Was the old Russian prince completely free in his decisions?

Status squads, i.e. its place (position) in power relations, determined by two factors:

1. The princely squad is part of the administrative apparatus , and the closest combatants (boyars) constituted a permanent council, a "thought".

All the actual state issues (about the structure of the "land", about war and peace, about the adopted laws) the prince decided not on his own, but with the squad, listening to her opinion.

Exactly didn't existmandatory composition princely council and any formal competencies.

Sometimes the prince consulted with the whole squad(or announced his intention to her), sometimes only with her upper layer, sometimes–with two or three close-boyars. The Duma with the boyars and warriors was only a matter of practical necessity, custom and convenience. She is by no means was not mandatory for the prince, as well as did not impose any formal obligations on him.

2. Prince in his actions constantly had to focus on the squad, and if he did not fulfill her requirements, then, in any case, he was forced to reckon with her opinion. The squad was for the prince what modern scientists call reference group .

Reference group - a group of people , With attitudes, beliefs and actions which should be considered a leader(ruler) in carrying out his actions.

I.N. Danilevsky: "Apparently, the attitude of fellow warriors towards their prince was largely determined by the extent to which his actions corresponded to what was included in the concept of honor. We are talking about a set of moral and ethnic principles that guided a person in his behavior and which gave him the right to respect from the side of others. Honor could be obtained if the behavior was understandable to "comrades". The prince's place in society directly depended on the assessment of his behavior by others. The claim for recognition must necessarily correspond to accepted norms of behavior. "

Strengthening the power of the prince over time leads to a weakening of the influence of the squad on the actions of the prince and the fall of its authority.

The right of the vigilante to leave princely squad in case of violation by the prince of the terms of the contract or in case of disagreement of the combatant with some actions of the prince. During the period of political fragmentation, the warriors passed from one prince to another. This right to "leave" forced the prince to correlate his actions with the opinion of the warriors.

Two points of view of historians for the role of the squad in the system of power relations in Kievan Rus

Prince's retinue was not an independent institution of power,for it did not limit the power of the prince. The squad was only advisory and auxiliary body under the prince.

The princely squad is a power institution (" aristocratic element of power"). Attention is focused on the fact that the prince had to be guided and reckon in his actions with the opinion of the squad.

III. Prince and princely power

1. In the first period of the history of the state ( union of tribal principalities)Velikykievskiy prince from the Rurik dynasty - first among other princes(princes of local tribal dynasties).

2. After the elimination of tribal principalities ( during the unified state)all power is concentrated in the hands of one ruler–Kyiv prince.

3. With the appearance on the territory of the Kievan state sovereign states in each principality is ruled by a representative of the local Rurik dynasty.

The Grand Duke of Kiev was considered the eldest in the family. The princes called him their "father", but this is nothing more than an honorary appointment without any real content.

In reality, each prince, both within his land and in inter-princely relations, behaved like an independent sovereign.

a) within his volost, the prince was the head of the administration, the highest commander and judge.

b) in relations between princes - "brothers" all disputes were resolved"either an army, or the world," i.e. or by force of arms, or agreements, treaties with other princes. This contractual beginning in inter-princely relations runs throughout history and ends only in the Muscovite state.

Prince functions:

1). The duty of the prince, first of all, was to maintain external security and protect the land from attacks by an external enemy. The prince was military organizer and leader :

- collected and formed a squad, which was in personal service him;

- appointed the head of the people's militia ("thousand");

- During the hostilities, he commanded both his squad and the people's militia.

2) . Prince led foreign policy , was in charge of relations with other princes and states, concluded alliances and treaties, declared war and made peace (in the case when the war required the convocation of the people's militia, the prince had to obtain the consent of the council).

3). The prince was also legislator and administrator. The most striking example is a collection of ancient Russian laws of the 11th-12th centuries, called "Russian Truth".

4). The prince was supreme judge . He was supposed to "do the truth in this world", "judge the court in truth", "judge the court is true and not hypocritical", "deliver the offended from the hand of the offender", etc. The prince often entrusted the court to his deputies, "posadniks" and "tiuns", but this led to numerous abuses and insults of the population, and therefore the people always preferred the personal court of the prince.

5). The prince was head of government and appointed all officials.

In their governmental activities, the princes usually used the help and advice of their senior warriors, the princes consulted with them or "thought" about any important matter (they were sometimes called the prince's "duma members"). In important cases, especially before the outbreak of hostilities, the princes sometimes gathered for advice and squads.

Various regions states were ruled by governors Kyiv prince. Regional rulers appointed by the prince were called "posadniks". In the hands of the posadniks, as well as in the hands of the prince, there was administrative and judicial power, since antiquity did not know the separation of these functions. Under the prince and under the posadniks, there were petty officials, some of them free, some of their slaves, for all kinds of judicial and police executive actions.

Ways for the prince to come to power:

By way of inheritance:

– until the middle of the 11th century: lateral order

- since 1054: the next order of reign (possession)

- since 1097, the transfer of princely power in a straight line (son); beginning of dynastic rule in separate principalities

Seizure of the throne by armed force.

Election (calling by decree of the veche).

The social structure of society in Russia VaDEvil: According to Russian Truth: Princes - the leaders of the tribes, later - the rulers of the state or state formations within the framework of a single state. Simply put, everyone who was from Rurik's house. The prince of Kyiv was considered the senior prince in Ancient Russia, and the rest - specific. For the XIII century, after the ruin of Kyiv by the Mongols, the ruler of the Vladimir-Suzdal land becomes the Grand Duke. Boyars - representatives of the upper class of feudal lords in Russian: and, descendants of the tribal nobility, large landowners. They enjoyed immunity and the right to leave for other princes. Vigilantes - warriors of the armed detachments of princes, participating in wars, managing the principality and the personal household of the prince for a monetary reward. Men - in the pre-state and early state period - are free people. The general name of personally free people City people - townspeople. In turn, they were divided into "best" or "higher" (prosperous) and "younger" or "black" (poor). By occupation they were called "merchants" and "artisans". Smerdy - free communal peasants who had their own farm and their own arable land. Purchases - smerds who have taken a loan ("kupu") from another landowner with livestock, grain, tools, etc. and must work for the lender until they repay the debt. Before that, they had no right to leave the owner. The owner was responsible for the purchase in case he committed theft, etc. Ryadovichi - smerds who concluded an agreement ("row") with the landowner on the conditions of their work for him or the use of his land and tools. Forgiveness - freed ("forgiven") serfs. They were under the auspices of the church, lived on its land for duties. Kholops are a category of the feudally dependent population, in terms of legal status close to slaves. Initially, they did not have their own economy and performed various work in the economy of the feudal lords. The sources of the formations of this estate were: captivity, sale for debts, marriage with a serf or serf. Outcasts are people who have lost their former social status and are unable to run an independent household.

The social structure of Ancient Russia was complex. The bulk of the rural population, dependent on the prince, was called smerds. They also lived in peasant communities, and in estates. The ruined peasants borrowed a loan from the feudal lords - "kupa" (money, crops, etc.), hence their name - purchases. The man who lost his social status, became an outcast. In the position of slaves were servants and serfs, replenished from among the captives and ruined fellow tribesmen.

The dependent people were opposed by the free population, called people (hence the collection of tribute - "polyudye"). The social top was made up of princes from the Rurik family, surrounded by a retinue, which was divided from the 11th century. into the older (boyars) and younger (children, youths, merciful). "The new retinue and zemstvo (zemstvo boyars) nobility, which took the place of the former tribal, represented a kind of aristocratic stratum supplying political leaders." The free population consisted mainly of residents of cities and villages, community husbands, who created a significant part of social wealth. They were the social core of the socio-political and military organization in the ancient Russian state. This was expressed as follows.

Free community members had their own military organization, which in terms of combat power far exceeded the prince's squad. It was civil uprising led by the leader - the thousand (the militia itself was called "thousand"). The supreme authority in the Russian lands of the X-XII centuries. there was a popular assembly of the "older city" - a veche, which was the highest form of self-government. According to L.I. Semennikova, in ancient Russian society, the ideal of people's rule, collective communal governance dominated: "The prince in Kievan Rus was not in the full sense of the word the sovereign, either in the eastern or in the western version. Arriving in one or another volost, the prince had to conclude a" series "(agreement ) with the people's assembly - "veche". And this means that he was also an element of communal power, designed to look after the interests of society, the collective; The composition of the veche was democratic. The ancient Russian nobility did not have the necessary means for its complete subordination. With the help of the veche, the people influenced the course of social and political life"

Opinion of L.I. Semennikova about the popular character of the vecha is shared by many scientists, including I.Ya. Froyanov, A.Yu. Dvornichenko. At the same time, in science there is a view of the veche as a narrow-class body of power, where ordinary people could not get (V.T. Pashuto, V.L. Yanin, and others). Another point of view boils down to the following: the veche became a relic in Russia already by the 11th century. and gathered in exceptional cases, and as the highest form of power, it is up to the XV century. existed only in Novgorod, Pskov and partly in Polotsk.

Veche played a prominent role in the political life of Ancient Russia, so the political system of that time can be called veche democracy.

Analysis of social political environment in Kievan Rus leads to the conclusion that the people were an active political and social force, based on the traditions of freedom and social institutions dating back to antiquity, but built on a territorial basis. By means of the vecha, the people often decided which of the princes to "put on the table", discussed issues of war and peace, acted as a mediator in princely conflicts, and resolved financial and land problems. As for the nobility, it has not yet emerged as a separate, closed class, has not yet turned into a social entity that opposes the main part of the population.

The social structure of ancient Russia The highest class in Russia were the princes, and from the 10th century. also ministers of the clergy, tk. they owned (obviously, from the 11th century) landed property (patrimony). A privileged position was occupied by the squad. The squad organization had an internal hierarchy: the top of the squad layer was the oldest squad; its members were called boyars. The lowest layer was the younger squad. Its representatives were called lads. The lower class consisted of a free rural population, subject to tribute, and free townspeople, who were called people. For the personally dependent population of estates, as well as for non-free servants, the terms servants and serfs were used. Smerds constituted a special category of the population. The question of its essence is debatable. In the second half of the 11th c. a category of purchases appears - people who become dependent on the landowner for debts and are forced to work for the master until the amount of the debt is paid. Them legal status was intermediate between free people and serfs.

The social structure of the society of Kievan Rus The population of the ancient Russian state, according to various estimates, ranged from 5 to 9 million people. At the head of Russia were the Rurikovichs - the great Kyiv prince and his relatives. The prince enjoyed great power. He led the army, organized the defense of the country and directed all conquest campaigns. In the former tribal principalities, his brothers and sons ruled on behalf of the Grand Prince of Kyiv. The senior squad Former tribal princes and the best men of the period of "military democracy" made up the senior squad, the top of the squad layer. They were called boyars and constituted a permanent council ("thought") of the prince. The junior squad The junior squad are ordinary soldiers (“gridi”, “lads”, “children”). From the junior squad, the prince's personal squad was recruited, which was in his service. From the pre-state period, a squad came to the social structure of Kievan Rus. But during this period, it is divided into older and younger. People are personally free residents of Kievan Rus. By occupation, people could be both urban artisans and communal peasants. Craftsmen were a fairly large group of the population of Russia. As the social division of labor grew, cities became centers for the development of handicrafts. By the XII century. in the cities of Russia there were over 60 craft specialties; artisans produced more than 150 types of iron products. With the growth of cities, the development of crafts, the activity of such a group of the population as merchants is connected. The Russian-Byzantine treaty of 944 allows us to speak of the existence of an independent merchant profession. Peasants united in a rural community - a verv, which consisted of economically independent families. The word "rope" is most often associated with a rope, which may have been used to highlight individual sections. The community possessed a certain territory and was responsible for public order on it before the state (for a corpse found on its territory, it had to pay or find and extradite the killer), paid a fine - viru - for its members, owned land, which it periodically distributed among families . Vladimir I (Saint) Svyatoslavovich (died in 1015), Prince of Novgorod (since 969), Grand Duke Kievan (since 980). The youngest son of Svyatoslav. Came to power in Kyiv after an 8-year internecine war. He conquered the Vyatichi, Radimichi and Yotvingians; fought with the Pechenegs, Volga Bulgaria, Byzantium and Poland. Under him, defensive lines were built along the rivers Desna, Osetr, Trubezh, Sula, etc., the city of Kyiv was re-fortified and built up with stone buildings. In 988-990 introduced Christianity as the state religion. Under Vladimir I, the Old Russian state entered its heyday, and the international prestige of Russia increased. In Russian epics it was called the Red Sun. Canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. The squad, which previously performed only military functions, from the end of the 10th century. more and more turned into the apparatus of state power. The combatants performed various assignments of the Grand Duke (in military affairs, in governing the country, in the field of diplomatic relations). At the same time, the prince was forced to reckon with the opinion of the squad. The chronicle cites a case when the squad expressed their dissatisfaction with the stinginess of Vladimir, who exposed wooden dishes during the feast; the prince, considering that the loss of a squad is worth more than silver and gold, satisfied her demand. In the cities, the prince relied on the boyars-posadniks, in the army - on the governor, who were also, as a rule, representatives of prominent boyar families. The main group of the population of Kievan Rus were free community members - people. Semi-dependent population of Kievan Rus At the beginning of the XII century. a group of semi-dependent people appears - purchases. Most often, these were ruined community members who went into bondage for obtaining a loan - “kupa”. Working off the debt, the purchaser could work on the land of his master, but at the same time he retained his economy. The law protected the purchase from the possible desire of the owner to turn him into an independent (ie, complete) serf. Zaqup was deprived of his personal freedom, but he could redeem himself by repaying a debt. But if the purchase tried to escape, he became a complete slave. Russkaya Pravda is a code of ancient Russian law. It included separate norms of the “Russian Law”, the Truth of Yaroslav the Wise (the so-called Ancient Truth), the Truth of the Yaroslavichs, the Charter of Vladimir Monomakh, etc. Dedicated to protecting the life and property of princely combatants, servants; free rural community members and townspeople; regulated the position of dependent people; set out the norms of obligation and inheritance law, etc. It has been preserved in 3 editions: Brief, Long, Abbreviated (lists of the 13th-18th centuries). A small group of the semi-dependent population of Russia were the Ryadovichi. According to Russkaya Pravda, their lives were only protected by a 5 hryvnia fine. Probably their connection with the drafting of the contract - a series. Perhaps the Ryadovichi are tiunas who have concluded an agreement, key-keepers, husbands of slaves, as well as children from marriages of slaves and freemen. Ryadovichi often carried out minor administrative assignments of their masters. Dependent population of Kievan Rus Slavs, known as servants and serfs, should be included among completely dependent groups of the population. Probably servants is an early name, serfs is a later one. Another possible explanation: servants - slaves from prisoners of war, serfs - internal slaves. The slave did not have the right to be a witness at the trial, and the owner was not responsible for his murder. Not only the slave was punished for escaping, but also everyone who helped him. The sources of slavery were captivity, selling oneself into slavery, marrying a slave or marrying a slave, entering the service of a prince (tiun, housekeeper) without an appropriate contract. In Russia, there was patriarchal slavery, when slaves were involved in work in the household, but Roman classical slavery did not exist. Most of the slaves did menial work. Their life was estimated at five hryvnia. But at the same time, slaves could be managers, overseers, and housekeepers. Their life (for example, a princely tiun) was estimated at 80 hryvnia, and he could act as a witness in court. Despite the existence of a non-free population in Kievan Rus, most historians believe that slavery in Rus was not widespread due to economic disadvantage. In addition, in Russia there are categories of semi-dependent and fully dependent residents. Smerds were a special group of the population. These are probably not free princely tributaries. Smerd had no right to leave his property to his heirs. It was given to the prince. One more group can be distinguished - outcasts, people who have lost their social status - a serf who has redeemed himself, a community member expelled from the line, a bankrupt merchant or artisan, and even a prince who has lost his principality.

The functions of the princes of the first and second stages of the development of Kievan Rus differ from each other. In the 9th-10th centuries, the functions of the first princes were as follows:

• to the organization of troops;
• the command of these troops;
• collection of tribute;
• · foreign trade;
• management (which spread during this period, mainly to the Kievan land).

There was no princely legislation in this period (only financial and administrative orders), and there were no means of promulgating general norms. Even if the prince wished to issue laws, he had no way of monitoring their implementation. Due to lack modern forms legislation, means of communication and communication to bring laws to the attention of the population was almost impossible. And besides, a few officials princely administration could not check the execution of laws by the population. The functions of the princes - governors and tribal princes were similar to the functions of the Kievan princes.

Thus, at the stage of the formation of the Kyiv state, such leading functions as ensuring external security, internal stability, public order and fiscal, but direct economic interest, united the lands prevailed.

The state was ruled mainly by the Grand Duke with his retinue: the prince went to the field and collected tribute, judged the population, repelled the attack of enemies with his retinue, marched against them, and concluded international treaties.

The specificity of the geopolitical situation is the pressure of the steppe nomadic peoples, aggressive aspirations of neighboring European states, weak cultural and political contacts with them, limited access to sea trade routes - influenced the development of the statehood of Russia, gradually turning it into a "defensive society". Military spending, with limited human and material resources, was a heavy burden for the population. No wonder it was we who took shape the concept of "ladle" (from half of the crop). Speaking in economic terms, the rate of exploitation of working people often reached 50%.

The military forces of the princes consisted of:

from the squad - a permanent body;

the people's militia, which made up the bulk of the troops;

foreign mercenary detachments (which, as a rule, included Turks and Scandinavians).

The squad formed the basis state apparatus and military organization of the Old Russian state. Initially, the squad lived in the princely court (gridnitsa) on full content prince and was divided into older and younger.

The senior squad included well-trained privileged warriors, some of whom often served the prince's father. Of these, the most important ranks of the princely administration were appointed (thousands, sots, volostels). The top of the senior squad was called boyars, "husbands".

The younger squad (which included "youths", "stepsons", "children") was constantly with the prince and merged with the not free servants. This squad could include both the children of the prince himself and the children bright princes or vigilantes. So they received a kind of education and were attached to power.

The guards performed many functions:

• guarded the Grand Duke;
• collected taxes;
• Participated in trade expeditions;
• · military approaches;
• suppressed uprisings;
• Carried out local administration (governorship);
• · engaged in self-training (trained in military craft) and maintained combat readiness;
• Participated in the council under the prince.

The prince's retinue played the most significant role until the beginning of the 12th century, when almost all the retinues became land owners - votchinniks.

The senior squad consisted of boyars, husbands, ognischans, the younger squad consisted of grids, youths and children, merciful, stepchildren and lads.

The squad initially lived separately on the content of the leader - the prince of the tribal principality. In the X century. the division of the squad into two main parts - "boyars" and "grids" is clearly traced.

In the XI-XII centuries. the structure of the state administrative apparatus, formed from combatants, becomes more complicated.

In Kievan Rus, at the head of the princely administration was a council under the prince, composed of his boyars. This Council did not bear a permanent name; a separate meeting-session of this council was sometimes called a thought.

The name "boyars" comes from old Russian word"bolyar" - a fighter, combatant. Most historians share boyars X-XI centuries into princely (princely husbands) and zemstvo (city elders, descendants of the tribal nobility). They represented the highest stratum of society and were obliged to serve in the army of the prince, remaining full masters of their land.

With the appearance of patrimonial possessions among the combatants, a decisive step is taken towards their exit from the combat organization. In the second half of the XII-XIV centuries. in place of the squad becomes the princely "court" - an organization of persons who are more or less permanently with the prince and called "nobles" or "servants".

The yard included a part of the former "junior" squad - youths and partly children. The boyars and other part of the children, who became patrimonies, turned into landed vassals of the prince; they remained military service nobility, but ceased to be retinue nobility.

Cities and volosts were given to "feed" the boyars and free servants. The rights of feeders - governors and volosts - were very wide: they collected requisitions ("feed") from the subject population, levied court, trade and wedding duties, administered court, performed police functions, were in charge of repairing roads, bridges and other matters. Feeders, as a rule, were appointed to short term(for one year)".

The princely squad, detachments of princely and zemstvo boyars and the militia, which consisted of residents of cities and villages, participated in the war and military campaigns. Senior warriors - "front, molded men" - were called princely boyars. The main constant military force of the prince was the "youths", or "children" of the younger squad.

The highest places in the palace and local government Kyiv state occupied by senior combatants - duma members of the prince. They were also appointed as princely tiuns, equestrians, posadniks, governors, thousandths and governors of zemstvo regiments. Some positions were hereditary. Senior warriors had their own military detachments of the "lads", subordinate only to them. The younger combatants served at the princely court as keykeepers, grooms and managers of small volosts. The best "lads" who distinguished themselves in the military and civil service, moved to the senior squad.

Thus, the squad consisted of the closest circle of the prince and was constantly acting body states. Having become the bearer and guardian of the common economic interest, it has turned into a political force.

In the 9th-10th centuries, there was a council under the prince, which included the most influential combatants and representatives of the tribal nobility "the elders of the city" and the "council of the best" (senior combatants). They did not constitute any permanent institution with certain rights, duties, and competences. In the XI-XII centuries, the council under the prince began to be called the Duma.

The Duma included:

• boyars (mostly former combatants who settled on the ground. These lands, as a rule, were not far from Kyiv, and in the capital city, the combatants had houses and yards);
• Higher clergy (metropolitans, bishops, archimandrites, abbots).

It is curious that out of the 22 metropolitans of pre-Mongol Russia, 19 were Greeks, and the majority of the small and medium-sized clergy were already from the local population.

All the main issues (war, peace, government) were decided by the Grand Duke on the advice of the boyars, but the Duma was still a council under the prince and was of an advisory nature.

Veche, which existed even before the formation of the state, continued to operate in the Old Russian state. From the tribal gathering of the ancient Slavs, the veche turned into a meeting of townspeople, in which the decisive role belonged to the urban feudal elite: the boyars and the elders of the city.

What were the exact functions of this authority in the 9th-10th centuries is unknown. It can be assumed that in each tribal center had his own evening. The essence of veche communication was the meeting of the ruling elite and the people. During this period, the veche still played a role in the political life of ancient Russia, being one of the main bodies of the state in resolving important disputes. Quite often, the veche elected princes.

Of the 50 princes who occupied the throne of Kyiv, 14 were invited by the veche.

At the end of the 10th century, the veche began to be directed by the feudal elite, its convocation and conduct were streamlined. Full-fledged citizens (not slaves) and not subordinate to family authorities, that is, householders, had the right to take part in the veche.

Strengthening the power of the princes, the growth of the princely administrative apparatus led to a reduction in the role and importance of the veche. From the middle of the 12th century, veche meetings stopped inviting princes. One of the surviving functions of the veche was the recruitment of the people's militia and the choice of its leaders - the thousand, sot, ten.

Tysyatsky led the people's militia and was selected and then appointed prince from the feudal elite. Over time, this position has become hereditary. AT Peaceful time tysyatsky and sotsky carried out various assignments, most often of a police nature. The statutory charter of Prince Vsevolod Novgorod in 1136 determined that the tysyatsky should "manage all sorts of trade and living things and the commercial court." With the help of thousands of princes, "they forced tribute."

The role of the veche in different principalities was different (in Novgorod it was huge, in the Principality of Galicia-Volyn it was minimal) and depended on the political situation. There were moments in history when the veche was convened frequently, made decisions and had great importance, and then did not convene for a long time.

However, it is clearly visible The general trend- as the process of feudalization expanded, the veche lost its significance and finally ceased to exist. This happened because the feudal groups became so strong that they no longer needed the support of the popular assembly.

Feudal congresses were another body of power, convened in exceptional cases, when it was necessary to resolve the most important political issues that affected the interests of many principalities. Sometimes feudal congresses had an all-terrestrial character.

Feudal congresses could decide on the election and expulsion of princes, on taking measures against those princes who violate the treaty, on concluding alliances, on declaring war and peace, on issuing new laws and repealing old ones. Their competence was not limited by any norms. If the princes supported the decisions, then they carried them out, and if not, then they did not.

The territory of Kievan Rus was huge, and, being in the capital city of Kyiv, the prince appointed his posadniks to other centers of the state.

According to the Primary Chronicle, the legendary Rurik in 864, after the death of his brothers, “distributed cities to his husband, Polotesk, Rostov, Beloozero.” After his campaigns, Oleg in 882 everywhere in the conquered lands “planted his men”, Oleg Svyatoslavich in 1096, having conquered the Murom and Rostov lands, “planted his own posadniks in the cities and paid tribute to them”.

The posadnik monitored the maintenance of public order, fought against thieves and robbers, judged the local population, collected tribute and duties. Part of the collected funds went to the maintenance of the posadnik and his squad. From the middle of the XII century. the post of posadnik gradually began to be supplanted by the post of governor.

Under the princes and posadniks there were tiuns, often appointed from the prince's household servants. Tiuns were present at the trial of the prince and the posadnik, often even replacing them in court. They were entrusted with the management of the princely economy in the villages and at the princely court. Tiuns differed: princely; the fireman, who was in charge of the princely court - the firelighter (since the 12th century he was appointed from the boyars and was called the courtier), he was subordinate to the key keeper, stable, ratai (arable).

From the 11th century appeared special officials of the prince to collect tribute - tributaries. In the Old Russian state, there are other officials:

• · Mytniki levying trade duty - "wash";
• virniki charging a monetary fine for murder free man- "viru";
• Spotters who charge a fee for the sale of horses, etc. - "spot".

In Kievan Rus, two control systems existed in parallel: numerical and palace-patrimonial.

The numerical (decimal) system was common for many peoples. Even before the formation of Kievan Rus, the army was divided into parts: darkness, thousands, hundreds, tens, and the prince was helped to manage not only the council, but also thousands, hundredths, tenths. With the expansion and strengthening of the state, their functions changed, the troops settled in fortified cities, forming garrisons there, and the names were transferred from wartime to peacetime. So they began to call the heads of the garrisons and command staff. Tysyatsky turned into a commander of the troops, into a princely governor. By the 11th-12th centuries, the decimal system had lost its real mathematical content. "Thousand" became not a military, but a territorial concept - "district". This district was subordinate to the thousand, who "kept the voivodeship in it."

Thus, in the 11th-12th centuries, the thousands were the leaders of the military forces of a certain principality or district and concentrated all administrative power in their hands: financial, judicial, police. They were the bearers of the power of the prince in the field, his assistants in management. The Sotskys were direct assistants to the thousandths, they commanded hundreds as military units. With the transformation of thousands into territorial districts, they began to perform financial and administrative functions. The process of feudalization led to the displacement of organs decimal system in hairs.

The palace and patrimonial system consisted in the management of certain branches of the princely economy by special court ranks. The feeding system was rooted in the early forms of management organization and outlived Kievan Rus for a long time.

In Kievan Rus there was no fundamental difference between the organs of state administration and the organs of control of the prince's private affairs. Everyone who was part of the princely court was, by virtue of this, considered fit to perform general administrative functions. The ranks of the court appointed to administrative positions retained the names that belonged to them in the household of the prince. The center, from where all the threads of government stretched, was the princely court.

After the squad settled on the ground, the main administrative positions began to be occupied by lower palace servants, who were often recruited from princely serfs, tiuns, and swordsmen. In the 11th century, tiuns played an important role, their numbers increased. The top of the tiuns began to stand out, who acquired farms, houses, villages. Positions could be inherited. Over time, this top merges with the top of the boyars. The emerging ruling elite gradually consolidated around the princes.

Mobility public life, associated with frequent movements of people, colonization, invasions of nomads, princely strife, predetermined the predominance of vertical ties coming from above. If in medieval Europe states were relatively weak and society itself had to solve many problems, in Russia, on the contrary, the state gradually turned into the supreme legislator of public life.

Weaker than in Europe, there was a process of differentiation along social and professional lines. Huge territories, an abundance of forests and swamps made the terrain difficult to pass, so there was no extensive communications system. In this regard, the exchange of goods and services developed more slowly, horizontal social ties were not strengthened.

Colonization in difficult natural conditions taught the ancient Russian people to be content with elementary technologies (such as "slash-and-burn", or, as it is often called, "nomadic" agriculture). Under these conditions, the idea that the application of labor to the land is the basis of ownership of it and the products of its processing could not take shape in the legal consciousness of the workers.

As a result, in Russia, the state turned into the only organizing force that was not used to meeting serious resistance in society, with the exception of cases of upholding veche traditions and popular uprisings (typical of any medieval society). In such cases, the authorities showed arbitrariness and violence. The sovereign in Russia never needed legal support for his actions, so the idea of ​​law and order did not turn into a generally significant value here.

Under such conditions, the Western European concept of property, such as in Roman law, could not take shape. Since even among large landowners from among the people of a narrow circle of boyars close to the prince, this right was usurped by the state in the person of the ruler, who looked at the whole country as his own fiefdom.

In the written monuments of Ancient Russia, the prince invariably appears against the background of the squad, in the company of his comrades and assistants, who shared with him both success and defeat.

As A.A. Gorsky, the squad “is recruited and built not according to the tribal principle, but according to the principle of personal loyalty; the squad is outside the community structure; it is cut off from it socially (the combatants are not members of separate communities) and territorially (due to the isolated residence of the combatants). At the same time, princely-druzhina relations were a continuation of the social relations of the period of military democracy. The Old Russian squad was a kind of military community, led by the prince - the first among equals. From the community came the relationship of equality, which found external reflection in retinue feasts, reminiscent of peasant "brotherhoods", in an equalizing order of the division of booty (later transformed into a tribute division) - the main source of existence of the retinue.

Breaking away from the community, the squad first copied its orders in its internal structure. A squad should be understood as professional soldiers, who were recognized as nominal collective ownership of the lands from which they had the right to collect tribute.

The Tale of Bygone Years provides enough information to solve the problems of this paragraph. The prince solved many issues not on his own, but with a squad. "In the summer of 6452. Igor, having gathered many howls, Varangians, Russia, and glades, Slovenes, and Krivichi, and Tivertsy, and Pechenegs, and hoisted them, go to the Greeks in boats and horses, although to take revenge on himself.<…>When the tsar heard the ambassador to Igor, the radiant boyars, praying and saying: “Do not go, but take tribute, Oleg has sent it to the south, give it to that tribute.” It’s the same with the Pecheneg ambassador’s pavoloki and a lot of gold. Igor, having reached the Danube, convened a squad, and began to think, and delivered a speech to them to the king. Deciding the team of Igorev: “Yes, if the king speaks to his wife, then what do we want more than that, not to have gold, and silver, and curtains? Whenever someone knows; who will overcome, are we, are they? Who is bright with the sea? Behold, we do not walk on the earth, but on the depths of the seas: it is customary for everyone to be angry. Igor listened to them ... "... And the ambassador [Svyatoslav] was heard to the king in Derevstr, be that king, ryka sitse:" I want to have peace with you, firm and love. But when the king heard it, he was glad and sent gifts to him more than the first. Svyatoslav, however, received gifts, and often think with his retinue, roaring: “If we don’t make peace with the king, but take the king away, as there are few of us, when they come, they will step on the castle. And Ruska is far away, and the Pechenesi are warriors with us, and who can help us? But let's make peace with the king, we'll give you tribute, and then be pleased with us. Is it possible to begin not to administer the tribute, but from Russia again, having combined the howls of the multiplicity, we will go to Tsaryugorod. Love was the speech of this squad, and sent the molded men to the king ... ".

The question arises why the prince had to focus on his warriors. The answer can also be found in The Tale of Bygone Years. For example, the chronicler explains Svyatoslav's refusal to be baptized in this way. “In the summer of 6463 ... Olga lived with her son Svyatoslav, and to teach and mother to be baptized, and not scolding, but cursing [mocked] that.<…>. It’s like Olga often says: “Az, my son, I know God and rejoice; if you know, you will rejoice.” But he does not heed that, saying: “How is it possible to accept a single law? And the moa squad will start laughing at this. She said to him: “If you are baptized, do everything you have too.” He doesn't listen to his mother...

Perhaps this was due to the fact that his status in the squad environment was not yet unconditional. Apparently, the attitude of the comrades towards their prince was largely determined by the extent to which his actions corresponded to what was included in the concept of honor, and one could be honored if the behavior was approved by the “comrades”.

But, as already mentioned, there were cases when the prince acted at his own discretion, and the squad followed him, and this shows that not only the prince was guided in his actions by the squad, but the squad followed the prince. “In the summer of 6496 ... According to God, I will arrange for Volodimer to get sick all the time, and not seeing anything, and worse, and not to think what to do. And the queen [the Byzantine princess Anna whom Vladimir wanted to marry] sent to him, saying: “If you want to get rid of this disease, then do not want to get rid of this disease.” Hearing Volodimer, he said: “Yes, if there is truth, then truly great God will be a Christian.” And he commanded to be baptized. The bishop of Korsun, from the priesthood of the tsarina, having announced, baptized Volodimer. Like put your hand on n, abye see. Seeing Volodimer's vain healing, and glorify God, rivers: "First of all, I took away the true God." Behold, having seen his squad, many were baptized. Perhaps this passage marks a certain turning point in the relationship between the prince and the squad. If before the authority of their leader, now the actions of the leader are a certain pattern of behavior for combatants.

The relationship between the prince and the squad was also based on the transfer of certain material values ​​to the latter. Moreover, values ​​are not important in themselves. The resulting wealth, apparently, did not carry economic essence. I think the combatants were more worried about the act of transfer than enrichment as such. “In the summer of 6583 ... coming from a German to Svyatoslav; Svyatoslav, magnifying, showing them his wealth. They saw a numberless multitude, gold, and silver, and dragging, and decided: “This is nothing, this is lying dead. This is the essence of a better beam. Husbands are afraid to search for more than this. Ezekiel, Caesar of Judea, praised this, to the ambassador of the Caesar of Asuri, his whole body was taken to Babylon: even after this death, all the estate was scattered differently.

It is noteworthy that the complaints of the combatants were focused on external signs wealth. At the same time, in contrast to Western European chivalry, land grants were never discussed, which testifies to the underdevelopment of feudal relations. As is known, feudal relations are based on corporate land ownership and distribution land plots warriors on the condition of their service to the owner of the land. On the one hand, the land in Russia was in abundance, on the other hand, there was a constant shortage in the developed areas (the need for a constant change of cultivated land due to the fact that the land cleared from the forest was quickly "ploughed out"). Under such conditions, land grants were largely meaningless. Their borders could not be fixed somehow. Exactly this for a long time did not allow the development of "normal" feudal relations. In Russia, feudalism with its characteristic estates, beneficiaries, immunities and regulation of vassalage began to take shape only at the turn of the 13th-14th centuries. and received full development in the 16th century Until that time, ties, conditionally correlated with the vassal-suzerain relations of Western Europe, existed in a more patriarchal form of personal relations associated with the centralized exploitation of lands that were in corporate ownership. Such a late appearance of feudal relations is due to the fact that the birth of early feudal relations was interrupted by the Mongol invasion.

In Russia, the formation of a corporation of professional warriors was based not on conditional land ownership, but on the personal connections of the prince-leader and his soldiers. They were based on a system of donations, one of the forms of which can be considered feasts of the prince and squad. Everything that the prince gave to the combatant made the latter dependent on the donor. The same applies to princely feasts. Treating the prince's combatants strengthened the personal ties that had existed since childhood: “Behold, packs [Vladimir Svyatoslavich] with his people: for the whole week, set up a feast in the yard in the gridiron, and come as a boyar, and we celebrate, and as a son, and ten, and a deliberate husband, with princes and without a prince. There was a lot from meat, from livestock and from beasts, more in abundance from everything. Apparently, at such feasts, rites of acceptance of new combatants and meetings, “thoughts” of the prince with the squad, also took place. This "thought" was almost an everyday occupation of the prince, as follows from the Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh; moreover, the opinion expressed by the warriors is by no means obligatory for the prince. He could act in his own way, which was facilitated by the fact that disagreements arise in the squad when discussing issues, and the prince could choose one of the many decisions of the squad.

The squad also received a monetary support from the hands of the prince or used deductions from the volost feed and various payments from the population, while fulfilling the police, judicial and administrative orders of the prince.

Thus, the squad of Kievan Rus lived to a large extent on princely funds, therefore, the prince who generously presented his soldiers was considered ideal, but if the warrior for some reason was dissatisfied with his prince, then he could leave.

Over time, however, the relationship between the prince and the squad began to change, as can be seen from the above story about the arrangement of the feast. The property stratification of the squad led to the formation of a new social group- the boyars, which also influenced the relationship between the prince and the squad.

Drawing analogies between old Russian team and German, one can identify a number of features characteristic of both. The military community is united around the overlord, this group follows the leader, where he is the first among equals. The military community models itself according to the family model, which can be seen in the names of the groups of the squad and its members. The system of gifts is more sacred than economic. But the German squad was cut off from the community, any valiant warrior could become its leader, which cannot be said about the Slavic.

Summing up, it should be noted that the relationship between the prince and the squad was based on personal ties, which were consolidated by a developed system of "gifts" in various forms. At the same time, the prince acted as "first among equals." He depended on his warriors no less than they depended on him. All state issues (about the structure of the "land", about war and peace, about the laws being adopted), the prince decided not on his own, but with the squad, accepting or not accepting its decisions.

PRINCE, DRUZHINNIKI AND MILITIES

But if it came to a fight,

it is shameful for the leader to yield to someone

in valor, shamefully squad

do not imitate your leader's prowess.

Tacitus, "Germany"

The military leader is probably known to all nations traditional society who came into contact with other peoples and were forced to fight with them. Initially, he was elected and was chosen for a specific military task. In order to become such a leader, a person had to possess a number of qualities - he must be able to fight, be able to manage people, enjoy authority among fellow tribesmen and have military success. The latter quality showed that the leader was favored by higher powers, which was very important for the people of traditional society. Over time, the power of the military leader became hereditary, but was still limited mainly to military matters.

The military leader in Ancient Russia is a prince.

The prince is traditionally seen as some distant ancestor of the king, the absolute monarch. It seems that he fully manages the affairs of his principality - decides on issues of war and peace, judges people ... In reality, the situation is much more complicated.

The activity of the prince in ancient Russian society was primarily associated with the war - the prince was the leader of the army that defended this or that land or city. In addition, it was through the figure of the prince that higher powers influenced the life of the community. Without a prince, the ancient Russian urban community could not be considered full-fledged, it was vulnerable both to enemies and to evil otherworldly forces.

The prince must command the army that protects the community. This army consisted of the prince's squad and militias-warriors. The prince, as a military leader, must be able to effectively protect the community from attacks by neighbors, or vice versa - successfully organize an attack on neighbors. In addition, it was the prince, most likely, who led the large rites in holidays annual cycle.

If the prince did not cope with his duties, he could be removed, expelled, and in exceptional cases - killed. The prince in Ancient Russia was never and nowhere a full-fledged monarch, his power was severely limited by communal traditions.

I. Ya. Bilibin. Epic hero Volga and his team. Volga Svyatoslavich (or Vseslavich) of Russian epics is a vivid image of a retinue leader. He loves his squad, and she is ready to go through fire and water for him. In the drawing by I. Ya. Bilibin, Volga and his knights are depicted in late military attire: on the helmets there are Yalov flags, the shields are almond-shaped. Helmets of this type are of Middle Eastern origin and appeared only in the 17th century in the arsenal of the local cavalry.

Russian princes from childhood were preparing for military accomplishments. At the age of three, the prince was solemnly mounted on a horse, dedicating him to the warriors.

On the pages of the chronicle, we invariably see a squad around the prince - faithful warriors accompanying their leader in joy and sorrow, in case of success and failure. The warriors accompany the prince on trips, fight for him in battle, give him advice (for example, they warn of danger), in a word, this is exactly the squad - friends on whom the prince can always rely and who form the core of the Old Russian army in case of a big war.

The prince among the combatants occupied the position of "first among equals." The combatants were ready to follow the prince into fire and water, but the prince also understood his dependence on the combatants and treated them accordingly. He, as a rule, did not have any domestic advantages over his entourage, personally commanded in battle and received direct involvement in battles. It was the prince who had the right to start the ritual battle.

A. M. Vasnetsov. yard specific prince. This is how the princely court could have looked somewhere in the north-east of Russia in the 12th century. Chopped log buildings could at that time reach a considerable height - this can be judged from the materials of excavations in Novgorod. However, the church with graceful onion domes in the background of the picture belongs to a much later time - the artist used images of the architecture of the Russian North of the 17th-18th centuries.

The warrior could not be hired for a fee, he went to serve the prince, guided by other principles; Here, first of all, the personal charisma and military merits of the prince played a role. “With gold and silver, I’m not going to fit the squad,” said the son of Svyatoslav Vladimir the Holy at one time, “but I’ll climb the silver and gold with the squad ...”.

Perhaps Svyatoslav Igorevich can be considered the most expressive of our warrior princes. By the way, it was during his short, but stormy reign that the highest flowering of the "druzhina culture" - a special military entourage of the Rus - falls.

Just in time for Svyatoslav, there is a brief but very revealing chronicle note about the relationship between the prince and the squad. When Princess Olga, Svyatoslav's mother, who was baptized in Constantinople, urged her son to be baptized, he answered with a categorical refusal, explaining this precisely by the fact that the squad would begin to laugh at him.

The unity of the prince and the squad was built not only on the personal devotion of the combatants to their leader, but also on purely material things - the well-being of the combatants directly depended on the prince. From time immemorial, according to custom, a military leader was obliged to feed and support combatants, and generosity has always been considered one of the main virtues of a leader. The main source of retinue income was tribute from subject tribes and military booty. If the prince, for some reason, did not live up to the expectations of the combatants in terms of remuneration, the initiative for the next military campaign could come "from below" - for example, at one time Igor's soldiers persuaded him to go rob the Drevlyans, which led to the death of the prince ...

V. M. Vasnetsov. Rest of Vladimir Monomakh on the hunt. Hunting was a favorite entertainment of the Russian princes, a kind of combat training. Prince Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh left in his "Instruction" addressed to children a colorful description of his hunting adventures - he mentions dangerous fights with wild bison bulls and tours, deer, bears.

The prince distributed treasures obtained in battles among his soldiers, gave valuable gifts to warriors and arranged feasts.

A feast for a man of Ancient Russia was by no means an ordinary drinking bout. It was in in a certain sense a sacred action, a repetition of the feast of the gods. For the Scandinavian warriors, the feast of the king reproduced the feast that Odin, the god of war and victory, arranged in Valhalla for the Einherja warriors who fell in battle. The feast was a window into the world of the gods. So it was not only the drinking of intoxicating drinks as such that the son of Svyatoslav Vladimir had in mind when he said: “Russia is fun drinking, we cannot be without it ...”.

And one of the sons of Vladimir, the fratricidal prince Svyatopolk the Accursed, once lost a battle because of a retinue feast. At the decisive moment, when it was already time to build an army and prepare for battle, Svyatopolk, according to the chronicler, "drank with his retinue ...". The result was a military disaster.

"Begin to think with your squad ...". The miniature of the Radziwill Chronicle depicts the moment of presenting the gifts of the Byzantine emperor John Tzimiskes to Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich. The prince decided to consult with the retinue about the possibility of continuing a difficult military campaign against the Greeks. The Radziwill chronicle is a remarkable monument of ancient Russian book art. It was created in the 15th century. The text is illustrated with many miniatures, which are an important visual source for studying the costume of late Russia. The basis of the text of the Radziwill Chronicle is "The Tale of Bygone Years".

Svyatoslav confers with his warriors. Miniature of the Radziwill chronicle.

Druzhina feasts both in Russia and Scandinavia were usually arranged at the expense of ordinary community members who were obliged to the prince and the squad for protection from enemies. When the season of campaigns ended, the prince and his retinue went to the field. Here is how the Byzantine emperor Konstantin Porphyrogenitus describes the polyudie of the Rus:

“The winter and harsh way of life of those same dews is as follows. When the month of November comes, immediately their archons leave with all the dews from Kiava and go to polyudia, which is called “circling”, namely, in Slavinia, the Vervians, Druguvites, Krivichi, Severii and other Slavs, who are the pactiotes of the dews. Feeding there throughout the winter, they again, starting in April, when the ice on the Dnieper River melts, return to Kiav. Then, just as it was told, taking their monoxyls, they equip them and go to Romagna.

Drinking horn binding. Russia, X c. Drinking horns, bound with sheet silver, were an obligatory attribute of retinue feasts. They drank from them both in Russia and in Scandinavia. However, among the Slavs, the feast bull's horn had a special meaning - the wild bull-round was considered a sacred animal of the god Perun, the patron saint of Slavic warriors, and the protector of the whole kind of ancient "Slovenes".

What is an ancient Russian polyudie? This is the oldest way to provide military protection, known both in Russia and in Scandinavia. Turning to the Scandinavian sources allows us to clarify a lot.

The polyud mechanism is simple. There is a military leader (for example, a prince or king), and he has a squad. These are the permanent military forces of the ancient society. They do not plow and do not sow, but they need to somehow exist - they are fed by the people they protect. The leader with combatants travels around the “subordinate territory”, stopping briefly in conditionally agreed places. In our case, these are obviously small Slavic cities - the centers of tribal principalities. Constantine calls such reignings "Slavinia", by analogy with the same formations early Slavs, whose invasions shook Byzantium in the VI century. The stopping places of the "prince of Russia" could also be special "graveyards" in which tribute was brought.

The tribute, apparently, was collected in the winter, during the polyudya - a detour of the Slavic lands. This can be traced quite easily: it is known that the Khazars took tribute from the Slavs “by the white line” - the winter squirrel. However, just the Khazars could run over for tribute in the summer - their main sources of food lay in the Steppe and had nothing to do with the Slavic lands.

The arrival of a prince in a small Slavic town is always an event. They knew about the arrival in advance and prepared a feast for the prince and the combatants accompanying him. Here they collected tribute, traded, settled litigation, and perhaps even accepted the young sons of local community members into the squad. Then the Russians went further.

The Scandinavian king also spent the winter on trips to feasts. The Scandinavian analogue of polyudya was called "veizla", i.e. feast, feeding. The kings had a network of their own estates throughout the country, which were managed by specially appointed people from among the combatants or local residents who were awarded such an honor for special merits.

... We do not know so much about the composition of the Russian squad, its internal structure, the relationship of combatants among themselves - chronicle stories are very short. It is known that the squad was clearly divided into senior and junior. The younger combatants were called "youths" and "children." According to Scandinavian sources, we know that the younger sons of free community-bonds, deprived of the right to inherit their father's possessions, willingly entered the squad of a king or jarl. Such a junior combatant in Scandinavia was called "dreng" ("drengr").

K. V. Lebedev. Polyudie. Prince Igor collects tribute from the subject Drevlyans near Iskorosten.

The senior combatant, an experienced, accomplished warrior, was called "husband", and for special merits he could become a boyar. Boyars in Russia in the 10th century. - these are the closest military advisers to the prince, they had their own possessions, and sometimes (as, for example, governor Igor Sveneld) and their squads, competing in the wealth of clothes and weapons with the squads of princes. It was envy of the dressed-up youths of Sveneld that pushed Igor's warriors to put forward the initiative of a predatory campaign against the Drevlyans.

Warrior of the Swedish king. Birka, X century. The author of the reconstruction is M. Yu. Vladimirsky (Black Raven Club, St. Petersburg). The warriors who returned to Scandinavia from the Russian lands brought the fashion adopted in Russia to their historical homeland. The warrior, whose costume was restored based on materials from the burials of Hemlanden - the cemetery of the trading city of Birka in Central Sweden - is dressed in an open caftan, the belt repeats steppe samples. At the same time, Thor's hammer, scramasax combat knife and hook windings are characteristic attributes of a Scandinavian.

Senior combatant in full combat attire. Early 11th century The author of the reconstruction is S. Kashin-Sveshnikov (St. Petersburg). Properly Russian forms of weapons, original ornamentation of jewelry appear by the beginning of the 11th century. Prior to this, the warriors of the Russian princes used the steppe and European things, without subjecting them to changes. The warrior in the photo has a characteristic sword with a cast handle, created by South Russian craftsmen, a European spear with protrusions on the sleeve, a helmet and plate armor repeating steppe counterparts.

help us understand psychological world a Russian warrior can be an epic epic.

The origin of epics is lost in the darkness of centuries. There is no doubt that the basis of the Russian epic is very ancient. In the annals and military stories of Ancient Russia, reflections of heroic poetry are sometimes seen - for example, in the famous "Tale of Igor's Campaign" or in "The Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Land". Probably, there was a retinue tradition about the wars of Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich, reflected in the colorful stories of The Tale of Bygone Years.

We know by name and some of the ancient singers. The most famous of them is Boyan.

Sometimes it happened that the epic of pagan times was written down in a more or less complete form by Christian scribes. There are many such examples in Europe: here are the Anglo-Saxon "Beowulf", and the Scandinavian legends about heroes recorded in Iceland, and the German "Nibelungenlied", and the Irish epic tales about the king of the Ulads Conchobar and his warriors, the most glorious of which was the hero Cuchulainn …

V. M. Vasnetsov. Boyan. An unsurpassed master of the performance of the military epic was Boyan, mentioned in the Tale of Igor's Campaign. We usually use the expression "to spread thought along the tree" in an ironic sense - to speak verbosely where it is possible not to do so. But in the eyes of the author of the Lay, this is an unequivocal compliment - this is exactly how the famous singer sang, spreading his thoughts along the tree, like a wolf on the ground and an eagle under a cloud. The historical Boyan, if he existed at all, lived in the 11th-12th centuries, in Christian Russia. The artist depicted a singer with a late harp-psalter; the armament of the soldiers listening to Boyan also belongs to the period of the 14th-16th centuries. Apparently, Boyan sings at a feast, a funeral feast - the singer and listeners are sitting on the top of the mound, in front of them are a brother and ladles. The young prince in the picture is dressed in a half-open caftan, depicted in the miniature "Izbornik 1073" - one of the oldest Russian handwritten books.

In the heroic epic, there is always, or almost always, some kind of sovereign, the ruler of the country. Most often, this sovereign is also the main character of the entire epic. He is the first among his equal mighty warriors, he has magical powers and wisely rules his country. Such, for example, are the Kalmyk Dzhangar or the Buryat Abai-Geser.

It also happens that the epic ruler, being surrounded by famous brave men, does not himself have outstanding abilities, and sometimes even finds himself in comic situations. Such a ruler was King Conchobar, the hero of the Irish epic. At the same time, this controversial sovereign is quite respected by his knights; in the epic, he often bears honorary titles. Main character Irish legends - the great warrior Cuchulain highly honored Conchobar as his tutor.

Our epic prince, Vladimir the Red Sun, belongs to this type of epic rulers, at whose feasts the majority of epic stories. For example, one of the heroes boasted unsuccessfully - and was forced to prove his boast with deeds. Someone quarreled with the prince himself because of the unsuccessful allocation of a place at the table - this was very important for the people of ancient society! It also happens that a hero, whom everyone considers missing, may appear unrecognized at a feast - and disrupt the wedding of his wife with another hero ...

A. P. Ryabushkin. Feast of heroes at the affectionate Prince Vladimir.

Almost all of our epics in one way or another reflected the ancient squad spirit. But in our story about Russian warriors, we will dwell in detail on only one of them. This epic tells how two heroes - Duke Stepanovich and Churila Plenkovich - competed with each other ... in the beauty of their clothes.

Duke Stepanovich came to Kyiv from South-Western Russia, from the "Volynets-city, from Galich." Already his very name (it probably comes from the Latin "dux" - "prince", "duke") inclined scientists in that direction to look for his possible historical counterpart. However, the epic Duke has no direct analogue in real history.

Scientists believe that the epic about Duke and Churil reflected those times when the Russian lands competed, and often fought with each other. Duke is not a foreigner, although in relation to Kyiv and the people of Kiev he acts as an alien character. He is in some ways his own, Russian, but in some ways not.

I. E. Repin. Cossacks. As in costume, so in appearance Zaporozhye Cossacks some characteristic attributes of the squad culture of Russia have been preserved, for example, a hairstyle.

It should be noted that the name "Russian Land" in our ancient chronicles has a double meaning. Firstly, the Russian land is all immense Russia. But in some cases, the Russian land of the chronicler is Kyiv and the region adjacent to it - modern Northern and Northwestern Ukraine. It was this “Russian land in the narrow sense of the word” (as historians call it) that was the rival of Galicia-Volyn Rus for a long time.

Duke Stepanovich is very rich. The treasures that he owns in Galich cannot be described even in three years. At the end of the epic, the people of Kiev, led by Vladimir, are disgraced and humiliated.

Russian combatant costume. X century. The author of the reconstruction is A. Kovalev (St. Petersburg). The Rus warrior is dressed in a caftan with gold-woven galloons, girded at once with two type-setting belts of the steppe appearance. On the belt is a characteristic early medieval saber with a slight curve of the blade. A bone point with a miniature dragon's head was most likely used to untie knots, but could also be used for other purposes, for example, as a fork. The fact that we have a Russian is evidenced by a fur hat and a massive braided chain of silver wire around the warrior's neck. On such chains, both Thor's hammers and Christian symbols - crosses - could be worn.

Russian combatant. X century. The author of the reconstruction is D. Kovalev (Black Raven Club, St. Petersburg). The costume and weapons of this warrior combine steppe and European elements. The pointed helmet, silk-topped caftan, and stacked belt are borrowed from the nomads, while the Carolingian sword comes from Western Europe. On the feet of the combatant - low leather shoes with windings, boots will appear in Russia a little later.

Russian combatant costume. 10th century The author of the reconstruction is S. Mishanin. Steppe elements predominate in the costume of this combatant - a caftan, the cut of which is similar to the cut of North Caucasian swing clothes, a typesetting belt, a pointed hat with a silver pommel. However, a scramasax knife on the belt and shoes with windings on the warrior's feet clearly indicate that we are still Russian, and not a steppe.

Druzhina belt with a bag-tashka. The author of the reconstruction is M. Savinov. The type-setting belts of Russian warriors, decorated with overlay plaques, come from the Steppe. Comparison of plaque ornaments shows that most of the ancient Russian belts have the closest analogies in the Volga Bulgaria, Khazar belts are also known in Russia. By the end of the 10th century, the actual Russian traditions of making typesetting belts appeared. The belt shown in the photo was found during the excavations of the Timerevsky burial ground near Yaroslavl, on the Upper Volga. It fastened with a short slip-on strap.

The epic clearly reflected the times of power and glory of Galich. South-Western Russia reached this position in the second half of the 12th century, when the influence of Kyiv was already severely undermined.

But back to the plot of the epic. The Galician fellow, after various trials, nevertheless reached the capital Kyiv. Already when he was driving through the streets of the city to the tower of Vladimir the Red Sun, the Kyiv merchants argued whether the first Kyiv handsome Churila Plenkovich would surpass this visiting dandy or not? As you can see, by this time Churila had firmly settled down in Kyiv and was unequivocally perceived as his own person. “Our Churilushka,” the people of Kiev were now talking about him.

Duke and Churila bet on a fair amount for medieval Russia amount of five hundred rubles:

Pinch-basitda rub them for years,

Changeable dresses for every day.

The expression "shap-basit" can be translated as "flaunt", "show off clothes." Heroes of the epic undertook to dress every day in a new dress for three years.

At first glance, such boasting of one's outfits looks like some kind of unheroic, unworthy of real warriors. But it's not all that simple.

The Russian warrior from the time of the historical Prince Vladimir was distinguished by a special costume, rich and bright. Russian warriors, participants in distant campaigns, and part-time also successful merchants, dressed in such clothes that an ordinary rural community member or city dweller could never afford.

Competitiveness is characteristic of all warriors around the world - whether they are Irish, Vikings or ancient Rus. Warriors were always ready to exalt their martial skill to the detriment of their neighbor's. Sometimes the boasting of the brave at the feast led to fierce, bloody battles. For example, at one time there was a great slaughter between the men of Ireland, who argued over the honorable duty of sharing a roasted boar at a feast.

In ancient Iceland, there was a kind of game. The feasters chose for themselves "husbands for comparison" from among the well-known leaders and praised them, and not themselves. The opponent had to prove that his candidate was superior to the opponent's candidate.

There is no reason to doubt that the warriors of Kievan Rus also bullied each other at feasts. And they also boasted of their weapons and rich outfits. Echoes of this boast can be heard in the dispute between Duke and Churila.

So the heroes set to work. The whole of Kyiv vouched for Churila in this dispute. But no one wanted to vouch for Duke. Then the Galician went to a tavern and rolled out three barrels of wine to the regulars. And the tavern goals vouched for him.

For three years, both regularly changed clothes. Finally, the last day has come. Churila and Duke dressed in the best outfits, and Churila was outfitted by all of Kyiv.

First dandy Kyiv land He appeared in a classic squad costume - morocco boots, a caftan with "braces", that is, with decorations woven from gold wire. The buttons on Churila's caftan are also gold.

Belt of the Russian combatant. 10th century The author of the reconstruction kit is V. Ostromentsky (club "Gromovnik", Moscow). In one of the squad burials of the Gnezdovsky burial ground, a belt was found that has no direct analogues either in Russia or in the nearby steppe regions. The plaques of this belt are made in the form of cat muzzles. The belt did not have a buckle and was tied with special laces equipped with small brass tips.

There is a version of the epic, in which the clasps of the caftan of a Kiev citizen are made in the form of figures of young men and girls - when the caftan is buttoned, the figures embrace each other ...

Duke instead of boots put on ... bast shoes, common folk, completely dishonorable shoes! True, Duke's bast shoes are silk, and they are woven into their socks. gems. Instead of a caftan (or maybe over it), the Galician hero put on a sable fur coat. The buttons of the fur coat are made in the form of lions, and snakes sit in the loops.

In appearance, the outfits of the heroes are equally rich, but there is one caveat - Duke's clothes are magical! When Duke enters the church, the lions and snakes come to life and emit a monstrous roar and whistle. Many ancient magical rites are associated with dressing, and it is very likely that it was this ancient magic of clothing that was reflected in the epic.

So which of the two outstanding braggarts won the contest? The people of Kiev, having listened to the roar and whistle of magical animals on Duke's fur coat, resolutely declared:

Thank you, Duke you Stepanovich!

Overshot Churilushkuta Plenkov!

Duke took away Churila's mortgage of five hundred rubles and began to mock his defeated opponent:

Basi you, Churilo, in front of the women,

In front of the women and in front of the girls,

And with us, well done, you are in the horse!

But the epic is still fiction, although it has an ancient real basis. The time has come to take a closer look at the Russian "druzhina culture" of the 10th century, as archeology paints it for us.

Tash bag. Russia, X century. The author of the reconstruction is V. Kachaev. Such handbags of steppe origin came into use by Russian warriors in the 10th century. Their front side was decorated with cast overlays. various shapes. The bag shown in the photo comes from a burial ground near the village of. Shestovitsa near Chernigov.

Like weapons, the costume of the Russian combatant from the time of Svyatoslav's campaigns absorbed the various traditions of the peoples neighboring Russia. Most of all, the ancient Russian squad costume was influenced by the customs of the peoples of the Great Steppe - the Khazars, Hungarians, as well as the Volga Bulgars - a settled people who lived on the territory of modern Tatarstan.

Men's costume of the X century. both in Russia and in Scandinavia, most often included a shirt, pants and a raincoat. For some time now, the caftan has firmly entered the costume of the Russian combatant. This swinging clothing, convenient for riding, has been known since ancient times in the Steppe, in the North Caucasus, in the Middle East. Caftans in Russia in the 10th century are found precisely in the monuments of the warrior culture - the barrows of Gnezdov, Timerev, the burial ground of Shestovitsa near Chernigov and in the warrior barrows of Chernigov itself.

From what kind of caftans - Alanian, Turkic or Middle Eastern - the caftans of Russia come from, it is still impossible to say exactly. The closest analogy of Russian caftans can be conditionally considered the North Caucasian caftans of the Alans, well known from the Moshcheva Balka burial ground. In the conditions of the highlands, organic matter is well preserved, therefore, caftans and many other items from Moshcheva Balka have come down to us in an excellent condition for their age (the burial ground dates back to the 8th–9th centuries) and have yielded a lot of valuable information about materials, cut and decorations of ancient clothes.

Caftans Moshchevy Beams are sewn for the most part from linen, in addition, there are silk caftans. One of the side segments of the Great silk road, and the inhabitants of this area had access to high quality Chinese and Iranian fabrics. Many caftans are lined with fur: for the poor - with sheepskin, and the richest caftan of the burial ground with a top made of imported silk was lined with squirrel fur.

Caftans North Caucasus hinged, their hem was cut out separately from the top and expanded downwards. They were fastened with small buttons, from which narrow galloons made of colored braid or silk fabric radiated along the chest part of the caftan.

The material of Russian caftans is much less known to us - as a rule, only a set of buttons remains from the caftan in burials. The number of buttons could reach up to 17-20 pieces.

The best preserved caftan from the Gnezdov burial mound Dn-4. From the caftan remained the chest part with two rows of galloons made of silk rolls. The top of the caftan was woolen, and the lining (according to at least, in the preserved part) - leather.

Although the caftan from Gnezdovo does not correspond in its materials to the caftans of Moshcheva Balka, it is still structurally similar to them. But in Russia, a completely different type of caftans was also encountered, not of Caucasian, but of Hungarian origin. We are talking about a caftan from the Chernigov burial mound Gulbishche.

An outstanding person in all respects was buried in the barrow. He was a distinguished combatant, a contemporary of Prince Svyatoslav and, perhaps, a participant in his campaigns. Judging by the size of the helmet and stirrups found in this mound, the warrior was almost two meters tall. As we have already told in the chapter devoted to the weapons of Russian warriors, it was in the Gulbishche burial mound that the largest Carolingian sword in Europe, more than a meter long, was found. But now we are interested in a caftan from this mound.

The caftan from Gulbishch repeats Hungarian designs. He has no galloons or buttons. It was fastened with the help of several pairs of cast diamond-shaped overlays, decorated with krin - stylized images of lilies. In each pair, one pad has a small hook, and the other has a ring into which the hook was inserted. The plates were cast from brass and gilded. Caftans with similar clasps are well known in Hungary.

Tash bag. Hungary, 10th century In bags of this type, the entire front surface was covered with a chased silver plate.

Perhaps the most striking, most characteristic detail of the costume of the Russian combatant was the belt.

Belts, decorated with plaques, archaeologists call type-setting. A type-setting belt has been a characteristic detail of the costume of the steppes since ancient times, and by the 10th century it had become widespread among Russian combatants - along with caftans, steppe helmets, hatchet-chasers, sabers.

Old Russian type-setting belts experienced their heyday in the 10th century. But even later they did not go out of use. Thus, belts with precious metals are mentioned in grand ducal spiritual letters (testaments) of the 14th-15th centuries.

The warrior's belt was a symbol of his position in the society of Ancient Russia. In the burials of Russian warriors, belts are found along with expensive weapons, caftans, and fragments of expensive trimmings. Typically, a belt set consisted of a buckle, several plaques, pads and a tip. There are also complex belts, with several types of plaques, the total number of which can reach several dozen. Such belts (their design was borrowed from the Hungarians) were fastened with a small insert strap, and the main end of the belt, decorated with plaques, hung freely, or, perhaps, was laid in a certain way by itself.

Belt plaques have a variety of shapes and ornaments: lilies, shamrocks, floral curlicues, geometric figures… Most of the plaques are brass, often there are tin-plated (tinned) belt sets. But silver belts were a rarity.

In their ornaments and shape, the plaques and the tips of the belts of the 10th century copy the steppe samples. A significant part of the Old Russian belt decorations comes from the Volga Bulgaria, but there are (albeit very rarely) belts with Khazar ornaments. In the second half of the X century. in Chernihiv land there was also a tradition of making belt overlays - with silver inlay. In plaques cast from brass, grooves were cut, into which silver wire was then carefully hammered.

Knives, armchairs, whetstones, as well as small bags decorated with metal plaques or chased plates were hung from the belt. The origin of handbags is Hungarian, and among Russian warriors they are as widespread as typesetting belts. Together with stacked belts and steppe axes, these handbags are also found in the Swedish Birka, confirming the strong connection between Russia and Scandinavia.

Most military bags have a large rhombic pad on the lid with a slot in the center. A brass bracket entered the slot, through which a narrow strap was passed, completely decorated with small plaques. Four rhombic plaques-rosettes were strengthened around the central plaque, small triangular plates could be attached along the entire edge of the bag. The overall size of the handbag was very small - no more than 12-14 cm in length and width.

There are also quite miniature bags for coins in Russia, having a lyre-shaped shape - with an extension upwards. The edges of such bags were bound with brass strips, and the bags were hung on the belt with the help of two rings. These mini-purses were fastened with small buttons.

A grained silver pommel that adorned the cap of a Russian warrior. Such finials of Hungarian origin not only spread throughout Russia, but also reached the Swedish Birka.

In Scandinavia, the custom of wearing massive bracelets made of silver and gold was widespread among combatants. Such bracelets were not only an ornament, but also a container of wealth - silver was calculated by weight. In Russia, there are no such finds in the burials of warriors, but it cannot be ruled out that our soldiers could wear twisted silver hryvnia hoops, well known from ancient Russian treasures.

A massive square ring made of gold was found in one of the military mounds of the Timerevsky burial ground.

The Old Russian warrior is usually depicted in boots. With regard to the XII - XIII centuries, this is perhaps true. But the warriors of the times of the first princes - Rurikovich did not wear boots. The fashion for these steppe shoes appeared with us somewhere at the turn of the 10th-11th centuries, and by the 12th century, boots were already mass-produced in the workshops of ancient Russian cities.

The early boot had a low, straight top made of two halves - front and back. Later, more complex forms of this shoe appeared - with a top that expands upwards and is tailored from several parts. The toe of the boot was pointed, and the sole became multi-layered - it was assembled from several layers of thin leather. Even later, in the 14th century, the boot had a low heel.

The most mass-produced old Russian shoes, as far as we can judge from the materials of the excavations of the cities of Russia, were low leather shoes. They consisted of two parts - the upper and the sole. The top of the shoe was sewn either on the side or along the toe. The top was sewn with a special weaving seam, without piercing the skin through and through. There are also somewhat more primitive Scandinavian shoes in Russia with not so sophisticated straight seams - the edges of the parts to be sewn simply overlapped each other and were stitched with small, neat stitches. On the leg, the shoe was fastened with narrow straps.

Russian combatant costume. 10th century The author of the reconstruction is S. Mishanin. This costume is not so rich - it lacks expensive silk fabrics and silver jewelry. Apparently, before us is a junior combatant who has not yet had time to distinguish himself in long-distance campaigns. The suit, which is based on a shirt and pants, is traditional for both Slavs and Scandinavians. A belt with plaques and a steppe handbag indicate belonging to a retinue community; in addition, a warrior’s shirt dyed with madder serves as an indicator of well-known wealth.

Fibula - fastener of a man's raincoat. Russia, X c. The author of the reconstruction is M. Savinov. Horseshoe-shaped brooches were very widespread in Eastern and Northern Europe. They were worn by the Scandinavians, and the Slavs, and the Finns, and the Balts. The fibula shown in the photo belongs to the type of fibulae popular in Russia with multifaceted heads at the ends of the arc. For the first time such brooches appeared in southwestern Finland, from where they spread throughout all the lands adjacent to the Baltic Sea.

... The squad is a permanent elite army, always ready for battle, which can solve tasks of a certain scale - go on a raid, collect tribute, carry out a profitable trade campaign. But when it comes to major operations, - such as raids on Constantinople-Tsargrad, - a not so bright, but incomparably more powerful force inevitably comes to the fore - the militia of free community members.

The peasant community is perhaps the most resilient social organism. Of course, over the centuries it changed - it lost its ownership of land, the right to carry and use weapons, it received new owners, new requisitions and duties, but ancient foundation her, that very “solution of all affairs together”, lasted until the 20th century.

The community in Russia is the measure of everything. Every person (with rare exceptions) of Ancient Russia was aware of himself as belonging to a community. A small collective of farmers is a community. A city with a population of several thousand people is also a community. Several cities with surrounding villages, whose inhabitants are aware of their kinship and descend from common ancestors - this is also a community that will act as a single entity in the international arena.

But the whole of Ancient Russia was no longer aware of itself as a single community.

Decisions in any community, as we already know, were made jointly or, in scientific terms, collegially. The institution that governed the community had various names among the ancient peoples, general term, which scientists designate these institutions - "national assembly". Among the Slavs, such a meeting was called "veche".

Belarusian clothes. 19th century Watercolor by F. G. Solntsev. The costume of the Slavic peoples changed over time, but at the same time its general outline and main details remained intact. The Belarusian peasants in the drawing by F. G. Solntsev are dressed in linen shirts and trousers, on the heads of the peasants - felt hats, on their feet - pistons, characteristic low shoes, cut from one piece of leather. Like the ancient Slavs, clothes do not have pockets - everything you need is worn on the belt.

North Russian militia. 10th century The author of the reconstruction is R. Potapov (Ladoga club, St. Petersburg). This is how the son of a community member, accepted into the junior squad during the autumn polyudya, could look like. The basis of the armament of the militias from the Slavic and Finnish tribes was spears and axes, defensive weapons most often came down to a board shield.

Slavic warrior. 10th century The author of the reconstruction is O. Rublev (Ladoga club, St. Petersburg). In the hand of a warrior - typical for Russia in the 10th century. light battle axe. A shirt dyed with madder is an indicator of prosperity. Most likely, our hero already has experience long hikes, for example, in the army of Prince Igor. On the warrior's neck is an amulet made of a drilled bear's fang; archaeologists often find such amulets during excavations of Slavic settlements.

The first association with the word "veche" is Novgorod. There it remained in force for a long time, so it is the Novgorod veche that is most famous and, let us add, best studied. But in all other cities of Russia, the veche existed, just less is known about it. When our chronicle speaks of how the people of Kiev or some other townspeople “thought”, “conferred”, etc., it means precisely the veche.

Not every inhabitant of an ancient Russian city or village could attend or speak at the veche. Veche, like, for example, the Scandinavian Thing, is primarily a meeting of heads of families, and on a tribal scale - heads of clans.

Military force is also in the hands of the community itself. Weapons in the Slavic (as, indeed, in the Celtic, Baltic and Scandinavian society) were not the privilege of the elite. All the people were armed, in each family there was a warrior (or even more than one), who, if necessary, could take part in repulsing the enemy or in attacking a neighbor.

It is the tribal militias that the Tale of Bygone Years describes, talking about the great campaigns of the first Russian princes.

The squad in this case formed something like an officer corps. Here, for example, is the composition of Oleg's campaign in 907:

“Ide Oleg to the Greeks, leave Igor in Kyiv, send a lot of Varangians, and Slovenes, and Chud ... and Krivichi, and Meryu, and Derevlyany, and Radimichi, and Polyany, and Severo, and Vyatichi, and Croats, and Dulebs, and Tivertsi ... and with them, with all of them, Oleg went on horseback and on ships ... ".

The huge army included tribal militias of both the northern and southern East Slavic tribes, Finnish militias also took part in the campaign to the rich shores. It's just the one rare case when the entire space of Russia from Novgorod to Kyiv acted as one thing.

So, we got acquainted with the organization of the Russian army, the very army that, from the second half of the 9th century, began to make large military campaigns in the southern seas - the Black and Caspian. How these campaigns took place - we will find out in the next chapter.

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