Formation of the Slavic ethnos

Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation

Togliatti State Institute of Service

Department of Humanities

Examination by discipline:

"National history"

on the topic: "Ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs".

Completed by student gr. ENz - 1 Belov D.Yu.

Checked by the candidate of historical sciences, associate professor Munin A.N.

Novokuibyshevsk 2003.

Introduction page 3

The history of the origin of the Slavic tribes p. 4

Theories of settlement of the ancient Slavs p. 7

Economic activity of the Eastern Slavs p. 10

Preconditions for the formation of the ancient Russian state p. 13

Conclusion p. 15

References p. 16

Introduction.

The origin of the Slavs is one of the difficult questions in the history of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, as well as in the history of the origin of the state of Kievan Rus. Numerous studies by historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnographers and linguists do not give a complete and accurate answer to this question; of the many versions on this problem, none can be considered completely reliable.

One of the reasons for this, according to V.P. Kobychev, is the absence of any complete written sources about the Slavs until the middle of the 6th century AD.

The Slavic peoples belong to the ancient Indo-European unity, which included such peoples as the Germanic, Baltic, Romanesque, Greek, Indian, etc., which stretched back in antiquity in the space from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

At the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, the linguist I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay suggested the origin of the ethnonym Slavs... In his opinion, the name Slavs arose at first among the Romans, who captured many slaves on the eastern borders of the Slavic state, the second half of whose name ended in -slav: Vladislav, Sudislav, Miroslav, Yaroslav, etc. The Romans turned this ending into a common name for any slave in general (in late Latin, a slave - sclavas), and later on for the people who supplied most of these slaves. This theory was later strongly developed by German scientists - nationalists, who used it to belittle the significance of the Slavic peoples in the history of early medieval Europe. However, this theory has many weaknesses. For example, the fact that the Roman Empire, which has existed for many centuries, waging constant wars, during which it took a huge number of prisoners - slaves, suddenly drew special attention to the captured Slavs, and all slaves began to be named after them. Further, it is impossible, according to V.P. Kobychev, to explain how all the Slavic peoples, in particular the Eastern ones, who were never under the direct or indirect dominion of the Romans, took this term offensive to themselves. In addition, the author of the hypothesis himself proceeds from the fact that the root - glory is originally Slavic, therefore, the Slavs had no need to borrow this word from anyone else - it already had the widest circulation among them.

Currently, the Slavic peoples include Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Gascons, Slovenes. Despite the seemingly fragmented and scattered Slavic peoples, they still represent a single whole.

The history of the origin of the Slavic tribes.

The area of settlement of the Slavic tribes was Central and Eastern Europe. As archaeologists assume, the Proto-Slavic tribes were the most ancient tribes - carriers of the archaeological culture, the so-called Corded Ware. They were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, and in the middle of 3-2 millennia BC. settled in vast areas between the Dnieper in the east, Karat in the south, Odra in the west and the Baltic Sea in the north. In the second half of the 1st millennium BC. and in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. the forest-steppe zone of this territory was inhabited by tribes known for the culture of burial fields. They, as a rule, burned the dead, and the ashes were buried in the ground in special earthen vessels - urns in cemeteries. They lived in a primitive communal system, in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. already knew plow farming and a potter's wheel ( Chernyakhovskaya culture), which testifies, on the one hand, to the beginning of the separation of handicrafts from agriculture, and on the other, to the beginning of the disintegration of the tribal system. Archaeologists consider them early Slavic tribes.

The Slavic people are considered relatively young in history. Under his own name, he was first mentioned in written sources only from the 6th century (Pseudo-Caesarius, about 525). The main forming force of the Proto-Slavic people should be considered the spontaneous unification of more or less kindred tribes. Although, undoubtedly, natural reproduction and colonization of new spaces played an equally important role.

As B.A. Rybakov points out, at the turn of 3-4 millennia BC. in the northern half of Europe (from the Rhine to the Dnieper), cattle-breeding pastoralism intensified, property and social inequality quickly emerged. Cattle becomes a symbol of wealth (in the old Russian language “ cowgirl"- treasury), and the ease of alienation of herds leads to wars and inequality of tribes and leaders, thereby violating primitive equality. The struggle for herds and pastures that began everywhere led to the widest settlement of shepherd tribes not only in Central, but also in Eastern Europe up to the Middle Volga. The settlement was carried out by separate, independently operating tribes.

It is important to note that at the time of settlement (first half of the 2nd millennium) there was still no Slavic, Germanic or Baltic community; all tribes mixed and changed neighbors as they gradually moved.

In the 15th century, after the cessation of settlement, the entire zone of European deciduous forests and forest-steppes was occupied by Indo-European tribes. Such a settled life was accompanied by the development of various kinds of ties between neighboring tribes, the establishment of languages related to each other.

There were no strong economic and cultural ties between the early Slavic tribes, and there was a constant process of ethnic differentiation. During it, towards the end of the Bronze Age and during the early Iron Age, culturally distinctive groups of tribes arose, including tribes in the east the Dnieper cultures, and in the west - tribes Lusatian culture. This marked the beginning of the formation of the Eastern and Western Slavs.

In the middle of the 1st millennium A.D. on the vast territory of Eastern Europe, from Lake Ilmen to the Black Sea steppes and from the Eastern Carpathians to the Volga, the East Slavic tribes were formed. Historians count about 15 such tribes. Each tribe was a collection of clans and then occupied a relatively small isolated area. In the 8-9 centuries, the map of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs looked like this: the Slovenes (Ilyinsky Slavs) lived on the shores of Lake Ilmen and Volkhov; Krivichi with Polotsk people - in the upper reaches of the Western Dvina, Volga and Dnieper; Dregovichi - between Pripyat and Berezina; vityachi - on the Oka and the Moscow River; radimichi - on the Sozha and Desna; northerners - on the Desna, Seim, Sula and Seversky Donets; Drevlyans - on Pripyat and in the Middle Dnieper region; glade - along the middle course of the Dnieper; Buzhanians, Volynians, Duleby - in Volyn, along the Bug; Tivertsy, Uchiha - in the very south, near the Black Sea and the Danube.

The Eastern Slavs lived surrounded by numerous neighbors. To the west of them lived the Western Slavs, to the south - the South Slavs. In the northwest, the Baltic lands were occupied by the ancestors of modern Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians. Many Finno-Ugric tribes lived in the northeastern forests and taiga - Mordovians, all, Karelians, Chud. In the east, in the Middle Volga region, the Volga Bulgaria state was formed. These Bulgarians were a Turkic people related to the Chuvash and Caucasian Balkars. The masters of the southern steppes were nomads - Turks, Avars, Khazars. In the 9th century the Pechenegs appeared there, and in the 11th century the Polovtsians came to the steppe. In the area of the Middle Danube (the territory of modern Hungary), Hungarian tribes settled in the 9th century - they came there from the Urals through the southern Russian steppes and found a new homeland there.

By the 8th century A.D. the East Slavic tribes gradually formed a new ethnic community, which is somewhat conventionally called the Old Russian nationality. At the same time, some eastern Slavs by their origin were closer to the southern or western tribes than to each other. The Tale of Bygone Years contains, for example, an indication that the Radimichi and Vyatichi were descendants of the Poles, that is, Western Slavs. The Ilmen Slovenes, the ancestors of the Novgorodians, also originated, as some scholars believe, from the Western (Polabian and Pomor) Slavs, and not from those tribes that lived in the younger regions of the East European Plain.

The relative uniformity of climatic and landscape conditions, the absence of serious natural barriers in the vastness of the East European Plain, as well as the undoubted proximity of culture, language, beliefs, created objective prerequisites for political interaction of the East Slavic peoples.

There are assumptions about the origin of the names of some tribes.

Name " Tyverians”, Perhaps, comes from the name of the fortress Tura (Tvra, Turris), in which the emperor Justinian 1 placed one of the Antic tribes, apparently the ancestors of the Tiverians. The name of Tour, of course, is in some way connected with the ancient name of the Dniester Tiras, which was mentioned by Herodotus. Consequently, the Tivertsy (or Turks) were a Dniester tribe.

Concerning get caught, in different chronicles their name is read in different ways (catch, uchi, uglich, ulutichi, lyutichi, luchans). Some researchers prefer the form "uglich", which they deduce from the Russian word "corner" and suggest, in accordance with this, that the homeland of the "uglichs" was in the southern part of Bessarabia, known as the "Angle" between the Prut and the lower Danube. In the opinion of others, the name "uchi" probably comes from the Russian word "bow". In this regard, we can recall the bend of the Black Sea coast between the estuaries of the Dnieper and Dniester.

The tribal name of the Polyans (like the Drevlyans) may have been given to them, or accepted by them as an indication of the nature of the country in which they originally lived. The name "glade" means "field (steppe) people", and "Drevlyans" means "woody" (forest) people. On the other hand, the names "Polyanin" and "Drevlyanin" may refer to the previous political ties of each of these two tribes. We know that it was called from the Gothic tribes grevtungs, which exactly corresponds to the Slavic name "glade"; the name of another Gothic tribe, tervingi, has the same meaning as the "Drevlyans", we can assume that during the Gothic rule - in the third and fourth centuries - the ancestors of the glades were subordinated to the Grevtungs, and the Drevlyans to the Tervingians.

According to the Tale of Bygone Years, the Vyatichi and Radimichi tribes were descendants of two brothers - Radim and Vyatoka (Vyatko). Perhaps the names of these mythical brothers are of Ossetian origin: "Radim" - from the word "rad" ("order", "line"), and "Vyatok" - Ossetian jaetaeg ("leader).

According to V. Chivilikhin, the East Slavic tribes retained their names until 10-12 centuries: Drevlyans - by 990, Slovene - by 1018, Krivichi - by 1127, Dregovichi - by 1183. Vyatichi - by 1197.

Theories of settlement of the ancient Slavs.

Most researchers continue to search for the ancient ancestral home of the Slavs north of the Carpathian Mountains, somewhere in the space between the Oder, Vistula and Dnieper rivers.

One of the important arguments of the adherents of the Eastern orientation is zoobotanical theory, which bases its arguments on the study of the names of representatives of flora and fauna contained in the Slavic languages. In accordance with their linguistic conclusions, the supporters of this theory are looking for the ancestral home of the Slavs outside the distribution of such trees as beech, cherry, white maple, larch, namely, between the Vistula, Western Bug, Pripyat, Carpathians and the middle course of the Dnieper.

The weaknesses of this theory are the possibility of borrowing one or another zoo-botanical term and the variability and mobility of the boundaries of flora and fauna (for example, as a result of climate change in Europe, the boundaries of beech growth over the past 2 - 3 thousand years have moved hundreds of kilometers from west to east).

Adherents of the western location of the Slavic ancestral home (Kostshevsky, Kozlovsky, Chekanovsky, Ler-Splavinsky, etc.) are looking for it mainly in the interfluve of the Vistula and Oder. Their views are based on the theory that the Proto-Slavic archaeological culture belongs to the Lusatian culture, which existed from 1300 to 300 BC. This is justified by the fact that the Slavs and the bearers of the Lusatian culture coincide with the places of settlements, the form and methods of building dwellings, funeral rites (corpse burning), and most importantly by the fact that otherwise for the Slavs in Europe 1 millennium BC. no place at all to find a settlement, bearing in mind that they are one of the significant and numerous peoples of this continent. The classic areas of the Lusatian culture are the two old Slavic regions north of the Sudetenland, between the Elbe in the west, the Upper Oder in the east, and the Warta in the north; these are the Lusatia region and Silesia. Here the Lusatian culture is represented by burial grounds and settlements. Typical are large burial grounds with hundreds of burials, most often in the form of flat, i.e. not marked from above by a mound mound, shallow graves with an urn containing the ashes of a burnt deceased.

Participation in the study of the settlement of the ancient Slavs is relatively new. linguistics... Linguists have identified:

The separation of the Proto-Slavic tribes from related or neighboring Indo-European tribes took place about 4000 - 3500 years ago;

The neighbors of the Slavs from the Indo-European peoples were the Germans, the Baltic, the Iranians, the Dacian-Thracians, the Celts, etc .;

Judging by the designations of landscape elements common to all Slavic peoples, the Pre-Slavs lived in the zone of deciduous forests and forest-steppe, where there were glades, lakes, swamps, but there was no sea; where there were hills, ravines, watersheds, but there were no high mountains.

However, one should pay attention to the fact that the natural zones corresponding to these linguistic definitions are located in Europe wider than the Slavic ancestral home can be assumed. The Proto-Slavs occupied only a part of the space that was reflected in their ancient dialects.

The most famous are the following versions of the spread of the Slavs:

Vistula is the Oder variant, in which the region extending north of the Carpathians is recognized as the homeland of the Slavs. But when defining its boundaries, the opinions of scientists differ greatly. The Czech scientist Shofarik drew the border of the Slavic ancestral home in the west from the mouth of the Vistula to the Neman, in the north - from Novgorod to the sources of the Volga and Dnieper, in the east - to the Don. Further, in his opinion, it went through the lower Dnieper and Dniester, along the Carpathians to the Vistula and along the watershed of the Oder and Vistula to the Baltic Sea.

According to academician A.A. Shakhmatov, the ancestral home of the Slavs is located in the basin of the western Dvina and the lower Neman, from where the Slavs later moved to the Vistula, and then settled in different directions.

The Polish archaeologist A. Gardavny, as well as a number of Ukrainian archaeologists, established that the Tysznetsk culture of the 15th - 12th centuries BC, characteristic of the territory of Poland, spread to the area east of the Vistula, up to the Dnieper, partly passing to its left bank ...

Thus, the question of the exact boundaries of the ancestral homeland of the Proto-Slavs has not been finally resolved.

The most proven (according to M.I. Artamonov) is the location of the western border of the Proto-Slavic territory. It is conducted “from the sea along the Oder to the Warta River and further along this river and along the Vistula River to the Sala River. In the north, the Proto-Slavs coexisted with the ancestors of the Lithuanians - the "Ugro-Finns"; the Pripyat River served as a border with them. In the east, the Slavs reached the Dnieper and even extended beyond it, capturing at least part of the Desna river basin.

And yet, in favor of the hypothesis of the western, or rather, the southwestern (Carpathian-Danube) ancestral home of the Slavs, more arguments can be made than in favor of the eastern Dnieper-Pripyat ancestral home. Such arguments can be found in the book by V.P. Kobychev "In Search of the ancestral home of the Slavs":

Coincidence of the tribal names of the Polabian, Pomor and other Western Slavs with the most ancient, known in this territory, ethnic names of the turn of the first centuries AD, which are attributed to the East Germanic peoples. But it is known that individual tribes received names depending on the natural characteristics of the region, due to this they could coincide among peoples of different linguistic systems, but in this case we have an almost complete coincidence of the ethnic map of two different eras, separated from each other by an interval of more than at 500 years old.

The second argument is related to tononymy(the science of geographical names), which proves that a people, staying in a particular territory, gives names to various geographical objects, which are then passed on from generation to generation. It was found that the territory of the upper part of the basins of the Vistula, Oder and, in part, the Elbe and Dnieper rivers is full of hydronymic repetitions, which indicates the linguistic homogeneity of the population that created them. The tononymy of the western part of the Slavic lands, including the region of the Carpathian Mountains within Romania, amazes with such ancient names as Brda, Vda, Gvda, Vkra with a combination of several consonants characteristic of Slavic languages.

The northern and northeastern borders ran along the dividing line between the Slavs and the Letto-Lithuanian tribes somewhere in the region of the northern spurs of the Carpathian Mountains, deviating south in the east, and going north towards the Baltic Sea in the west.

Economic activity of the Eastern Slavs.

Natural and climatic conditions contributed to the formation of successful economic activities of the Slavs: deep rivers, fertile soils, dense forests full of animals and birds, a moderate, even climate. These conditions played a significant role in the development of the economy of the ancient Slavs. In the southern fertile lands, people were engaged in agriculture, in the southeastern steppes - nomadic cattle breeding, in the northern and northwestern regions - hunting, hunting for fur of valuable species of animals, beekeeping (collecting honey from wild bees and wax).

First of all, the Slavs are not a nomadic people, but a settled one. The settledness of the Slavs must be understood in the sense that their main capital was not in herds and herds, but in the land, and the economy was based on the exploitation of the land. But this settled way of life was not strong, since, having exhausted arable land in one place, the Slavs easily left their dwelling and looked for another. Thus, the villages of the Slavs were very mobile in nature.

The type of Slavic house in the steppe zone was different from that in the forest zone. In the steppe, it was a frame structure covered with clay (Ukrainian hut). In the forest zone, it was a log structure (Russian hut).

Archaeological excavations of settlements indicate that the main occupation of the Eastern Slavs in the 2-5 centuries was agriculture, they sowed millet, rye (rye), wheat, flax and other crops. For agricultural work was used ralo - a primitive wooden plow with an iron tip ( personal), hoe, sickle, rake, scythe. Later, a plow with an iron share appeared.

Agriculture was carried out in transient(fallow) or slash-and-burn form.

Relocation assumed the use of the same plots for several years in a row, after which it was not cultivated for about 20-30 years until the restoration of natural fertility. This system existed mainly in the steppe and forest-steppe regions.

Undercut the system was used most often in the northern forest regions, where the trees were first chopped down (cut down), and when they dried out, they were burned so that the ash served as fertilizer for the soil. But this system demanded large expenditures of physical labor of people who had to unite in large labor collectives. It was only within the power of the tribal community.

The tribal community in the form of a large patriarchal family was usually located in the form of a settlement, which was called yard(courtyard, settlement, stove). It was a separate economic unit with collective ownership of land, tools and products of labor. Production and consumption within the tribal community was joint. The size of the land plots was determined only by how much land each member of the clan could master.

The ubiquitous spread of the plow and the transition from hoe to arable farming have significantly increased the culture of agriculture and its productivity. The Slavs cultivated wheat, barley, rye, millet, peas, buckwheat. We have received evidence of the use of pits by our ancestors - storage facilities that could hold up to 5 tons of grain. The Slavic export of bread in the 2nd - 4th centuries is evidenced by the borrowing of the Roman grain measure by the Slavs - quadrantal, which later became foursome(26.26 liters) and reached in our metrology until 1924. If the export of grain to the Roman Empire stimulated the development of agriculture, then the local market contributed to the emergence of a new way of grinding grain - in flour mills with millstones. Appeared bisexual and then threefields, that is, the annual rotation of different crops and fallow. Horses were bred not only for military cavalry, but also for use as draft animals on a par with oxen. The development of production factors led to the decomposition of a consanguineous community and its transition in the 6-8 centuries to a neighboring, rural community.

This transition meant that the separate family became the main economic unit. At the same time, the cultivation of the land could already be carried out in small groups, which settled according to the principle of neighborhood, not kinship. The manor, cattle, dwelling were transferred to private ownership, which meant the complete disintegration of the tribal community. Courtyards(stoves) gave way to settlements called village, and the community itself began to be called rope("peace"). The communities were ruled by the power of the elected elders, the so-called we will... The ropes merged into parishes which were already political communities.

Each family or group of relatives made everything for themselves. In small clay ovens - blast furnaces or in pits, iron was smelted from local ores. The blacksmith forged knives, axes, openers, arrowheads and spearheads, swords from it. The women sculpted pottery, weaved linen, and sewed clothes. Wooden dishes and utensils, as well as products made of birch bark and bast, were in great demand. They bought only what could not be obtained or made on the spot. The most common commodity was salt, because its deposits were not found everywhere. They also traded in copper and precious metals, from which jewelry was made. They paid for everything with popular and valuable goods that played the role of money: furs, honey, wax, grain, cattle.

In everyday life, the Slavs widely used the so-called ritual calendar associated with agricultural magic. It marked the days of the spring-summer agricultural season from seed germination to harvest; the days of pagan prayers for rain in 4 different periods were especially distinguished. The indicated 4 periods of rains were considered optimal for the Kiev region in the agronomic manuals of the late 19th century, which indicates that the Slavs of the 4th century had reliable agrotechnical observations.

The winter month, during which the forest was cut down, was called slash(from the word "cut" - to cut). The months followed dry and birch, during which the forest was dried and burned. The month of harvest was called sickle, and the month of threshing - vday(from "crackling" - to thresh). The fact that the names of the months among the ancient Slavs are associated with agricultural work testifies to the paramount importance of agriculture in their economy.

And although in the neighboring community the main agricultural land remained in joint ownership for a long time, they were already divided into plots - allotments, which were transferred to the community members for use for a certain time. And forest lands, reservoirs, hayfields and pastures remained in joint ownership. For a long time, various types of work remained, the performance of which required joint labor: paving roads, uprooting forests, etc.

The land plots were now cultivated by members of a separate family with their own tools, the harvest also belonged to this family. Thus, this economic unit no longer had to participate in compulsory equality in the production and distribution of products. This led to property stratification within the neighboring community, the emergence elders, tribal nobility, patriarchal surnames, future large landowners - feudal lords.

Preconditions for the formation of the ancient Russian state.

With the development of trade along the Russian rivers to the Black Sea and Caspian markets, large cities began to arise in the land of the Slavs. The Scandinavian sagas familiar with Russia call her “ Gardarik", I.e. country of cities. Such large cities were: Kiev - near the glades, Chernigov - among the northerners, Lyubech - among the Radimichs, Smolensk and Polotsk - among the Krivichs, Novgorod - among the Ilmen Slavs, and other similar cities served as gathering points for merchants and storage places for goods. The protection of goods in warehouses and on the tracks required an armed force, therefore, military personnel were formed in the cities squads or partnerships that included free and strong people ( knights) of different nationalities, most often the Varangians. At the head of such squads were usually Varangian leaders - kings(in Slavic konung - prince). The squad consisted of two parts: junior and senior. The younger part (" juveniles") Were also called" youths», « grids". The older part was called “ princes men ”, this included the most distinguished military leaders. The kings either traded themselves, guarding their goods with weapons, or hired to serve in the cities, and guarded the cities and city trade caravans, or, finally, they seized power in the cities and became city rulers princes... And since the city usually obeyed the volost that surrounded it, then in this case a whole principality was formed. Such Varangian principalities were founded, for example, by Askold and Dir in Kiev, Rurik in Novgorod, Rogvolod in Polotsk. Sometimes princely power arose among the Slavic tribes and independently of the Varangian kings: for example, the Drevlyans had their own local prince named Mal.

The appearance of cities, and with them trading foreigners and military squads in Russia, shook the old tribal life more than settling in new places. People who gathered in cities from different places left their tribal unions and united for their business and occupations in other communities: they became warriors-vigilantes, entered trading companies, turned to urban industrialists. Instead of a patriarchal union of relatives, social classes arose in our sense of the word: people of the military, commercial, industrial, who no longer depended on the rulers of the family, but on the city authorities - princes and masters.

Changes took place in the lives of people who remained in the volosts on their arable lands and lands. In the former patriarchal times, each clan and even each family that lived in a special court had their own separate household. Each one plowed the land and hunted for himself, built himself with his own forest, dressed and put on his shoes in fabrics and skins of his own making; each man made all the necessary tools for himself. Nothing was bought from the outside and nothing was sold to the outside. Only what was needed for the whole family or clan was stocked and prepared for future use. Such a farm is called " natural". When trade developed in Russia and cities grew, the city markets began to require goods, most of all, honey, wax and furs, which were the main items of Russian export. Under the influence of demand from the cities, they began to be mined not only for themselves, but also for sale: they were turned from an object of household consumption into a commodity and exchanged for other values or sold for money that they did not know before; capitals began to form. Instead of subsistence farming began monetary.

At the same time, the elders were actively attacking the community. They no longer wanted to return to joint ownership of their lands, which they received on an equal basis with other members of the community. Thus, arose fiefdom("Fatherland", "grandfather"), or large farms that were inherited from father to sons and were the full property of this family. On the other hand, these noble people began to gradually take over the land plots of other communes, especially the impoverished ones, who could not pay off their debts with rich patrimonials. They also often annexed the lands of ordinary members of the community, not only for debts, but also by force, forcing them to pay taxes in kind ( tribute) and perform certain duties. The process of transformation of patrimonials into large landowners, and impoverished community members into feudal-dependent ones, was called charming.

Conclusion

So the type of life of our ancestors gradually changed. From the patriarchal clan and tribal life, the Slavs gradually moved to a communal structure and united under the influence of the main "oldest" cities in the volost or principality, in which people were no longer united by kinship, but by civil and state relations. In the course of time, separate urban and tribal volosts and principalities came together and united under one state authority. Then a single Russian state began; but at first it did not differ in internal cohesion and uniformity. When the famous prince Oleg took tribute to the Greeks, he took it not only for himself, but also for the city.

In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about the theory of the origin of the name "Rus". One of the explanations for the origin of this term, put forward by historians, is associated with the name of the Ros River, a tributary of the Dnieper, which gave the name of the tribe on whose territory the meadow lived. According to the so-called slavic schools tried to prove that Russia has always been Slavic. Representatives Norman schools looking for the nationality of Russia both in the Scandinavian north, and in the remnants of those Germanic tribes who lived in the first centuries of our era near the Black Sea.

The original opinion of A.A. Shakhmatov also adjoins the Norman school: “Russia is the same Normans, the same Scandinavians; Rus is the oldest layer of the Varangians, the first immigrants from Scandinavia, who settled in the south of Russia before their descendants began to settle in the less attractive wooded and swampy north. Among the Slavs, the name "rus" meant, first of all, the Varangians - the Scandinavians, whom the Finns called ruotsi. The name "rus" also passed on to the Slavic squads, which acted together with the Varangian Rus, and little by little it became entrenched in the Slavic Dnieper region.

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The answer to the question of the origin and early history of the Slavs can be given using data from various disciplines - linguistics, archeology, anthropology, ethnography. Most scientists see the Slavs as the descendants of the ancient Indo-Europeans and consider them the autochthonous population of Central and Eastern Europe.

The search for "Slavic antiquities" takes us back to the 1st millennium BC. NS. It was then, along with other barbarian tribes (Germanic, Celtic, Finno-Ugric), that Slavs with their own language and ethnic characteristics appeared on the historical arena. Separated from the Balto-Slavic community, they formed a single ethnos that speaks a language that is conventionally called "Proto-Slavic" and is considered the basis of modern Slavic languages. The term "Slavs" itself still has no scientific explanation. Many historians and linguists believe that it shares a common root with "word." The ethnonym "Slavs" is first encountered in written sources dated only to the 6th century. n. NS.

The habitat of the Proto-Slavs is localized between the Elbe (Laba) and the Vistula, the Dnieper and Dniester, to the north of the Carpathian Mountains. Linguistic data indicate that the place of the initial residence of the Slavs was a wooded and swampy land. In the common Slavic (Proto-Slavic) language, there are few words denoting a mountain landscape. "Mountain" was called a hill covered with forest, a high bank, any hill. There are also few terms associated with the sea and steppe landscape. At the same time, many words arose in the common Slavic language denoting forests and reservoirs: lake, pleso, swamp, river, gai, oak grove, grove, bor, etc. These words sound similar in modern Slavic languages. In the latitudes where the Slavs lived, the coldest month of the year was February, which is why it was called "fierce", the time of flowering and herbage fell on March and April - "queten" and "grass", etc. It was a kind of calendar of the people - farmer. The words "plow", "ploughshare", "horse" and others sound the same in the Slavic languages. It was agriculture that consolidated the Slavic tribes, ensured economic growth and rapid demographic growth.

The collapse of the Proto-Slavic community. The process of ethnic differentiation of the Slavs begins in the era of the great migration of peoples. The Slavs joined the migration process in the 4th century, when, as a result of the invasion of the Huns, the southern borders of the Slavic cultures were broken. By the beginning of the VI century. they appeared on the Danube, from here they moved to the Balkans, to the Czech Republic, and Poland. Moving in the southern, western and eastern directions, the Slavs encountered the local population: in the south with the Illyrian and Thracian tribes, in the west with the Celts and Germans, with the Finno-Ugrians and Balts in the east. As a result of these contacts and ethnic interactions, the Proto-Slavic community disintegrated, and on its basis the formation of three large ethnic groups began: Western, Southern and Eastern Slavs. The migration of the Slavs reached its climax in the 7th century, when they settled vast areas of Eastern, Southeastern and Central Europe.

Mastering new territories, the Slavs approached the borders of the Eastern Roman Empire, constantly violating its defensive lines. That is why Roman and Byzantine historians began to write about the Slavs - Tacitus, Pliny the Elder, Jordan, Procopius of Caesarea, Mauritius the Strategist and others. The Slavs in their works are called Wends, Sklavins, Antes. The oldest name of the Slavs - Wends - is found in Pliny the Elder and Tacitus. In the I-II centuries. and later, in the early Middle Ages, the name of the Wends spread to a significant part of the Western Slavs.

According to ancient sources, in the middle of the 1st millennium the community of the Wends split into two groups - Sklavins and Antes. Byzantine writers of the 6th century sklavins localize in the western section from the upper Danube to the Dniester, and the ants - in the eastern, approximately from the Dniester to the Sea of Azov. The contemporaries of the Sklavins and Antes - the Gothic historian Jordan and the Byzantine writer Procopius of Caesarea - noted that both tribes descended from the same root - the Wends - and were close to each other. Comparing the Antes and Sklavins, Jordan emphasizes that the Antes are the bravest of the tribes. Constant wars with them forced Byzantium to collect information about the sklavins and ants.

According to Iordan, the sklavins were located north of the Danube, between the Danube, Dniester and Vistula; Antes inhabited the area between the Dnieper and Dniester. Under the name of the Wends are those Slavic tribes that did not participate in the resettlement to the south and lived between the Vistula and the Elbe. Many scientists believe that in the division of the Slavs into Sklavins, Antes and Wends, three modern branches of Slavs can be seen: western, southern and eastern.

Byzantine writers brought to us important information about the life, social and military organization of the Slavs. So, Procopius of Caesarea reports that "the Slavs and the Antes are not ruled by one person, but since ancient times they live in the rule of the people." This is confirmed by reports that the entire Antes people are armed, all men are warriors. Thus, the tribal system was the basis of the social organization of the Antes.

Formation of the Eastern Slavs. Moving eastward through the vast expanses of the East European Plain, the Slavs contacted the Baltic and Finno-Ugric tribes, partly assimilating, partly displacing them. As a result of these ethnic interactions, the Eastern Slavs emerged as an independent ethnic community, different from other Slavic peoples. East Slavic tribes settled in the vast region of Eastern Europe from Lake Ilmen to the Black Sea steppes and from the Eastern Carpathians to the Volga. The core of the formation of this branch of the Slavs was the Lower and Middle Dnieper regions, where agricultural tribes had lived for several thousand years.

The migration of the East Slavic tribes was directed along large rivers and river systems. It is no coincidence that the names of some tribes came from the names of rivers (Buzhany, Polochans). When the Slavs seized the sources of the Dnieper, Volga and Western Dvina, approached the Volkhov River and Lake Ilmen, extremely important communication routes were in their hands that connected the Baltic Sea with the Black and Caspian Sea.

The most important of them is “the great road from the Varangians to the Greeks”. It started from the Gulf of Finland and went to the Neva River, to Lake Ladoga, to the Volkhov River, to Lake Ilmen, to the Lovat River. From Lovat, through small rivers and a system of trails, he led to the Western Dvina, and from there - to the upper reaches of the Dnieper. Through the Dnieper, the Slavs went to the Black Sea, to the "Greeks", that is, to Byzantium. This most important trade road was used not only by the Slavs, but also by the Varangians.

Another important trade route passed along the Volga, to the lands of the Khazars and the Volga Bulgars. From the Dnieper through small rivers, Slavic merchants went to the Don, reached the Azov and Caspian seas. In the same way, foreign merchants traveled to the Slavic lands. The active trade of the Slavs with Byzantium and with the Greek colonies in the Crimea is proved by the abundance of treasures of Roman silver denarii along the Dnieper. Hoards of Arab coins, found by archaeologists along the Volga trade route, testify to the lively trade relations of the Slavs with the countries of the East. This stream of Roman and Arabic silver (both in coins and jewelry) went, obviously, in exchange for those products that the Slavs could offer - bread and furs.

Resettlement of the East Slavic tribes. Trade ties with the Byzantine Empire and the countries of the East undoubtedly contributed to the economic progress of the Eastern Slavs and their ethnic consolidation. It is no coincidence that it is along the river roads that Slavic tribal centers arise - Novgorod among the Ilmenian Slovenes, Kiev near the glades, Smolensk among the Krivichi, Polotsk among the Polotsk people.

The territory of settlement of the East Slavic tribes is outlined by the chronicler. Both banks of the Dnieper, not far from the mouth of the Desna River, were occupied by a tribe of Polyans with the center in Kiev. The chronicler explains the origin of the ethnonym "glade" as follows: "zane in poly sedokha", contrasting this tribe with the inhabitants of the forest zone. Their northeastern neighbors were northerners who lived in the basin of the Desna, Sula and Seim rivers, with the center of Chernigov. The eastern and southern borders of the northerners, lying on the outskirts of the steppes occupied by nomads, were not constant and at times reached the Northern Donets. Further, to the north, were the Radimichi, occupying the upper tributaries of the Dnieper. The annals of the Radimichs say: “Radimichi and Vyatichi are from the Poles,” which some historians interpret as evidence of their genetic ties with their western neighbors, but this is not confirmed by archaeological data. The upper reaches of the Dnieper and Western Dvina, and also partly the Volga, were inhabited by the Krivichi, one of the largest tribal associations of the Eastern Slavs, the center of which was Smolensk. An offshoot of the Krivichi, Polotsk, lived along the Polota River, along the Western Dvina. The region of Lake Ilmen and the basin of the Volkhov, Lovati and Msta rivers was occupied by the Slovenes, the northernmost group of Eastern Slavs. Their oldest tribal center was the settlement of Staraya Ladoga on the Volkhov. In the upper reaches of the Oka and its tributaries - Moscow and Ugra - there was the territory of the Vyatichi, which the chronicler produces from their legendary ancestor Vyatko. In Polesie, on the right bank of the Dnieper, north of the meadows, the Drevlyans settled, whose territory reached the Pripyat River. The main city of the Drevlyans was Iskorosten on the Uzh River. The Dregovichi possessions stretched between Pripyat and Dvina, in Polesie. Like other tribal associations, the Dregovichi had their own "reign" with the center in Turov. The upper reaches of the Pripyat and the Western Bug were inhabited by the Dulebs, or Volhynians. Along the middle and lower reaches of the Dniester up to the sea coast lived Uliches and Tivertsy, and the northeastern spurs of the Carpathians were inhabited by White Croats.

So, the area of settlement of the East Slavic tribes, according to the "Tale of Bygone Years", included approximately a large part of modern Western Ukraine and some regions of Eastern, the predominant part of present-day Belarus and a number of regions of Russia. Thus, in the East Slavic tribes listed by the chronicler, one can see the ethnic ancestors of the Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians. Moreover, the northerners were the ancestors of both Russians and Ukrainians, and the Krivichi and Radimichi were the ancestors of the Russians and Belarusians.

Beliefs. Pagan cults. The social development of the Eastern Slavs corresponded to their beliefs. The dominant religion was paganism, which deified the forces and phenomena of nature (water, fire, earth), as well as animals and plants. The Slavs worshiped fire, trees, stones, springs, prayed in sacred groves, made bloody sacrifices to their gods. The pagan gods were dissolved in nature and lived next to people. Along with the belief in pagan gods, the Eastern Slavs were characterized by the most ancient mythological ideas, according to which a water pool lived in a deep pool, drowned women who turned into mermaids lived in the water, a goblin ruled in the forest, and a brownie, his patron, was invisibly present in the house.

Pagan ideas were associated with different stages in the development of the ideology of primitive society: fetishism, totemism, the cult of ancestors. The oldest of them among the Slavs was the cult of Rod, Chura or Shchur (hence the word "ancestor"), the ancestors on the female line were called Rozhanitsy.

The cult of the family-clan ancestor-lord, patriarch, grandfather became the basis for the emergence of the cult of the tribal god. Often, different tribes had different names for the same gods. For example, the sun god was called Dazhdbog, Svarog, Khors, Yaril. The gods of individual tribes were gradually reduced to a common pantheon. Despite the conventionality and instability, a kind of hierarchy was established in it, the main deities revered by all or many tribes were distinguished: Perun - the god of thunder and lightning, the god of rain, Stribog - the god of the wind, Semargl - the god of fertility, etc.

The deified forces and phenomena of nature were personified and depicted in the form of people - idols. Archaeological research has discovered pagan religious buildings - temples and treasures, where the Slavs worshiped their idols, trying to actively influence them. For the same purpose, pagan festivals (gulbisches, brothers) were organized. In honor of the gods, bulls and rams were slaughtered, the whole tribe was brewed beer, baked pies. The ministers of pagan cults were magicians.

Slavs. Historical and archaeological research [With illustrations] Sedov Valentin Vasilievich

Formation of the Slavic ethnos

Around 550 BC NS. the migration of the tribes of the Pomeranian culture to the territory of the Lusatian culture begins. For a century and a half, settlers from Polish Pomerania settled in a significant part of the basin of the middle and upper Vistula and in the adjacent areas of the Oder basin. The migration of the population of the Pomor culture to the south was due to the invasion of their lands by the bearers of the culture of the face urns. The latter are pear-shaped earthenware vessels specially made for burials with naturalistic or schematic images of a human face. Their bodies were decorated with geometric patterns or various images (horse, rider, carriage, hunting scenes, etc.). The surface of the urns is black, the drawn ornaments were filled with white paste. The lids were in the form of a cap with small margins.

Such facial urns became widespread along with Polish Pomerania in Jutland, southern regions of Scandinavia and the Elbe basin. Earlier finds of similar urns are widely represented in Etruria (Italy). Face urns were clearly brought to Northern Europe by immigrants, whose ethnic group is not possible to determine. The materials of the Pomor culture indicate that the newcomer population has dissolved in the environment of the more numerous aboriginal.

The resettlement of carriers of the Pomor culture in the Vistula and Oder basins was not accompanied by any tangible movements of the local Lusatian population. It did not leave its places of residence. At the first stage, the settlements and the burial grounds of the carriers of Lusatian and Pomor antiquities that were synchronous to them coexisted on the same territory in parallel. But very soon the process of cross-breeding of the newcomer population with the aborigines began: common settlements and burial grounds were formed. This was facilitated by the same economic structures, way of life and levels of social development of the Lusatian and Pomor tribes, their ethnic affinity.

In that part of the area of the Lusatian culture, where settlers from Polish Pomerania settled, a process of mixing and leveling of cultural elements is observed. So, in the burial grounds the number of collective burials is gradually decreasing, which was characteristic of the rituals of the Pomor culture. Individual burials, characteristic of the Lusatian population, are becoming dominant. The custom of building stone boxes for burials, which was typical of the Pomor culture, is gradually disappearing, but a typical Lusatian feature is widespread - burials in ground pits in clay urns or without them. A similar mixing situation is revealed both in the development of ceramics and in metal products. In burial rituals, the custom of covering the remains of burials with a large bell-shaped vessel - a flare (from the Polish klosz) - is becoming more and more widespread. The result of the intraregional interaction of the Lusatian and Pomor populations was the formation of a new entity - the culture of undergrowth burials.

This culture dates back to 400-100 BC. BC NS. Its original territory - the basins of the middle and upper reaches of the Vistula and the tributary of the Oder Warta - is limited by the zone of mixing of the Lusatian and Pomeranian population. In the Middle Latensk period, the area of the culture of sub-Klyoshe burials expanded to the middle reaches of the Oder in the west and to the western, marginal regions of Volyn and Pripyat Polesie in the east. Its most eastern monuments are the Mlynishche burial grounds near Vladimir Volynsky and Drogichin near Pinsk (Fig. 10).

Rice. 10. Formation of the Slavic ethnos

a - burial grounds of the culture of podklyoshey burials;

b - the original region of the Pomor culture;

c - the territory of the settlement of the tribes of the Pomor culture;

d - the area of the Lusatian culture;

d - Yastorf culture (Germans);

e - Western Hallstatt (Celts);

g - Eastern Hallstatt (Illyrians);

h - Western Baltic burial mounds (Western Balts);

and - the territory of the Eastern Balts;

k - the area of Milograd culture;

l - Scythian culture;

m - Dacian tribes.

The settlements of the podklyoshey burial culture were unfortified. In terms of topographic features and size, they are close to the Lusatian ones. Based on the analysis of anthropological materials from the burial grounds, Polish archaeologists claim that most of the settlements had 20–40 inhabitants. The dwellings were ground rectangular buildings of a pillar structure, continuing the traditions of housebuilding of the Lusatian culture. The hearths were laid out of stones and were usually located near one of the long sides of the dwelling. The floor was earthen, the floor was gable. In the settlement of Bzhesc-Kujawski, semi-earthen houses of sub-square or rectangular shape with sides of 3-4 m and a depth of pits 0.6-1 m were also investigated.

The burial grounds of the culture of the podklyoshey burials are burial-free. The mounds characteristic of the Pomor culture disappear with the formation of a new culture. Only in the northern, marginal regions of its range, the population occasionally continued to build mounds. Burials in earthen burial grounds were performed according to the rite of cremations. The remains of the cremation of the dead collected from the funeral pyre were placed in clay urns and covered (by no means in all cases) with a large vessel turned upside down. Such a ritual appeared in the Lusatian culture during the 4th Bronze Age. Then it was a rare ritual, but recorded over a wide area. In the context of intraregional mixing of the Lusatian population with those who came from the lands of the Polish Pomerania, this type of ritual, for some reason, has now become dominant, becoming a marker of a new cultural and historical formation. This is not observed in the indigenous lands of the Pomor culture.

A number of burial grounds of the Lusatian culture continued to function during the culture of podklyosh burials, indicating that the latter culture was a direct continuation of the Lusatian culture. One of these is the Warsaw-Grochów necropolis, where 370 Lusatian graves and over 20 burials underneath have been excavated.

Among the burials of the culture of the podklyoshey burials there are urns and burials without burials. In both cases, the custom was recorded to fill calcified bones with the remains of a funeral pyre. Sometimes the burials were decorated with stones. During the excavation of the burial ground in Transbur near Minsk Mazovetsky, where 126 burials were examined, traces of stakes driven in around the grave pit were revealed. Researchers of the monument believe that house-like structures made of thin risers and wicker walls were built over the burials. In this regard, it is suggested that in ancient times, each burial on the surface was designated by a light wooden structure or a small earthen embankment.

In addition to urns, attachment vessels are not uncommon in burials. This is definitely a Lusatian tradition. The number of attachments is usually two or three vessels. The main part of the burials of the culture of the podklyoshey burials is without inventory, in other things, as a rule, they are few. These are metal pins, brooches, rings, etc.

The earthenware of the culture of the podklyosh burials reflects the synthesis of the Lusatian and Pomor cultures. Some of the ceramics are a direct continuation of the Lusatian ceramics. These are tall egg-shaped pots, which include flare vessels, rounded vessels with two ears, amphora-shaped vessels, bowls with an outward-curved edge, sieve vessels, cups, and flat round lids. Another part of the ceramics evolved from Pomeranian dishes - convex vessels with a smooth top and a specially rough ("crooked") body, which were also used as "flares", amphora-shaped vessels with a rough surface, bowls with a ribbed edge and an eyelet, jugs. There were also vessels that were previously common in both Lusatian and Pomor antiquities, in particular pots with a high cylindrical neck. All pottery was made by hand, without the use of a potter's wheel (Fig. 11).

Rice. 11. Ceramics of the culture of under-claw burials

1 - Shimborze;

2, 5–7, 9, 10 - Betolenka Dvorska;

3 - Warsaw-Grochów;

4 - Sarnovek;

8 - Brzesz.

The legacy of the Lusatian culture was the pins with spiral heads and ends twisted into the eyelet. From the Pomeranian to the culture of under-claw burials, pins with disc-shaped heads, Chertos-type brooches, and single finds of Kovachevich brooches passed over. Bronze items are mainly represented by ornaments (Fig. 12).

Rice. 12. Bronze adornments of the culture of underbelly burials

1-5 - pins;

6 - pendant;

7, 8 - bracelets.

1, 3–5, 7, 8 - Ketzh;

2 - Transbur;

6 - Brzesz.

At the time in question, metal objects were made mainly of iron. Among them, pins with swan-shaped heads, nail-shaped and with heads in the form of a tubular ear are among the most common. There were also brooches of the Early and Middle Latentian types, necklaces made of glass beads, bronze neck torcs in the form of crowns, and spiral pendants, which were previously common in Lusatian antiquities. In the cultural monuments of podklyoshey burials, there are also objects made of bone and horn - needles, punctures, ornamented onlays, and more.

The basis of the economy of the population of the culture under consideration was agriculture and cattle breeding. Archaeologists have recorded traces of plowing the soil, but no iron arable tools have yet been found, apparently, they were entirely made of wood. Millet, wheat, barley, peas, beans, flax were cultivated. Excavations also revealed traces of fishing, hunting and gathering forest fruits.

There is every reason to attribute the population of the culture of subklyoshey burials to the Slavic ethnos. Starting with this culture, there is a continuity in the evolutionary development of antiquities up to the authentically Slavic early Middle Ages. Thus, the period of the formation and development of the culture in question was the stage of the formation of the Slavic ethnos. The ancient European population of the Vistula-Oder basin at that time, in the conditions of intraregional interaction with the tribes of the Pomor culture, became Slavic. A. Meye, noting that the reasons that caused linguistic neoformations among the Indo-Europeans in antiquity were still too little studied, attributed to this the mixing of Indo-European tribes with tribes that spoke other languages. The scientist cited the Greek language as an example.

A. Meillet's concept of linguistic differentiation as a result of an external impulse from the substrate has been criticized and really cannot be all-encompassing. At the same time, it does not follow from the criticism that the thought of this linguist should be completely rejected, and when taking into account the archaeological data in the case under study, it turns out to be quite acceptable.

A. Meye emphasized that the Slavic language is an Indo-European language of the archaic type, the vocabulary and grammar of which have not experienced shocks. Based on modern archaeological materials, the conclusion about the formation of the Slavs in the conditions of intraregional interaction of the northeastern groups of the ancient European population, represented by the Lusatian culture, with the tribes of the Pomor culture settled in the same territory, attributed as peripheral Balts or as carriers of intermediate outskirts of the Balto-Ancient European dialects, does not at all any linguistic data.

The culture of podklyoshey burials corresponds to the stage of formation and initial development of the Proto-Slavic language. At this time, the language of the Slavs had just begun an independent life, and their own linguistic structure, different from other Indo-European structures, and their own vocabulary were gradually developed. The time of the culture of podklyoshey burials, according to the periodization of F.P. Filin, is the first stage in the evolution of the Proto-Slavic language. Characterizing it, the researcher noted that at this time the neoplasms also touched the vowel area (weakening the role of labialization), and the nature of quantitative and qualitative alternations, and changes in ancient laryngal sounds, and some changes in the consonant system and grammar. It is not excluded, FP Filin concluded, that "the origins of many new formations were laid even before the final separation of the common Slavic language from the ancient Indo-European dialectal groupings." Isolation of the Proto-Slavic language from the Old European language was obviously a lengthy process. Its beginning, in all likelihood, belongs to the dialects of the tribes of the Lusatian culture, and the final stage - to the period of the culture of podklyosh burials.

The area of distribution of this culture corresponds to the geographical features that characterize the lexical data of the Proto-Slavic language - the presence of numerous words referring to the designation of forest vegetation and inhabitants of forests, lakes and swamps in the absence of terms denoting the specifics of the seas, mountainous and steppe areas. The Slavic ancestral home, or the region of the formation of the Proto-Slavic language and ethnos, according to lexical materials, was located in a forest, flat area with the presence of lakes and swamps, away from the sea, mountain ranges and steppe spaces.

The data of comparative historical linguistics also correspond to the localization of the early Slavs in the area of the culture of podklyoshey burials.

As evidenced by linguistics, the early Slavs were in close neighborly contacts, primarily with the speakers of the West Baltic dialects. The materials of archeology clearly indicate that, indeed, the closest neighbors of the Slavs - carriers of the culture of subklyoshe burials - were the Western Balts and relations with them were very close. This is evidenced by the clay vessels, which are often found in the cultural monuments of the Western Baltic mounds, resembling the Lusatian-podklyoshny ones, as well as tools and decorations that are very close to the two cultures. Some metal items (socketed axes, massive neck torcs, bracelets, etc.) were equally characteristic both for the culture of under-burial burials and for the West Balt burial mounds. An even closer connection is revealed between the culture of podklyosh burials and the antiquities of Polish Pomerania. Their territories were separated by a transition zone, in which elements of both cultures were combined. Some podklyoshey burials found in the Lower Hanging, as well as the Pomor burials in the area of the podklyoshey burial culture indicate a certain interpenetration of the Slavic and peripheral Baltic populations. In the Pripyat basin, the closest neighbors of the Slavs were tribes of the Milograd culture (their territories did not touch, but were separated by an unpopulated space), the determination of whose ethnicity causes insurmountable difficulties. Most likely, it was also one of the groupings of the peripheral Balts.

In second place in importance were the early Slavic-Germanic language contacts. The Germanic tribes, represented by the Yastorf culture, were the immediate northwestern neighbors of the Slavs - carriers of the culture of under-burials. Contacts between these ethnic groups were carried out both directly and through the mediation of the tribes of the Pomor culture. This is clearly evidenced by many objects (pins with swan-like heads, with heads twisted into an ear, Chertos and Kovachevich brooches, two-eared vessels, etc.), which have received more or less uniform distribution in the areas of the three named cultures. In the marginal regions of the Yastorf culture, there are vessels with a rough surface, which were widely used in the culture of under-claw burials. On the contrary, from the Jastorf culture of under-klyoshe burials, as a result of contacts, jugs with a wide ear and covers of a specific appearance penetrated into the lands.

The Slavic-Germanic lexical interpenetration of the most ancient era, studied by V. Kiparsky and V.V.

The territory of the culture of podklyoshey burials in the southeast approached the Scythian archaeological area. Isolated monuments of this culture have been found on its western outskirts. However, archaeological materials do not give any reason to talk about close interactions of the Slavs with the Iranian-speaking world at the time in question. No elements of Scythian origin are found in the cultural monuments of the podklyosh burials, just as the reverse cultural influence is not felt. This does not contradict the data of linguistics.

In the south and south-west, the neighbors of the Slavs - carriers of the culture of under-burials - at first were the tribes of the Lusatian culture of Lesser Poland, Silesia and the Lubus region, not affected by the migration of the Pomeranian population. It must be assumed that these were tribes who spoke even in ancient European dialects. Further south, behind the Carpathian Mountains, there was a vast area of Thracian tribes. Linguistic and archaeological materials indicate that the early Slavs did not have contact with the Thracians.

Ethnonym Slavs did not appear immediately after the separation of this ethnic group. The formation of an ethnos and the birth of an ethnonym are often not one-act phenomena. In this regard, O. Trubachev notes that the appearance of the ethnonym was usually preceded by a long period of relatively narrow ethnic horizons, when the people, the tribe, in essence, do not call themselves in any way, resorting to the common noun self-identification 'we', 'ours', 'ours', 'people' (in general) ". And then the researcher writes: “...‘ our ’was united first of all by the mutual intelligibility of speech, whence the correct and perhaps the oldest etymology of the name of the Slavs - from repute, the word / I’m in the meaning‘ to be heard, to be understood ’”.

The Germans, the carriers of the Jastorf culture, were the direct neighbors of the tribes - the carriers of the Lusatian culture, preserved at the beginning of the Iron Age in Silesia and the Lubus land, that is, even the ancient Europeans, who, very likely, called themselves the ancient European ethnonym Venets / Wends. This ethnonym was transferred by the Germans to the emerging Slavic ethnos.

the author Gumilev Lev Nikolaevich

There is no sign for defining an ethnos According to our definition, the form of existence of the species Homo sapiens is a group of individuals opposing itself to all other groups. It is more or less stable, although it appears and disappears in historical time, as