut the bowstring of his bow.

Naluchye

Judging by later samples, the bows were flat, on a wooden base; they were covered with leather or dense beautiful fabric. The bow did not need to be as strong as the body, which protected the shafts and delicate plumage of arrows. The bow and bowstring are very durable: in addition to ease of transportation, the bow only protected them from dampness, heat and frost.
Naluchie, like the tulle, was equipped with a bone or metal loop for hanging. It was located near the center of gravity of the bow - at its handle. They wore a bow in the armband upside down, on the left on the belt, also on the waist belt or cross over the shoulder.

Arrow: shaft, plumage, eye

Sometimes our ancestors made arrows for their bows themselves, sometimes they turned to specialists.
The arrows of our ancestors were well matched with powerful, lovingly made bows. Centuries of manufacture and use have made it possible to develop a whole science of the selection and proportions of the components of the arrow: shaft, tip, plumage and eye.
The arrow shaft had to be perfectly straight, strong and not too heavy. Our ancestors took straight-layered wood for arrows: birch, spruce and pine. Another requirement was that after processing the wood, its surface would acquire exceptional smoothness, because the slightest “burr” on the shaft, sliding along the shooter’s hand at high speed, could cause serious injury.
They tried to harvest wood for arrows in the fall, when there was less moisture in it. At the same time, preference was given to old trees: their wood is denser, harder and stronger. The length of ancient Russian arrows was usually 75-90 cm, they weighed about 50 g. The tip was fixed at the butt end of the shaft, which was facing the root of a living tree. The plumage was located on what was closer to the top. This is due to the fact that the wood to the butt is stronger.
The plumage ensures the stability and accuracy of the arrow flight. There were from two to six feathers on arrows. Most ancient Russian arrows had two or three feathers, symmetrically located on the circumference of the shaft. Feathers were suitable, of course, not all. They had to be even, resilient, straight and not too hard. In Russia and in the East, the feathers of an eagle, vulture, falcon and sea birds were considered the best.
The heavier the arrow, the longer and wider its plumage became. Scientists know arrows with plumage 2 cm wide and 28 cm long. However, among the ancient Slavs, arrows with feathers 12-15 cm long and 1 cm wide prevailed.
The eye of the arrow, where the bowstring was inserted, also had a well-defined size and shape. Too deep would slow down the flight of the arrow, if too shallow, the arrow did not sit firmly on the bowstring. The rich experience of our ancestors made it possible to derive the optimal dimensions: depth - 5-8 mm, rarely 12, width - 4-6 mm.
Sometimes the cutout for the bowstring was machined directly into the shaft of the arrow, but usually the eyelet was an independent detail, usually made of bone.

Arrow: tip

The widest variety of arrowheads is explained, of course, not by the "violence of imagination" of our ancestors, but by purely practical needs. On hunting or in battle, a variety of situations arose, so that each case had to correspond to a certain type of arrow.
In ancient Russian images of archers, you can more often see ... sort of “flyers”. Scientifically, such tips are called "shear in the form of wide figured slotted spatulas." "Cut" - from the word "cut"; this term covers a large group of tips of various shapes, having a common feature: a wide cutting blade facing forward. They were used to shoot at an unprotected enemy, at his horse or at a large animal during a hunt. The arrows hit with terrifying force, so that the broad arrowheads inflicted significant wounds, causing severe bleeding that could quickly weaken a beast or enemy.
In the 8th - 9th centuries, when armor and chain mail became widespread, narrow, faceted armor-piercing tips became especially "popular". Their name speaks for itself: they were designed to penetrate enemy armor, in which a wide cut could get stuck without causing enough damage to the enemy. They were made from high quality steel; on ordinary tips, iron was far from the highest grade.
There was also a direct opposite of armor-piercing tips - frankly blunt tips (iron and bone). Scientists even call them "thimble", which is consistent with their appearance. In Ancient Russia they were called "tomars" - "arrow tomars". They also had their own important purpose: they were used to hunt forest birds and, in particular, fur-bearing animals climbing trees.
Returning to the one hundred and six types of arrowheads, we note that scientists divide them into two groups according to the way they are attached to the shaft. The "sleeved" ones are equipped with a small socket-tulka, which was put on the shaft, and the "stalked", on the contrary, with a rod that was inserted into a hole specially made at the end of the shaft. The tip of the shaft at the tip was strengthened with a winding and a thin film of birch bark was pasted over it so that the transversely located threads did not slow down the arrow.
According to Byzantine scientists, the Slavs dipped some of their arrows in poison...

Crossbow

Crossbow - crossbow - a small, very tight bow, mounted on a wooden bed with a butt and a groove for an arrow - a "self-shooting bolt". It was very difficult to pull the bowstring for a shot by hand, so it was equipped with a special device - a collar ("self-shooting brace" - and a trigger mechanism. In Russia, the crossbow was not widely used, since it could not compete with a powerful and complex bow either in terms of shooting efficiency or in Russia, they were more often used not by professional warriors, but by civilians.The superiority of Slavic bows over crossbows was noted by Western chroniclers of the Middle Ages.

chain mail

In the deepest antiquity, mankind did not know protective armor: the first warriors went into battle naked.

Chain mail first appeared in Assyria or Iran, was well known to the Romans and their neighbors. After the fall of Rome, comfortable chain mail became widespread in "barbarian" Europe. Chainmail acquired magical properties. The chain mail inherited all the magical properties of the metal that had been under the blacksmith's hammer. Weaving chain mail from thousands of rings is an extremely laborious business, which means "sacred". The rings themselves served as amulets - they scared away evil spirits with their noise and ringing. Thus, the "iron shirt" served not only for individual protection, but was also a symbol of "military holiness". Our ancestors began to widely use protective armor already in the 8th century. Slavic masters worked in European traditions. Chain mail made by them was sold in Khorezm and in the West, which indicates their high quality.

The very word "chain mail" was first mentioned in written sources only in the 16th century. Previously, it was called "ringed armor".

Master blacksmiths made chain mail from at least 20,000 rings, with a diameter of 6 to 12 mm, with a wire thickness of 0.8-2 mm. For the manufacture of chain mail, 600m of wire was required. Rings were usually of the same diameter, later they began to combine rings of different sizes. Some rings were welded tightly. Every 4 such rings were connected by one open one, which was then riveted. Masters traveled with each army, capable of repairing chain mail if necessary.

Old Russian chain mail differed from Western European, which already in the 10th century was knee-length and weighed up to 10 kg. Our chain mail was about 70 cm long, had a width in the belt of about 50 cm, the sleeve length was 25 cm - to the elbow. The collar cut was in the middle of the neck or was shifted to the side; chain mail was fastened without a “smell”, the collar reached 10 cm. The weight of such armor was an average of 7 kg. Archaeologists have found chain mail made for people of different builds. Some of them are shorter in the back than in the front, obviously for the convenience of landing in the saddle.
Just before the Mongol invasion, chain mail made of flattened links (“baidans”) and chain mail stockings (“nagavits”) appeared.
In campaigns, the armor was always taken off and dressed in them immediately before the battle, sometimes in the mind of the enemy. In ancient times, it even happened that opponents politely waited until everyone was properly prepared for battle ... And much later, in the 12th century, the Russian prince Vladimir Monomakh in his famous “Instruction” warned against hasty removal of armor immediately after the battle.

shell

In the pre-Mongol era, chain mail prevailed. In the XII - XIII centuries, along with the appearance of heavy combat cavalry, the necessary strengthening of protective armor also took place. Plastic armor began to improve rapidly.
The metal plates of the shell went one after the other, giving the impression of scales; in places of imposition, protection turned out to be double. In addition, the plates were curved, which made it possible to even better deflect or soften the blows of enemy weapons.
In post-Mongolian times, chain mail gradually gives way to armor.
According to the latest research, plate armor has been known on the territory of our country since the Scythian time. Armor appeared in the Russian army during the formation of the state - in the VIII-X centuries.

The most ancient system, which was kept in military use for a very long time, did not require a leather base. Elongated rectangular plates measuring 8-10X1.5-3.5 cm were directly connected with straps. Such armor reached the hips and was divided in height into horizontal rows of closely compressed oblong plates. The armor expanded downwards and had sleeves. This design was not purely Slavic; on the other side of the Baltic Sea, on the Swedish island of Gotland, near the city of Visby, a completely similar shell was found, however, without sleeves and expansion at the bottom. It consisted of six hundred and twenty-eight records.
Scale armor was arranged quite differently. Plates measuring 6x4-6 cm, that is, almost square, were laced to a leather or dense fabric base from one edge and moved over each other like tiles. So that the plates do not move away from the base and do not bristle upon impact or sudden movement, they were fastened to the base with one or two central rivets. Compared to the "belt weaving" system, such a shell turned out to be more elastic.
In Muscovite Russia, it was called the Turkic word "kuyak". The armor of belt weaving was then called "yaryk" or "koyar".
There were also combined armor, for example, chain mail on the chest, scaly on the sleeves and hem.

Very early appeared in Russia and the predecessors of the "real" knightly armor. A number of items, such as iron elbow pads, are even considered the oldest in Europe. Scientists boldly rank Russia among those states of Europe where the protective equipment of a warrior has progressed especially quickly. This speaks of the military prowess of our ancestors, and of the high skill of blacksmiths, who were not inferior to anyone in Europe in their craft.

Helmet

The study of ancient Russian weapons began in 1808 with the discovery of a helmet made in the 12th century. He was often depicted in his paintings by Russian artists.

Russian combat headgear can be divided into several types. One of the oldest is the so-called conical helmet. Such a helmet was found during excavations in a burial mound of the 10th century. An ancient master forged it from two halves and connected it with a strip with a double row of rivets. The lower edge of the helmet is pulled together with a hoop equipped with a number of loops for aventail - chain mail that covered the neck and head from behind and on the sides. All of it is covered with silver and decorated with gilded silver overlays, which depict Saints George, Basil, Fedor. On the frontal part there is an image of the Archangel Michael with the inscription: "Great Archangel Michael, help your slave Fedor." Griffins, birds, leopards are engraved along the edge of the helmet, between which lilies and leaves are placed.

For Russia, "spherical-conical" helmets were much more characteristic. This form proved to be much more convenient, as it successfully deflected blows that could cut through a conical helmet.
They were usually made of four plates, which were located one on top of the other (front and back - on the side) and connected with rivets. At the bottom of the helmet, with the help of a rod inserted into the eyelets, an aventail was attached. Scientists call such fastening of the aventail very perfect. On Russian helmets, there were even special devices that protected chain mail links from premature abrasion and breakage upon impact.
The craftsmen who made them took care of both strength and beauty. The iron plates of the helmets are figuratively carved, and this pattern is similar in style to wood and stone carvings. In addition, the helmets were covered with gold in combination with silver. They looked on the heads of their brave owners, no doubt, great. It is no coincidence that the monuments of ancient Russian literature compare the brilliance of polished helmets with the dawn, and the commander galloped across the battlefield, “shimmering with a golden helmet.” A brilliant, beautiful helmet not only spoke of the wealth and nobility of a warrior - it was also a kind of beacon for subordinates, helping to look out for a leader. He was seen not only by friends, but also by enemies, as befitted a hero-leader.
The elongated pommel of this type of helmet sometimes ends in a sleeve for a sultan made of feathers or dyed horsehair. It is interesting that another decoration of similar helmets, the “yalovets” flag, was much more famous. The Yalovites most often painted red, and the chronicles compare them with "fiery flames."
But black hoods (nomads who lived in the Ros river basin) wore tetrahedral helmets with "platbands" - masks that covered the entire face.

From the spherical-conical helmets of Ancient Russia, the later Moscow "shishak" occurred.
There was a type of a steep-sided domed helmet with a half-mask - nosepiece and circles for the eyes.
Helmet decorations included floral and animal ornaments, images of angels, Christian saints, martyrs, and even the Almighty himself. Of course, the gilded images were intended not only to "shine" over the battlefield. They also magically protected the warrior, taking the enemy's hand away from him. Unfortunately, it didn't always help...
Helmets were supplied with a soft lining. It's not very pleasant to wear an iron headdress directly on your head, not to mention what it's like to wear an unlined helmet in battle, under the blow of an enemy ax or sword.
It also became known that the Scandinavian and Slavic helmets fastened under the chin. Viking helmets were also equipped with special cheek pads made of leather, reinforced with figured metal plates.

In the VIII - X centuries, the shields of the Slavs, like those of their neighbors, were round, about a meter in diameter. The oldest round shields were flat and consisted of several boards (about 1.5 cm thick) connected together, covered with leather and fastened with rivets. On the outer surface of the shield, especially along the edge, there were iron fittings, while in the middle a round hole was sawn, which was covered by a convex metal plaque designed to repel the blow - “umbon”. Initially, the umbons had a spherical shape, but in the 10th century more convenient sphero-conical ones arose.
Straps were attached to the inside of the shield, into which the warrior passed his hand, as well as a strong wooden rail that served as a handle. There was also a shoulder strap so that a warrior could throw a shield behind his back during a retreat, if necessary, use two hands or just when transporting.

The almond-shaped shield was also considered very famous. The height of such a shield was from a third to a half of human height, and not up to the shoulder of a standing person. The shields were flat or slightly curved along the longitudinal axis, the ratio of height and width was two to one. They made almond-shaped shields, like round ones, from leather and wood, supplied with fetters and umbon. With the advent of a more reliable helmet and long, knee-length chain mail, the almond-shaped shield decreased in size, lost the umbon and, possibly, other metal parts.
But around the same time, the shield acquires not only combat, but also heraldic significance. It was on the shields of this form that many knightly coats of arms appeared.

The desire of the warrior to decorate and paint his shield also manifested itself. It is easy to guess that the most ancient drawings on the shields served as amulets and were supposed to ward off a dangerous blow from the warrior. Their contemporaries, the Vikings, put on the shields all kinds of sacred symbols, images of Gods and heroes, often forming whole genre scenes. They even had a special kind of poem - “shield drape”: having received a painted shield as a gift from the leader, a person had to describe in verse everything that is depicted on it.
The background of the shield was painted in a variety of colors. It is known that the Slavs preferred red. Since mythological thinking has long associated the “alarming” red color with blood, struggle, physical violence, conception, birth and death. Red, like white, was considered by Russians as a sign of mourning back in the 19th century.

In ancient Russia, the shield was a prestigious weapon for a professional warrior. Our ancestors swore by shields, fastening international agreements; the dignity of the shield was protected by law - anyone who dared to spoil, "break" the shield or steal it had to pay a hefty fine. The loss of shields - they were known to be thrown to facilitate escape - was synonymous with complete defeat in battle. It is no coincidence that the shield, as one of the symbols of military honor, has also become a symbol of the victorious state: take the legend of Prince Oleg, who hoisted his shield on the gates of the “bowed” Constantinople!

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EDUCATIONAL PRIVATE INSTITUTION

HIGHER EDUCATION

"HUMANITARIAN AND SOCIAL INSTITUTE"

Faculty - social and humanitarian

Department - Pedagogy and Psychology

Direction of training: 44.03.02 - Psychological and pedagogical education

Training profile: Psychology and social pedagogy

Eastern Slavs: life, culture, beliefs and rituals

abstract

Shevchenko A.V.

1 course, distance learning

Teacher:

Ph.D., Art. pr. Urbanovich V.M.

Kraskovo

Introduction

1. Beliefs of the Eastern Slavs

2. Life and culture of the Eastern Slavs

3. Rites among the Eastern Slavs

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The history of the emergence of such a great and powerful people as the Slavs has been of interest to many generations and does not cease to lose interest in itself even in our time. The origin of the Eastern Slavs was of interest to many historians, and this is still being debated. In ancient times, the Slavs were admired by such great minds and scribes as Bishop Otto of Bamber, Emperor of Byzantium Mauritius the Strategist, Procopius of Pisaria, Jordan and many others.

Tribal groups of Eastern Slavs were among the first inhabitants of the lands later called Kievan Rus. Sources of the 6th century, including the Byzantine Procopius of Caesarea and the Gothic author Jordan, identify with the Eastern Slavs the Ants - a group of tribes that occupied the territory that reached the Black Sea in the south, the lower Danube in the west, and the Seversky Donets in the east.

Slavic tribes have long been engaged in agriculture, hunting, fishing and cattle breeding. In addition, in many settlements of the Slavs that arose in the valleys of the Dnieper, Donets and Volkhov, primitive crafts were established, including pottery and weaving. The importance of agriculture for the early tribal society of the Slavs is indicated by the predominance of the corresponding cults and natural gods of the East Slavic pagan pantheon.

The purpose of this work is to study the life, culture, beliefs and rituals of the Eastern Slavs. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

1) Consider in detail the beliefs of the Eastern Slavs;

2) To study the life and culture of the Eastern Slavs;

3) Research the rituals of the Eastern Slavs.

To write this work, the literature of many authors was used.

1. Beliefs of the Eastern Slavs

In the pre-Christian period (until the end of the 10th century), the Eastern Slavs professed a pagan religion similar to the ancient beliefs of other peoples of Europe. The basis of ancient European religions was the spiritualization of nature and its forces, the worship of the elements, which were personified in the form of various gods or spirits. The Olympian religion, followed by the ancient Greeks and Romans, stood apart from other pagan beliefs in Europe, but it also began with a pan-European worship of nature, only later, during the development of the ancient Greek civilization, gods appeared in it, symbolizing people with their virtues and vices. Many gods and spirits believed in by other European peoples, including the Slavs, have their counterparts in the religion of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Since the Eastern Slavs inhabited a very vast territory from the Baltic to the steppes of Eastern Europe, from the Carpathians to the Volga, the natural conditions in their country were different. Therefore, among different Slavic tribes there could be some differences in beliefs. Also, in addition to the gods, who, according to the ancient Slavs, ruled the whole natural element, each forest, field, reservoir could have its own master spirit. Some are the same gods and spirits of different Slavic tribes could have their own names. However, on the basis of archaeological, annalistic, ethnographic and folklore data, researchers managed to restore the general appearance of the ancient beliefs to which the ancestors of modern Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians were committed. Kozak D.N., Borovsky Ya.E. Sanctuaries of the Eastern Slavs // Rites and beliefs of the ancient population of Ukraine. Kyiv, 2009-p.117

Like most peoples of the world in general, in the paganism of the ancient Slavs there was an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bdivine one-man command. That is, over all the numerous gods, they recognized the supreme god, who could influence directly or through the younger gods on all processes occurring in the Universe. The Eastern Slavs actually had two supreme gods. Most of the people - those who did not belong to the tribal nobility, especially revered Yar or Yarilo (for some tribes: Horos). So the Slavs called the sun, which they considered a living supernatural being, giving people warmth and light. Since the basis of the life of the common people was agriculture, which directly depended on the heat of the sun, and the ancients could not fail to notice that all life in nature depends on the sun, Yar was worshiped especially zealously. It was considered the beginning of all life. The ancient Slavs depicted Yar as a solar disk with a human face painted on it. This tradition is still preserved when drawing illustrations for children's books and cartoons. The moon and stars, which also shone, were also spiritualized by the Slavs and were considered with the Yar-sun in family relations. The word-name "Yar" is associated with many words in East Slavic languages, including Russian: "bright", "furious (meaning "hot, hot")". Many Old Slavonic names have the name Yara (Yaroslav, Yaropolk) in their root. Zelenin D.K. East Slavic ethnography. - M., 2009-S.157

The tribal nobility, whose main occupation was military campaigns and the protection of tribal lands from enemy attacks, revered the thunder god Perun more. Perun was, apparently, not a primordially Slavic god, but borrowed from the Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes inhabiting the steppes adjacent to the lands of the Slavs. A thunderstorm, a storm with its lightning that causes fires and can kill a person, was associated among the Slavs with war - the main business of noble people. Being the god of war, Perun constantly demanded bloody sacrifices. Cattle were slaughtered on its altars, and in special cases, people, choosing one of the tribesmen by lot. It was believed that Perun throws lightning from the sky and disperses evil spirits with them. If lightning killed a person, then people believed that he was punished for some sins. Assuring the opponent that he was right, the debater exclaimed: "Kill me Perun (if I'm not telling the truth)!". In the name of Perun, the Slavs solemnly swore, putting their weapons next to them. During a thunderstorm, the Slavs closed the windows, turned the vessels upside down in the house so that the evil spirits, pursued by Perun's lightning, did not hide in them. Perun was depicted as a strong and formidable humanoid creature with a monstrous ferocious face.

It is not known for sure whether Perun and the god of fire and sky Svarog, revered by some of the East Slavic tribes, were the same deity, or they were different gods. The Ipatiev Chronicle calls the Sun or Dazhdbog the son of Svarog. The same chronicle notes that the Slavs prayed to fire, which they also considered the son of Svarog and called Svarozhich.

The god-patron of cattle Volos or Veles was very revered. It was believed that the offspring and mortality of livestock, fattening by cows, sheep and pigs of meat and fat, and the amount of milk yield depend on it. The Slavs also worshiped the god of the winds Stribog. "The Tale of Bygone Years" among the Slavic pagan gods mentions a certain Simargl. What, in the ideas of the Slavs, this god was in charge of, cannot be reliably established today, but some historians identify him with the ancient Iranian bird-like deity Simurg - a messenger between the worlds of heaven (i.e., divine) and earth (i.e., people, animals and spirits). Mythological stories of the Russian population of Eastern Siberia / Comp. V.P. Zinoviev. Novosibirsk, 2007-p.134

Of the female deities, Mokosh or Makosh was known. According to various sources, they prayed to her and made sacrifices when it was necessary to make it rain or not to tangle the thread when spinning. It is possible that some Slavic tribes revered her as a goddess of fertility, others - needlework. It was as a deity-needlewoman that she was revered by Russian peasant women already in the New Age.

Yaga or Baba Yaga is a goddess, information about which has been preserved only in folklore. Based on folklore data, she was, apparently, the goddess of death and the guide of the souls of the dead from the earthly world to the world of the dead, as indicated by the presence of one bone (i.e., dead) leg. This is also indicated by the folklore description of her dwelling: "a hut on chicken legs, without windows and doors." Many tribes of the Eastern Slavs buried their dead in log cabins mounted on smoke-filled poles. Other data, also recorded in the folklore of the Slavic peoples, indicate that Yaga was also the goddess of forests, ruling over trees and bushes, wild animals. Yaga was described as a demonic old woman, greedy for human life, commanding all the elements that bring grief to people (diseases, fires, hurricanes, etc.). Fairy tales describe a plot when Baba Yaga puts people, usually children, on a shovel and puts them into a burning furnace. Here, the primitive rite of initiation is clearly described, which among the Eastern Slavs, apparently, was preserved for a very long time: upon reaching a certain age of the child, in order to develop his resistance to the inevitable in the life of people of that time severe physical suffering (illness, injury, hunger, etc. .) were subjected to a special test by being placed in a chamber heated by fire. Probably, this rite was performed by priestesses, possibly the same Yagi. In fairy tales, the hero, whom Baba Yaga usually wants to eat, often stops her with a resolute demand to meet him as a host should meet guests: bread and salt. Here, the attitude of people towards death itself must be expressed: only a self-possessed, resolute person who does not lose his presence of mind can safely overcome mortal danger and even benefit from such a situation. Sedakova O.A. Poetics of Rite. Funeral rituals of the Eastern and Southern Slavs ". M., 2012-S.147

In addition to natural elements and phenomena, the ancient Slavs deified the spirits of their ancestors. Each clan had its own ancestor, who was worshiped by all its members. Among different tribes, he was called genus, shur, grandfather, ancestor, great-grandfather. It was believed that he patronizes the whole family, protects from dangers and troubles. In a critical situation, the Slav called on the spirit of the ancestor to help, and even in the 20th century. some superstitious people habitually cast a spell: "Chur (i.e., chur), me!". Slavs revered female ancestors under the name of women in labor. Women in labor were considered patronesses of women's family affairs: they protected the house and children from any misfortunes. Slavic women sacrificed bread, cheese, honey, porridge and cut children's hair to women in childbirth. Sedov V.V. Old Russian pagan sanctuary in Peryn // Brief reports of the Institute of the History of Material Culture. 2009. issue. 50-S.214

In addition to the gods, personifying the elements and phenomena, the Slavs revered the spirits - the owners of specific natural objects and the patrons of a particular house. So, in every house, according to the ideas of the Slavs, there lived its own house spirit. Often he was identified with the shur, believing that this is the spirit of the long-dead founder of the family. Here, reverence for ancestors, parents, and spiritual attachment to a deceased relative are clearly traced. From the brownie, as the Slavs believed, the whole life of the dwelling in which he lives depends: the very integrity of the house, the health and family well-being of the owners of that, their property and wealth, the health of pets. Therefore, they tried in every possible way to appease the brownie, they left part of the food for him at night. When moving to another place, the Slavs took their brownie with them with the help of a special ceremony: they put stove ash or food in a basket or other container, called the spirit there with spells and took them to a new house. Without a brownie, it was thought, there would be no living in a dwelling: the economy would immediately fall into decay, the cattle would die out, and the family would quarrel and fall apart. The brownie was credited with incomprehensible sounds, if they were heard in the house, illnesses of family members and pets, happy and nightmare dreams. It was believed that if it was not enough to read the brownie, and also poorly monitor the house and household, violate the customs of family life, then he would take revenge on the owners of the house, interfering in household chores, sending diseases and terrible dreams, etc. Other small spirits that settled in houses were kikimoras - female creatures, in many respects similar in habits to brownies, but mostly only harming their owners.

The Slavs also believed in evil spirits that caused illness, death or loss of children, similar to Greco-Roman lamias. Today it is difficult to say how these spirits were originally called, but folklore ideas about them have come down to our time as beeches and babays (English and Turkic etymologies can be traced in modern names). Tokarev S.A. Religious beliefs of the East Slavic peoples of the 19th - early 20th centuries. M., 2007-S.152

In Slavic myths, there is a certain creature - a cat-bayun, a monster in the form of a huge cat, which lulled people with a voice and ate them. The image of a bayun cat is somehow similar to the ancient Greek sirens and the sphinx, as well as the mythical creatures of many other peoples, personifies the danger hiding under something beautiful and pleasant. It is also possible that the memories of the Slavs about some large predators of the cat family living in Europe in the primitive era (for example, a cave or Asian lion) were preserved in the feline appearance of the bayun.

In the forests, as the Slavs thought, goblin lived. Each goblin lived in a certain forest area, controlled the animals and plants that inhabited it. Sacrifices were made to Leshim: food was left on forest stumps, livestock was tied to trees. In the forest, a person, like nowhere else, was vulnerable to nature: he could get lost, become a victim of wild animals, get injured, stumbling among the thickets, and be left without help, so the Slavs, who were engaged in hunting and gathering, went for firewood, always sought to appease the forest spirit. Leshy was attributed the ability to frighten people with unknown sounds, hallucinations, false voices to knock forest travelers out of the way, to make a person stray, moving in circles in forest thickets. The goblin was described as a furry humanoid creature with horns on its head. In this way, as well as other attributes, for example, to own forest creatures and frighten people, they are similar to the Greco-Roman deities Pan, satyrs and strongens. Klein L.S. Resurrection of Perun. To the reconstruction of East Slavic paganism. SPb., 2008-p.116

The Slavs considered each pond to be the possession of a water spirit. Vodyanoy controlled the water creatures that lived in it, and, according to the ancient Slavs, fish catches, calmness and excitement on a river or lake depended on it. Therefore, livestock were sacrificed to watermen, which were simply drowned in a pond. Tretyakov P.N. East Slavic tribes. M., 2009-S.178

The Slavs themselves considered the reservoirs the entrance to the world of the dead: therefore, a drowned person dies. According to Slavic beliefs, the souls of the dead can return to the world of the living for a certain time in spring to enjoy the spring awakening of nature. The souls that came out of the world of the dead were called mermaids: from the word “blond, blond”, that is, light. Mermaids, who were described as people of impeccable bodily form, but with lifeless faces, sat quietly or wandered along the banks of reservoirs, according to other sources, led round dances, sang songs and wove wreaths. After the expiration of the period of stay in the world of the living, they returned back to the world of the dead. Most often, drowned innocent girls were considered mermaids. Like the dead in general, the Slavs were afraid of mermaids: after all, they reminded the living of their own sooner or later coming end. There were beliefs that mermaids take people they liked with them from the world of the living, so the Slavs preferred this spring period - the mermaid week, not to appear alone at the reservoirs, but to gather on the shore in groups, swim and pay respect to their dead relatives and friends. According to other Slavic ideas, the souls of the dead looked like people of very small stature and were called navi or navi. It was believed that in the world of the dead people live in much the same way as in the world of the living: they eat and drink, rejoice and suffer, love and hate.

Different tribes buried their dead in different ways. Radimichi, Vyatichi and northerners burned the noble dead on a large log of firewood, and the bones were put in an earthen vessel, which was placed on a pole near the road. Some tribes buried the dead like most peoples of the world - in the ground, some - in a log cabin on pillars, some put the deceased on a raft and sent them to swim in a river or lake. Noble people, especially tribal military leaders (princes), were often buried in mounds - they were placed in a deep earthen grave, on top of which they poured a high hill, visible from afar. Then the warriors sat around the barrow and made a farewell feast near it - a feast. This custom is similar to the funeral rite of the nomadic steppe peoples and the ancient peoples of the North Caucasus. With the deceased, various household items, weapons and valuables were placed in the grave, which, as the Slavs thought, could be useful to him in the world of the dead. Some tribes had a custom to bury together with the husband one of his wives, over whom a ritual murder was committed. Klein L.S. Resurrection of Perun. To the reconstruction of East Slavic paganism. SPb., 2008-p.195

Pagan holidays were associated with the worship of natural forces among the Slavs. After the winter solstice (December 22 or 23, depending on the year), the Slavs celebrated the day of Kolyada. A group of people dressed in the best clothes and with songs and praises of the deity went from house to house and village, collecting offerings from the owners. Then collected, probably solemnly sacrificed. A plow handle was placed on the table that day: to protect the fields from mice and moles. On the day of the summer solstice (June 20 or 21), one of the most solemn Slavic holidays was celebrated - the day of Kupala, the god of abundance, in ancient times, most likely identified with Yar. It was believed that on this day, Yar left his house on three horses (an obvious analogy with the ancient Greek Helios) to meet with the Month - his relative or matchmaker, and the world of gods and spirits becomes closer than ever to the world of people. The Slavs believed that on the day of Kupala, signs of life and activity of supernatural forces are especially clearly visible: the sun dances and scatters fiery sparks across the sky, trees move, move from place to place and communicate with each other with the noise of branches, rivers shine with silver. Yar was sacrificed a white rooster - a bird that welcomes the sunrise with its cry, and an effigy of cold and death - Mary, was drowned in the river. People collected herbs, which were believed to acquire beneficial properties, bathed in the river, believing that it heals from diseases. They cleansed themselves of evil and evil spirits by kindling fires and jumping over them, as well as driving cattle between two large fires - “through the fire”.

Whether the Slavs had permanent priests is not known for sure. It is possible that among the more culturally developed tribes there was a priestly class, while among the less developed tribes, the role of priests was performed by leaders, tribal foremen, and householders. Perhaps some gods were worshiped through intermediaries in the form of priests, while others were worshiped directly. Chronicles sometimes mention the Magi - the ministers of the pagan cult, who stubbornly resisted the spread of Christianity. Folklore identifies the Magi with sorcerers, hence: "magic, magical." Therefore, it is impossible to say for sure whether the Magi were a special layer of society, on behalf of the community, who made sacrifices to pagan gods and asked for their favor for the whole clan or tribe, or just someone like ascetics who were considered especially close to the world of the gods. Eleonskaya E.N. Protecting livestock among the Eastern Slavs during the first spring pasture in the field / Agricultural magic // Russian witchcraft. M., 2012-p.135

The pagan services of the Slavs were performed in specially equipped sanctuaries - temples (from "drop - idol"). At the temple there was an altar - trebishche (from "required - sacrifice"). All data on ancient Slavic sanctuaries have been collected by historians on the basis of archaeological data, since the surviving chronicles do not mention anything about pagan temples. The Slavs usually chose a clearing among a swampy forest or a hilltop as a place for a temple. A round-shaped platform was leveled and fenced off with one or two ditches and earthen ramparts, in the center of which an elevation was made or, conversely, a recess where the idol was placed. The idol was a wooden pillar, turned in the form of a deity, to whom the temple was dedicated. One of the most famous ancient Slavic sanctuaries is the Peryn sanctuary, excavated and explored by archaeologists A. Artsikhovsky (1948) and V. Sedov (1951 - 1952) six kilometers from Veliky Novgorod between the Volkhov, Prost and Rakomka rivers near Lake Ilmen. According to the Novgorod chronicle, there was an idol of Perun, installed in 980 by the governor Dobrynya by order of the Kyiv prince Vladimir, and in 988, after the baptism of Russia, it was cut down and thrown into the Volkhov at the direction of Archbishop Joachim Korsunyanin and the same governor Dobrynya. According to archaeological research, the ditch surrounding the site of the temple was made in the form of a flower, having arched protrusions on the outside, and its bottom consisted of a ring of recesses separated by rollers, in which ritual fires were lit. On the eastern ledge of the moat, the fire burned constantly. In addition to the statue of Perun, there were idols of other deities around. On behalf of Perun, the tract, in which the sanctuary was located - Peryn, also received its name. The former purpose of this place, even when the remains of the sanctuary were eventually swallowed up by the earth, was firmly preserved in the people's memory. Even in the 19th century sailors, sailing from the Baltic to Ilmen, threw coins into the water - as a sacrifice to Perun. The idol of Perun, according to popular rumor, somehow got from Volkhov to the Dnieper, along which he sailed to Zaporozhye and there, turning into a seven-headed snake, began to kidnap girls. Sedov V.V. Clothing of the Eastern Slavs of the VI-IX centuries. AD // Ancient clothing of the peoples of Eastern Europe. M., 2009-S.168

Rice. 1 Peryn sanctuary. Reconstruction by archaeologists

During excavations in Novgorod, wooden sticks are found with a man's head carved at one end. Apparently, they served as "domestic idols" and portrayed the brownie, which was worshiped by the family. In addition to idols, amulets had religious significance - small objects that, according to the ideas of the people, had a supernatural ability to bring good luck and protect from evil. Amulets were made of metal, they were worn on the chest, hanging by chains. Amulets could have a different appearance, probably associated with their specific purpose. During archaeological excavations, amulets in the form of spoons, small swords, animal figurines, etc. are recovered from the remains of ancient Slavic dwellings and mounds. Amulets, which, according to the ideas of the Slavs, protected from misfortunes, illnesses, the evil eye, were called amulets. One of the types of pagan rites was ritual divination, for example, on dice, according to the random arrangement of which the Slavs tried to predict the future. Sedov V.V. Clothing of the Eastern Slavs of the VI-IX centuries. AD // Ancient clothing of the peoples of Eastern Europe. M., 2009-p.215

Rice. 2 Charms of the ancient Slavs, found during archaeological excavations

After the baptism of Russia, the authorities of the ancient Russian state waged a merciless struggle against paganism. However, at that time the state was not yet able to deeply control all aspects of public life in all areas of the vast Russian land. Pagan beliefs persisted for a very long time. Subsequently, already when the Christian religion was firmly established in all the lands of the Eastern Slavs, pagan ideas in the minds of the unenlightened people (of which there was an absolute majority at that time) were mixed with Christian teaching. Some pagan gods were almost completely forgotten, while other gods and spirits lost their divinity and began to be identified with the demons mentioned in the Bible, or with the souls of the damned, not communion, and therefore people who did not go to heaven, or simply presented as invisible, not having divine abilities, but real beings. Such a mixture of Christian and pagan ideas is called popular Christianity in science. The church usually had a negative attitude towards the remnants of pagan beliefs in the minds of Christians, since their steadfastness often led to the fact that people were afraid of the people's demons more than God. But it was often difficult for priests to explain to illiterate people why certain natural phenomena and patterns occur, which greatly affect people's lives, both for good and for bad. Answer: "by the will of God" the common people did not always suit, and the natural sciences were not developed for many more centuries, and only in the 20th century. natural science was conveyed to the villagers. Until the Soviet era and general enlightenment, the villagers went to church, confessed, took communion and prepared for the afterlife and Judgment Day, and at the same time made sacrifices to the brownies, appeased the goblin, were afraid of the mermaids coming out of the water. And even in our time, one can still meet people to whom forest and water spirits do not seem too fantastic. And in many regions of Russia, even in cities, there are still traditions to celebrate ancient Slavic pagan holidays and some rituals (Maslenitsa, Kolyada, etc.), although often their adherents no longer know about their roots and original meaning. Eleonskaya E.N. Protecting livestock among the Eastern Slavs during the first spring pasture in the field / Agricultural magic // Russian witchcraft. M., 2012-p.187

2. Life and culture of the Eastern Slavs

Little is known about the culture of the Slavic tribes. The samples of applied art that have survived to our time testify to the development of jewelry. In the VI-VII centuries. writing emerges. An essential feature of ancient Russian culture is the religious and mystical coloring of almost all of its manifestations. The ancient Slavs were pagans: they believed in evil and good spirits, deified the forces of nature (hence polytheism). The most important gods of the Slavs were Perun - the god of thunder, lightning, war; Svarog - the god of fire; Veles - the patron saint of cattle breeding; sun god - Dazhdbog. The custom of burning the dead, the erection of barrows over the funeral pyres, where things, weapons, food were put, is widespread. Birth, marriage, death were accompanied by special rites.

The decomposition of tribal relations, the strengthening of squads and princely power also affected the pagan cult. Huge mounds were piled over the dead princes. Pagan temples began to be built, stone statues of deities appeared - idols. However, it was not yet a religion, but only religious beliefs. Timoshchuk B.A. East Slavic community VI - X centuries. M., 2009-S.164

Ordinary representations of ancient Russian man Man The family was the focus of the life of a man of Ancient Russia. The extensive and detailed terminology of kinship relations is one of the best confirmations of this. Unfortunately, written sources cover this side of the spiritual life of our ancestors very sparingly. However, even indirect data allow us to draw quite interesting conclusions.

Apparently, the most significant connections were considered, firstly, between brothers and, secondly, between parents and children. The “depth” of family memory rarely went beyond these two generations of relatives. No wonder the nouns “brother”, “brothers” are used by chroniclers more often than all other words. So, in the “Tale of Bygone Years” they occur 219 times (i.e., on average, 4.6 mentions per thousand words of the text; for comparison: the most commonly used noun in the “Tale” is the noun “summer” - 412 met, distributes 8.8 mentions for every 1000 words, and the next most frequently used - "son" - met 172 times, respectively, 3.7 mentions). In general, the children did little to occupy the chronicler. Words denoting the younger generation (“lad”, “child”, “child”) are found in the Tale of Bygone Years ten times less often than nouns referring to adult men. Male related terminology makes up slightly less than a third of the entire complex of chronicle nouns, despite the fact that in general “related” vocabulary makes up 39.4% of all nouns used by the chronicler. It should also be noted that the older generation (father-mother; husband-wife) occupies a subordinate position in the annals compared to the younger generation (son-daughter; brothers-sisters; children-children): 353 and 481 references, respectively. Moreover, the problem of “fathers and children” in the Russian Middle Ages took the form of the problem of “sons and parents”: the relationship between sons, on the one hand, and parents (father, mother) on the other, gives 355 references. Approximately the same tendencies can be traced on the material of East Slavic anthroponymy, when analyzing proper names that were worn by people in Ancient Russia. These include personal names, nicknames, nicknames, patronymics and surnames. Personal names are the names given to people at birth and by which they are known in society. In ancient Russia, canonical and non-canonical names were distinguished. Novikov H.V. Images of an East Slavic fairy tale. L., 2007-p.133

The canonical name is the “true”, “real” name of a person, enshrined in the traditions of the Christian religion. In domestic sources, canonical usually include Orthodox names taken from the church calendar, where the names of canonized saints are listed according to the months and days of their memory (the so-called calendar or hagiographic names). In the early stages of the development of feudal society, as a rule, only godparents (baptismal, church), monastic, (monastic) and schema names were canonical. The cross name was given to a person at baptism. It was usually chosen by the priest from the church calendar in accordance with the name of the saint whose memory was celebrated on the person's birthday or baptism. There are also other motives for assigning a particular name to a person. The baptismal name is rarely mentioned in early sources, usually only in reports of the death of a given person or in texts written after his death. Eleonskaya E.N. Protecting livestock among the Eastern Slavs during the first spring pasture in the field / Agricultural magic // Russian witchcraft. M., 2012-p.181

3. Rites among the Eastern Slavs

The ancient monuments quite often talk about the water cults of the pagans. First of all, these are prayers by the water, sacrifices. The victim was laid or exposed on the shore, and the idolized element was supposed to absorb it. Some ancient monuments (for example, "The Word of John Chrysostom about how the filthy bowed to idols") explain what such a sacrifice consisted of. It turns out that chickens were drowned in the water. This news is confirmed by the message of Leo the Deacon, according to which the soldiers of Svyatoslav dipped live roosters into the waters of the Danube. Of course, among the Russian soldiers there were many Kyivans.

The Slavs considered water to be the element from which the world was formed, and therefore they worshiped it. They inhabited the waters with various deities - seamen, watermen, mermaids. They also idolized special female water creatures - coastlines, whose cult is associated with water. There is a lot of evidence of the veneration of the coastline in the speeches of preachers against paganism. In the same "Word of John Chrysostom" it is said that in Russia they worshiped "both rivers, and springs, and banks."

According to the ideas of the ancients, the worship of water and springs was supposed to save from drought, irrigate the fields. Worshiping water deities, the Eastern Slavs swore by them, cleansed themselves with water as a sacred element, sacrificed flowers, food, chickens. Special holidays were dedicated to water creatures for the performance of solemn services and rituals before them. Such holidays near the water were celebrated both at the beginning and in the middle of summer. Klein L.S. Resurrection of Perun. To the reconstruction of East Slavic paganism. SPb., 2008-p.174

The summer holiday from 23 to 24 June took place near the water (rivers, lakes, ponds) in honor of the ancient pagan god Kupala. Some researchers, including the author of the "Synopsis" of 1674, believed that it was the holiday of Kupala - the god of earthly fruits, harvest, prosperity and water. However, there is reason to believe that the original was the goddess Kupala, whose power extended to all field sprouting. The fact that the name of the mythical Kupala in Russia meant a female creature is also confirmed by ritual games, where the goddess was represented by a tree - a willow, which is often mentioned in Kupala songs. Sometimes the place of the tree was occupied by a doll or a girl, who was called the queen, kupail or madder.

On the Kupala holiday, girls and boys gathered near the water, laid out bonfires, jumped over them, sang songs, burned birch bark. The girls wove wreaths and floated them on the water. Jumping over the fire, bathing at dawn, round dances around the fires had a special magical meaning - cleansing from sins.

Honoring forests and groves

As the chronicle indicates, the people of Kiev worshiped trees, that is, they revered forests and groves, dedicating them to the gods. Separate groves among the Slavs were completely deified: they were not allowed to catch birds, animals, or cut down trees. Severe punishment, sometimes death, awaited violators. Forests and groves were considered dwellings of the gods. Therefore, here, sometimes near individual trees, they worshiped a deity, conducted worship, and made sacrifices. The veneration of trees among the Slavs is indicated by foreign sources, folk legends. The "Ustav" of Vladimir and church courts, for example, speak of those "who pray in the grove." The worship of trees is mentioned in the life of Konstantin of Murom, the sacrifices to the groves - in the Gustyn chronicle. Sedov V.V. Clothing of the Eastern Slavs of the VI-IX centuries. AD // Ancient clothing of the peoples of Eastern Europe. M., 2009-S.116

According to scientists, the veneration of sacred trees, along with the deification of water and the cult of fire under the barn, are the main features of the folk faith of our ancestors. This faith among the tribes, who lived mainly by agriculture, was associated with agriculture, that is, these cults were of economic importance.

In addition to worshiping water and trees, the Eastern Slavs revered the sun, moon, stars and fire as special deities. Zelenin D.K. East Slavic ethnography. - M., 2009-S.208

Deification of the sun

The sun has been revered by the Eastern Slavs for a long time. It is not for nothing that the Arab writer of the 10th century, Al-Masudi, calls the Slavic pagans sun-worshippers.

In the 12th-century apocrypha "The Virgin's Journey through Torment", among other Slavic gods, the sun god is also mentioned. Yaroslavna turns to the sun as a deity in lamentation. Here is how the author of The Tale of Igor's Campaign writes about it:

Eastern Slav pagan rite

Yaroslavna cries early

in Putivl on a visor, saying:

“Bright and crackling sun!

For all you are warm and beautiful.

Why, sir, did you stretch out your hot rays

on my dear warriors?

In the waterless field, their bows were bent by thirst,

grief shut up their quivers? .. "

Yes, and the main characters of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" Oleg and Igor considered themselves the grandchildren of the sun god.

Undoubtedly, the ancient Slav saw in the sun a powerful giver of heat and light, representing him as a red-hot heavenly fire, a wheel on which his life and well-being depended entirely. The change of seasons evoked ideas of a dying and resurrecting god. The sun was spoken of as a living being: it wakes up from sleep, sets down, hides behind the clouds. Telegin S.M. Mythology of the Eastern Slavs. M., 2010-S.196

They swore by the sun at the conclusion of peace treaties: oaths and spells were proclaimed in the direction of the rising of the divine star. Often priests, sorcerers and other servants of the supreme deity on earth acted on his behalf. The red sun, reviving all nature, was also dedicated to special holidays - Ivan Kupala, Kolyada, wires. They were accompanied by ritual games, dances and songs, in which people glorified the sun, asked him for rain and harvest. However, the sun was not only kind. As a living being, it was angry with people, and sometimes brought misfortune. In The Tale of Igor's Campaign, the sun with its hot rays destroys the soldiers of Prince Igor.

As you can see, the Slavs revered the bright, bright sun most of all. Therefore, it is not surprising that Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv, ​​their warriors and ordinary Kievans worshiped the red sun. Over time, they could call the sun Trojan. It is not for nothing that the name of this deity is mentioned four times in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign" when indicating "the centuries of Troyan", "the land of Troyan", "Troyan's path" and "the seventh century of Troyan". Makashina T.S. Ilyin's Day and Elijah the Prophet in Folklore and Folklore of the Eastern Slavs. - In the book: Rites and ritual folklore. M., 2008-S.152

The original meaning of Troyan lies in the triune deity, recognized by many religions of ancient peoples in all periods of human civilization. In ancient Russia, the word Troyan was interpreted as three suns in one, that is, three Jans.

Other East Slavic tribes, neighbors of the glades, could call the solar deity in their own way. Therefore, in ancient monuments we meet such names of the sun among the Eastern Slavs as Dazhdbog, Yarilo, Kupalo, Kolyada, Troyan.

Honoring fire. Svarog

Another god that the people of Kiev revered was Fire. In ancient times and during the Kiya, he could be called Svarog. Indeed, in the view of the ancients, it was Svarog who personified Heaven and was a god who kindles fire and gives life to the sun, that is, he was the father of Svarozhich and Dazhdbog - the two most powerful gods in Russia. In addition, the name of Svarog, the supreme god of the Slavs, and its origin are associated with Sanskrit words denoting light, the sun in the sky. And this confirms that Svarog in ancient times was the god of light, the sky and the whole world, like the most ancient main deity of the Greeks Uranus.

The supreme ruler of the world, the lord of heavenly fire, Svarog, in the translated monuments of the 12th century, is identified with the Greek Hephaestus, the god of fire and the blacksmith god. So, in the story about Svarog-Hephaestus in the Ipatiev Chronicle, extracts from the chronicle of John Malala are given. In the time of Svarog, the chronicler noted, people learned to “forge weapons”, mastered the art of blacksmithing. The name of Svarog is also associated with the struggle for a monogamous family, monogamy, in connection with which he was considered the patron saint of marriage and family. Sedov V.V. Eastern Slavs in the VI - XIII centuries. M., 2012-p.119

Conclusion

The culture of Russia was formed from the very beginning as a synthetic one, influenced by various cultural trends, styles, and traditions. At the same time, Russia not only blindly copied other people's influences and recklessly borrowed them, but applied them to its cultural traditions, to its people's experience, which came down from the depths of centuries, to its understanding of the world around it, to its idea of ​​beauty.

The pagans knew many kinds of arts. They were engaged in painting, sculpture, music, and developed crafts. Here, archaeological research plays an important role in the study of culture and everyday life.

Excavations in the territories of ancient cities show all the diversity of life in urban life. Many found treasures and opened burial grounds brought to us household items and jewelry. The abundance of women's jewelry in the found treasures made it possible to study crafts. On diadems, rings, earrings, ancient jewelers reflected their ideas about the world, with the help of an ornate floral ornament, they could tell about "Kashcheev's death", about the change of seasons, about the life of pagan gods... Unknown animals, mermaids, griffins and semargly occupied the imagination contemporary artists.

Unfortunately, almost all pagan architecture was wooden and almost lost for us, but in the surviving early stone Christian churches one can see pagan motifs in decoration and ornament. This is typical of the period of dual faith, when the artist could depict a Christian saint and pagan deity side by side, bring together a cross and ancient Slavic symbols in an ornate ornament.

Bibliography

1. Eleonskaya E.N. Protecting livestock among the Eastern Slavs during the first spring pasture in the field / Agricultural magic // Russian witchcraft. M., 2012.

2. Zelenin D.K. East Slavic ethnography. - M., 2009

3. Klein L.S. Resurrection of Perun. To the reconstruction of East Slavic paganism. SPb., 2008

4. Kozak D.N., Borovsky Ya.E. Sanctuaries of the Eastern Slavs // Rites and beliefs of the ancient population of Ukraine. Kyiv, 2009

5. Makashina T.S. Ilyin's Day and Elijah the Prophet in Folklore and Folklore of the Eastern Slavs. - In the book: Rites and ritual folklore. M., 2008

6. Mythological stories of the Russian population of Eastern Siberia / Comp. V.P. Zinoviev. Novosibirsk, 2007

7. Novikov H.V. Images of an East Slavic fairy tale. L., 2007

8. Sedakova O.A. Poetics of Rite. Funeral rituals of the Eastern and Southern Slavs". M., 2012.

9. Sedov V.V. Eastern Slavs in the VI - XIII centuries. M., 2012

10. Sedov V.V. Old Russian pagan sanctuary in Peryn // Brief reports of the Institute of the History of Material Culture. 2009. issue. fifty

11. Sedov V.V. Clothing of the Eastern Slavs of the VI-IX centuries. AD // Ancient clothing of the peoples of Eastern Europe. M., 2009

12. Telegin S.M. Mythology of the Eastern Slavs. M., 2010

13. Timoshchuk B.A. East Slavic community VI - X centuries. M., 2009

14. Tokarev S.A. Religious beliefs of the East Slavic peoples of the 19th - early 20th centuries. M., 2007.

15. Tretyakov P.N. East Slavic tribes. M., 2009

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The origin and features of the territorial settlement of the Eastern Slavs, the main stages and directions of this process, the time frame. Eastern Slavs in antiquity: the specifics of material and spiritual culture, life and traditions, social system.

Introduction

Today in our country there is a growing interest in national history. Someone enthusiastically follows the discussions of historians on the 365 channel, someone surfs the Internet sites in search of answers to topics of interest to him, someone bit by bit collects information and documents, compiling the history of his small homeland. The younger generation, and not so much, reading Russian fantasy is gradually becoming interested in the real, real history of their country. This pleases, because without knowledge of one's history in the current situation, national pride, self-esteem, and patriotism cannot arise.

My work is dedicated to the Eastern Slavs - the distant ancestors of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. While still in elementary school and studying the history of the ancient world, I could not understand how it happened that at a time when some European peoples had reached a high level of social and cultural development, the Slavs seemed to us like a wild backward tribe. It was outrageous, and it was very insulting.

Now I understand that the past of each nation is unique. The historical destinies of peoples and states are formed under the influence of a number of objective and subjective factors that determine the specifics and a special type of civilizational, social and state development.

“The history of research on the origin and religion of the Slavs is a history of disappointments,” said Stanislav Urbanchik, a prominent Slavic scholar, and he had reason to say so. It can be said that nothing was left of the culture of the Slavs, since almost everything was destroyed by Christianity. 70 years ago, Vatroslav Yagich, one of the creators of historical and linguistic Slavic studies, said that he would agree to give all the accumulated scientific literature on this issue for several ancient texts of Slavic culture.

We live in difficult times, we begin to look at many things differently, we rediscover or re-evaluate many things. We often know our past only superficially. What cared, pleased, disturbed our Slavic ancestors, what did they do, how did they work, what did they dream about, what did they pass on to the next generations? All this is not just curious. Knowledge of the origins of national culture, customs, customs of one's people helps to understand many events in the history of our country.

1 Description of the Eastern Slavs

“Justice was imprinted in their minds, not laws,” wrote one Greek historian, noting that the Slavs at that time did not yet have written legislation, “theft was rare and was considered more important than any crimes. They despised gold and silver as much as other mortals desired it." And here is the testimony of another author: “The tribes of the Slavs lead the same way of life, have the same morals, love freedom and cannot stand slavery. They are especially brave and courageous in their own country and are capable of all sorts of labors and hardships. They easily endure heat and cold, and nakedness of the body, and all sorts of inconveniences and disadvantages. They are very affectionate towards strangers, whose safety is most taken care of: he escorts them from place to place and instructs himself with the sacred law that a neighbor must take revenge on his neighbor and go to war with him if, due to his carelessness, instead of guarding, he allows any case where a stranger suffer misfortune." The Greeks noticed the peculiarities of the communal patriarchal order of life of the Slavs: “The captives of the Slavs, not like those of other peoples, do not always remain in slavery; they determine a certain time for them, after which, having paid a ransom, they are free to either return to their fatherland, or remain friends and free with them. Often engaging in battles with the Slavs, the Greeks very carefully studied the character of the Slavs and their military habits: “They are excellent wars, because military affairs become a harsh science for them in every detail. The highest happiness in their eyes is to die in battle. To die of old age or of any accident is a disgrace, which nothing can be more humiliating. They are generally beautiful and tall; their hair is cast in light brown color. Their gaze is more warlike than ferocious." “They often make raids, surprise attacks and various tricks day and night and, so to speak, play with war.” “Their greatest art is that they know how to hide in rivers under water. Often, caught by the enemy, they lie at the bottom for a very long time and breathe with the help of long reed tubes, the end of which is taken into the mouth, and the other sticks out to the surface of the water and thus hides in the depths.

2 Customs and mores of the Eastern Slavs

Having settled on the East European Plain, the Eastern Slavs first lived in tribal communities, this is also evidenced by the chronicle: “I live each with my own family and in their places, owning my own kind”.

Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky wrote: “The tribal union rested on two pillars: on the power of the tribal foreman and the inseparability of tribal property. The ancestral cult, the veneration of ancestors sanctified and strengthened both of these pillars.

The most important affairs of the clan were decided at the people's assembly - veche. They gathered at the veche not only to change the elder, but also on many other important occasions. For example, when a drought set in, disastrous for the Slavic farmers, a decision was made at a secular gathering to leave their homes and go to other lands. It happened that pestilences were also forced to leave their settlements - the so-called dangerous diseases from which many people died.

Veche existed in almost all ancient Russian cities. At the Veche, the people called special bells. The veche "meeted" until a general decision was made, but as a rule no more than two weeks. In most Russian cities, after the arrival of the Mongol-Tatar conquerors, the veche gradually loses its significance and disappears.

From the 6th century tribal relations among the Eastern Slavs began to disintegrate in connection with the appearance of metal tools and the transition from slash to plow agriculture, since the joint efforts of all members of the clan were already required to manage the economy. The individual family became the basic economic unit.

Gradually, first in the south, in the forest-steppe zone, and then in the forest, in the north, the tribal community is replaced by a neighboring, territorial one, which was called "world" - in the south, and "verv" - in the north.

The main role was no longer played by the elder, but by the eldest man in each individual family, which owned the house, household land, livestock, inventory. But the land, meadows, forests, reservoirs, fishing grounds remained communal property. Accordingly, there was also a division of the community into free community members and slaves, who usually became captured captives.

The development of crafts and the emergence of cities led to the emergence of armed squads, which were sometimes headed by Varangian leaders - kings. It happened that they seized power in those cities that were called upon to protect, and became princes. These people and their warriors gradually merged with the old tribal nobility. In many ways, however, the life of the Slavs continued to be controlled by veche gatherings, and the prince played the role of military leader and tribute collector. In case of danger, a general tribal militia was convened.

In peacetime, the princely squad of professional soldiers was preserved. She was divided into the eldest, from which came the ambassadors and princely administrators, and the youngest. The tribesmen resignedly obeyed the strong and experienced prince, recognized his supreme power and put up with the fact that he gets most of the captured wealth and war trophies. The prince brought closer to himself and generously endowed the most selective warriors.

It must be said that by the middle of the 1st millennium AD. the process of decomposition of the communal tribal system went far enough, military-political tribal and intertribal unions arose sporadically, the existence of which was stimulated by the needs of protection from outside attacks.

In ancient Slavic society, deep internal changes gradually took place - the processes of class formation were underway, a feudalized ruling elite arose, and the power of tribal princes gradually developed into hereditary. Such associations of Slavs played a significant role in the subsequent ethno-social development of the Slavs and in the formation of Slavic ethnic identity.

In the lands of the Novgorod Slovenes, where there were an abundance of rivers, lakes, and a well-branched water transport system, navigation, trade, and various crafts that produced products for exchange developed rapidly. The region was rich in forests, fur trade flourished there; Fishing has been an important branch of the economy since ancient times. In the forest thickets, along the banks of the rivers, on the forest edges, where the Drevlyans, Vyatichi, Dryagovichi lived, the rhythm of economic life was slow, here people especially hard mastered nature, winning back from it every inch of land for arable land, meadows.

Agriculture continued to improve especially intensively - this is the main type of economy of the early medieval world. Improved tools.

The Dnieper Slavs were engaged not only in agriculture. Near their villages there were beautiful water meadows where cattle and sheep grazed. Local residents raised pigs and chickens. Oxen and horses became the draft force in the economy. Horse breeding has become one of the important economic activities.

Each Slav was not only a diligent and stubborn farmer, but also an experienced hunter. Moose, deer, chamois, forest and lake birds were hunted. Already at this time there was such a type of hunting. Like the prey of a fur-bearing animal.

From spring to late autumn, the Eastern Slavs were engaged in beekeeping. It gave enterprising fishermen a lot of honey and wax, which was also highly valued in exchange.

The constantly improving economy of the Eastern Slavs, in the end, led to the fact that a separate family, a separate house, ceased to need the help of the clan, relatives. The tribal community is soldered both by kinship, and by common labor, hunting. Joint work on clearing the forest, hunting for large animals with primitive stone tools and weapons required great collective efforts. The plow, iron axe, shovel, hoe, bow and arrows, double-edged steel swords significantly expanded and strengthened the power of an individual, an individual family over nature and contributed to the withering away of the tribal community. This is how the right of private ownership, private property, was born.

The Middle Dnieper region became a place where crafts in the VIII - early XI centuries. reached great perfection. This is mainly blacksmithing: smelting iron and making up to 20 types of tools from it.

Every year the products of artisans multiplied. Gradually, their labor became more and more separated from the labor of the countryside. Artisans could now support themselves and their families with this labor. They began to settle where it was more convenient and easier for them to sell or exchange their products for food. Such places, of course, were settlements located on trade routes, places where tribal leaders lived, elders, where religious shrines were located, where many people came to worship.

Before becoming an independent political entity, the East Slavic tribal unions carried on a lively trade with their neighbors. It was in the VIII - IX centuries. the famous path “from the Varangians to the Greeks” was born, which contributed not only to trade contacts of the Slavs with the outside world, but also linked together the East Slavic lands themselves. On this path, large Slavic urban centers arose - Kyiv, Smolensk, Lyubech, Novgorod, which later played such an important role in the history of Russia.

But besides this main trade route for the Eastern Slavs, there were others. First of all, this is the eastern trade route, the axis of which was the Volga and Don rivers.

All these routes covered the lands of the Eastern Slavs with a kind of network, intersected with each other and essentially firmly tied the Eastern Slavic lands to the states of Western Europe, the Balkans, the Northern Black Sea region, the Volga region, the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, Western and Central Asia.

3 Religion of the Eastern Slavs

As for spiritual culture Eastern Slavs, it should be said that the religion professed by the Eastern Slavs was paganism(Recently, another term has been used more often - polytheism, i.e. polytheism).

Our ancestors revered the forces of nature. The first place in importance belonged to Dazhdbog (some Slavic tribes called Yarilo, or Khors, or Veles) - the god of the Sun, who was revered as a source of heat and light. It should be noted that Veles sometimes became a separate deity - the patron of cattle, and the Sun itself was called Khors.

According to legend, Dazhdbog rode out every morning in a chariot drawn by white fire-breathing horses. His sisters - Morning Dawn and Evening Dawn - alternately took out and led Dazhdbog's horses into the stable, in addition, he had two servants who dispersed the clouds and cleansed his face with the help of rain.

Another important deity was Perun, the god of thunder and lightning. In addition, he was the patron saint of warriors and military affairs. The Slavs believed that Perun shoots his arrows - lightning from a fiery bow - rainbows. Sometimes his lightning bolts were depicted as iron swords. It was also believed that Perun was armed with a huge club. All these weapons served him to fight evil demons - giants, lords of clouds and fogs. Perun eventually seizes power over the rest of the pagan gods. The holiday of Perun was celebrated annually - on July 20, and on this day a bull or a rooster was sacrificed to him.

Also, the Slavs worshiped Svarog - the god of heaven and the patron of artisans, Stribog - the god of the winds, Mokosh - the goddess of the earth and fertility, the patroness of women's needlework. Svarog - the god of heaven and heavenly fire, according to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, smashed the heavenly cover with rays - arrows. Once Svarog threw blacksmith tongs to the ground from the sky, and since then people have learned to forge iron.

Initially, Dazhdbog occupied the first place in the pantheon of the Eastern Slavs, then he was gradually pushed aside by Perun, who was worshiped by the princely combatants.

The external cult of deities among the Slavs was not developed. Temples were not built, idols were placed in open places, to which sacrifices were made, sometimes human. Such places were called temples. The Slavic sorcerers did not turn into a priestly class, as in ancient Greece, nor into a priestly caste, like priests in the East.

The cult of ancestors was much more developed. The long-dead founder of the clan was deified, and so they called him Rod. Accordingly, the revered progenitors were called women in labor. After the collapse of the tribal community, Rod's place was taken by a brownie, the patron of the house in which he lives. The cult of ancestors partly explains the long-existing custom of blood feud among the Slavs.

The Slavs believed that the souls of the dead could roam the world of the living (mermaids). Mermaids were considered to be girls who died before marriage, usually drowning themselves from unhappy love or because of the machinations of an evil stepmother. In the imagination of our ancestors, forests and lakes were inhabited by goblin and water. The goblin is the spirit of the forest that lives in the hollow of an old tree and terrifies people with its drawn-out howls, terrible laughter, groans and cries. He loves to sing, but there are no words in his song.

Water is the spirit of rivers and lakes. The Slavs believed that in order to intimidate people, he laughed out loud, clapped his hands, could imitate the speech of a person or animals. It was believed that the water one has the ability to transform and turns into a log, then a fish, then a pig, then a cow, then a dog.

Kikimors were considered evil spirits of a human dwelling, or forests (bog kikimors). They were presented to the Eastern Slavs as women - invisible, hunched, ugly. It was believed that they can survive the owners of the house, harm animals, especially chickens. They are hostile towards men, tearing the owner's hair, breaking dishes, disturbing at night. But at the same time. If they like the hostess, they can help bake bread, wash, clean.

To protect themselves from the wrath of deities and evil spirits, evil forces and the evil eye, the Slavs came up with various obergi- items that supposedly saved from adversity and warded off witchcraft spells. Each person constantly had an amulet in the form of a bear's claw, a wolf's tooth or a boar's tusk. In the houses, in a conspicuous place, a figure of a brownie carved from wood was placed, which, as it were, guarded peace, guarded the dwelling from thieves and kept it from fire. The intercessor of women was Mokosh, so many Slavs wore the image of this deity on their neck and chest.

Amulets could be all sorts of signs and patterns on objects of everyday life and use: on a spoon, on a comb, on a knife handle or on a jug. There were also amulets on clothes, bedspreads, towels and scarves: special colored embroidery or a beautiful pattern on the fabric.

The Slavs pinned great hope on the protective power of the word. Saying cherished spells that were kept in great secret, and sometimes resorting to rude curses, the ancient Slavs sought to drive away misfortune, frighten the enemy, defeat the disease, not succumb to fear, etc.

To save the dead from homeless walking around the world, there were traditional burial rites. The dead were burned, the ashes were collected in a vessel, which was either buried, pouring a mound on top, or placed on a pillar where several roads converged. During the burial of the prince, a horse, one of his wives or a slave, utensils, weapons were burned with him, so that the deceased would not lack anything in the afterlife.

The main Slavic holidays and rituals were also inextricably linked with the cult of nature and ancestors. For example, at the end of December, the Kolyada holiday was celebrated, which later coincided with Christmas. It was timed to coincide with the beginning of the addition of the day, "the turning of the sun for the summer." Kolyada was followed by other holidays in honor of the sun: seeing off winter, welcoming spring (“Red Hill”). On June 24, the feast of Ivan Kupala, the deity of abundance and earthly gifts, was celebrated. There was a legend that on the night of Kupala a fern blooms, promising untold riches to those who can find it.

In addition to the holidays associated with the change of the year, there were rituals that were a tribute to the dead, feasts. These include spring rainbow and summer mermaids.

Later, many pagan holidays were timed to coincide with Christian ones: seeing off winter - to Maslenitsa, Kolyada - to Christmas and Christmas time, Kupala and Rusalia - to Ivanov's day.

Conclusion

There were and still are a number of theories of the migratory nature of the origin of the Slavs and their "ancestral home".

Domestic historians, in reflecting this issue, note the complexity of the very process of the origin of the Slavs. According to their deep conviction, initially separate small scattered ancient tribes took shape on a certain vast territory, which then formed into larger tribes and their associations and, finally, into historically known peoples that form nations. This is the common path of ethnic, cultural and linguistic development of peoples and nations. Consequently, peoples were formed in the course of history not from a single primordial “ancestral people” with its “ancestral language” through its subsequent disintegration and settlement from some initial center (“ancestral home”), but on the contrary, the path of development basically went from the initial multiplicity of tribes to their subsequent gradual unification and mutual crossing. In this case, of course, in some cases a secondary process could also take place - the process of differentiation of large ethnic communities that had already formed earlier.

The main economic activity of the Eastern Slavs were: agriculture. Cattle breeding was closely connected with agriculture. Other occupations of the Slavs include fishing, hunting, beekeeping, which had a large share in the northern regions. Industrial crops (flax, hemp) were also grown.

The constantly improving economy of the Eastern Slavs, in the end, led to the fact that a separate family, a separate house, ceased to need the help of the clan, relatives. This is how the right of private ownership, private property, was born.

Under these conditions, the power and economic capabilities of tribal leaders, elders, tribal nobility, and warriors surrounding the leaders sharply increased. This is how property inequality originated in the Slavic environment, and especially clearly in the regions of the Middle Dnieper.

In many ways, these processes were helped by the development of not only agriculture and cattle breeding, but also crafts, the growth of cities, trade relations, because conditions were also created here for the additional accumulation of social wealth, which more often fell into the hands of the wealthy, deepening the property difference between the rich and the poor.

The religion of the Eastern Slavs was complex, diverse with elaborate customs. Its origins go back to Indo-European ancient beliefs and even further back to Paleolithic times. It was there, in the depths of antiquity, that man's ideas about the supernatural forces that control his fate, about his attitude to nature and her attitude to man, about his place in the world around him, were born. The religion that existed among different peoples before they adopted Christianity or Islam is called paganism.

Bibliography

1. History of Russia (textbook) edited by Derevyanko A.P., Shabelnikova N.A. Moscow: "Prospect", 2009

2. History of Russia from ancient times to 1861. Textbook for universities / ed. N.I. Pavlenko. - M .: "Higher School", 1996

3. Petrukhin V.Ya. Raevsky D.S. Essays on the history of the peoples of Russia in antiquity and the early Middle Ages. - M .: School "Languages ​​of Russian Culture", 1998

4. Pashuto V.T., Florya B.N., Khoroshkevich A.L. Old Russian heritage and the historical fate of the Eastern Slavs. - M .: Publishing house "Nauka", 1982

Life and customs of the ancient Slavs

The author of The Tale of Bygone Years devotes interesting lines to the description of the life and customs of the Eastern Slavs, who, however, does not hesitate to exaggerate when he speaks of the non-Polyan Slavs, apparently showing religious partiality: the meadows were already Christians in his time, and the others the tribes still held on to the pagan cult.

S. Ivanov. A scene from the life of the Eastern Slavs. Beginning 20th century

According to the description of the chronicler, the meadows are a people of a meek and quiet disposition and have “shame” towards their daughters-in-law, sisters, mothers and parents, and the daughters-in-law of the meadows have “great shame” towards their mothers-in-law and brothers-in-law. The glades, according to the chronicler, knew marriage customs, that is, marriage formalized and sanctioned by well-known traditional folk rituals.

According to the description of the Arab writer Ibn-Dast (X century), “the country of the Slavs is a flat and wooded country; they live in the forests. They have neither vineyards nor arable land. They make a kind of jugs from wood, in which they have hives for bees, and honey is saved. One jug contains about 10 mugs of it. They tend pigs like sheep."

Ibn-Dasta, like Ibn-Fadlan, describes the rite of burning the dead practiced by the Slavs, which is also mentioned by Al-Masudi and Ibn-Khaukala, and Ibn-Vakhshiya notes in this regard: “I am surprised at the Slavs, who, despite their extreme ignorance, their removal from all science and wisdom, decided to burn all their dead, so that they do not leave either the king or any other person without burning after death.

Ibn-Fadlan gives an exceptionally vivid picture of the funeral rite of burning a noble Rus with all the details that accompany it, including the slaughter on the grave of the deceased for burial with him of one of his wives. Al-Masudi and Ibn-Dasta also speak about the burning of the Slavs together with the husband and his wife. Archaeological excavations of Slavic burials confirm the data of Arab sources.

According to the chronicler, these same peoples performed a funeral feast for the dead, and then the corpse was burned on a large fire and, after collecting the bones, “I will put it in a small vessel, and put it on a pillar on the tracks, to do Vyatichi,” the chronicler notes, “and now ".

The same customs, according to the chronicler, were followed by the Krivichi and other pagans, "not leading the law of God."

According to Procopius, the Slavs lived "in crappy huts, scattered at a great distance from one another." Another, western source, Helmold, says about the Slavs that they do not care about building their houses, but usually weave huts for themselves from brushwood, just to hide from rain and bad weather.

“As soon as there is a clique of military alarm,” says this author, “they will quickly take away all the bread, hide it with gold, silver and all expensive things in a pit, take wives and children to safe shelters, to fortifications, or even to forests, and nothing will be left for the plunder of the enemy, except for some huts, which they do not regret in the least.

Ibn-Dasta says about the Slavs that because of the severe cold that occurs in their country, each of them digs a kind of cellar in the ground, to which he attaches a wooden gabled roof, like the roof of a Christian church, and puts earth on the roof. In such cellars they move with the whole family and remain in them until spring.

N. Roerich. The city is being built. 1902

They heat this dwelling in the following way: they light firewood, and on the fire they heat the stones red hot. When the stones are heated to the highest degree, water is poured over them, from which steam spreads, heating the dwelling to the point that they already take off their clothes.

Ugric attack on a Slavic settlement

Depicting the Slavs as a hardy and hardened, but primitive and uncultured people, limited in their needs, preferring the carelessness of a miserable existence, moderation in food and an idle but free life to work, Byzantine authors, nevertheless, say about them that they are not evil and not insidious (Procopius); that they are affectionate with strangers (guests), accept them at home, escort them from one place to another, where they need, and even if some misfortune happens to the guest through the fault of the host, then the one who received the guest after him opposes negligent, considering it an honor for himself to stand up for the guest; that their slaves are not kept in captivity forever, like other peoples, but they are assigned a certain time of service and then given a choice - whether to return to their homeland with a certain reward, or to remain with them as free comrades; that Slavic women are chaste beyond all likelihood, so that most of them consider the death of their husbands their own death and voluntarily strangle themselves, because for them widowhood is no longer life; that the Slavs do not want to serve anyone or be under power; that they are enduring in all hardships - heat, cold, rain, lack of clothing and food, but the Slavs, say these same sources, do not agree, they are stubborn, do not want to obey the opinion of the majority in their views, resulting in bloody clashes (Mauritius, Leo the Wise).

The German writer Adam Bremensky says about the Pomeranian Slavs: "There is no people more hospitable and friendly than they."

Even the Baltic pirates, according to Helmold, were distinguished by hospitality and generosity. For the guest and wanderer, the Slav was ready to sacrifice everything that he had the best. Taking care of the sick and elderly, feeding them and resting them was considered a sacred duty among the Slavs. Helmold himself had the opportunity to be directly convinced at the reception that Prince Pribyslav of Wagry gave him, in the wide hospitality of the Slavs and came to the conclusion that there is no people friendlier than the Slavs in their hospitality. At the invitation of a guest, he writes, they all seem to deliberately compete with each other, so that the wanderer never has to ask them for an appointment himself. Whatever a Slav acquires with his labor, whether it is bread, whether it is fish, whether it is game, he will spend everything on refreshments and considers the best person who is more generous ...

According to Adam of Bremen, every visiting foreigner enjoyed all the civil rights of the natives among the Baltic Slavs. Even the Saxons, he says, who come to them in the city of Yulin, the largest of all cities in Europe, receive equal rights with the natives, provided that during their stay they do not publicly perform Christian rites. All the people there, says this author, are still betrayed by pagan errors; however, with regard to morals and hospitality, one cannot find people more honest and good-natured.

Arabic sources also give a similar characterization of the Slavs, speaking of the customs of the Eastern Slavs. So, for example, the Arab writer Ibn-Dasta (X century) says about the Rus that they treat slaves well and take care of their clothes; that they have a large number of cities, and that they live in open space; guests are honored and treated well with strangers who seek their patronage, and with everyone who often visits them, not allowing any of their own to offend or oppress such people. In any case, Ibn-Dasta notes, if one of them offends or oppresses a stranger, they help the latter and protect him.

Both eastern and western sources unanimously speak of the courage and militancy of the Slavs. So, for example, the Arab writer Ibn Yakub says about the Slavs that they are a brave and warlike people and no one would compare with them in strength if it were not for the fragmentation of their numerous, isolated tribes.

Al-Bekri (XI century) gives the same characteristic of the Slavs, saying: “The Slavs are a people so powerful and terrible that if they were not divided into many generations and clans, no one in the world could resist them.” This characterization of the Arab writers coincides with the earlier opinions of the Byzantines.

Good-natured, friendly and hospitable, regardless of the nationality of the guest, at home, brave and warlike, as they are drawn by ancient authors, the Slavs in the war showed implacable and merciless ferocity. According to Procopius, having crossed the Danube in 549, the Slavs devastated the whole of Illyria to Epidamnus in a terrible way; those they met, without regard to age, were partly killed, partly taken away into captivity, depriving them of their property. In 550, having captured the leader of the Greek army, Azbad, they burned him at the stake. Having taken by storm a strong fortress on the Aegean Sea, they killed all the inhabitants - up to 15 thousand men, plundered property, and took their wives and children into slavery ... And for a long time, all of Illyria and Thrace, Procopius notes, were covered with corpses. They killed those they met not with a sword, not with a spear, and not with any other weapon, but impaled, crucified on the cross, beaten with batogs on the head; others, locked in tents along with bulls and sheep, which they could not take away with them, were mercilessly burned.

Heroism in war was inherent in the Slavs, and they always considered their military exploits in defense of their homeland and freedom a matter of honor, glory and valor. And they brilliantly proved this in the east and west with glorious deeds throughout their military history, starting from the 4th century. n. e., in the fight against the Huns, Avars and Ugrians, against the Greeks, against the Germans, against the Swedes, against the Tatar khans and against the Polish lords, staunchly and courageously defending their homeland and their freedom.

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