What did the Slavs living in the city do. How people lived in Rus' before the arrival of Christians, or why the history of Rus' before baptism was a big headache for Soviet historians. Calling Prince Rurik to reign

15.02.2014

The ancient Slavs, whose customs and customs formed the cultural basis of most of the Eastern European peoples, once stood out from a large Indo-European group of tribes. In ancient times, this vast community of people settled throughout Eurasia, giving rise to many famous peoples. So, the ancient Slavs, once united from among the Indo-Europeans, leading a single economic structure, similar in language and social structure. During the 4th-6th centuries BC. the Slavs took part in the great migration of peoples, as a result of which they colonized the lands of the Central, Eastern and South of Eastern Europe, subsequently dividing into three branches of Slavism - Western, Eastern and Southern.

The resettlement of the tribes of the ancient Slavs

For the first time, the Byzantine chronicles of the 6th century AD began to mention the Slavic people, speaking mainly about the tribes living in the Balkans, and thanks to Nestor the chronicler, we now know the tribes and lands of the Eastern Slavs. The settlement of the tribes was as follows:

The Krivichi lived in the upper reaches of the Volga, the Dnieper and the Western Dvina and to the north;
The glades lived in the region of the Middle Dnieper, on the territory of modern Kyiv;
Tivertsy and streets in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, the Bug and the mouth of the Danube;
Vyatichi in the upper reaches of the Oka and downstream;
Slovene in the lands from Volkhov to Ilmen;
The Dregovichi inhabited Polissya, from Pripyat to the Berezina;
Drevlyane, along the banks of Teterov and near the river Uzh;
Radimichi between Iput and Sozh;
Northerners near the Desna;
Dulebs, they are Volynians, Buzhans lived in Volhynia;
Croats on the slopes of the Carpathian mountains.

The life of the ancient Slavs

Numerous excavations and scientific work. It became known, for example, that for a long time the ancient Slavs did not depart from the traditions of the patriarchal way of life and the communal-tribal system. Families united into clans, and those into tribes. ruled social life venerable elders who, for the solution of all important issues gathered veche (council). Time brought the isolation of family activities, and the tribal structure gradually turned into a communal way (verv).

The Slavs were a sedentary people and were engaged in agriculture, plowed the fields with a plow, harnessed by oxen and horses, harvested useful plants and were excellent at various crafts - hunting, fishing, and also bred a little cattle and owned crafts. The Slavs showed great activity in the extraction of wax and honey - beekeeping.

It is believed that the development of trade gave impetus to the emergence of cities among the ancient Slavs. Many tribes began to have their centers. Novgorod was built by the Ilmen, Kyiv, the mother of Russian cities, was built by the northerners, Chernigov, Radimichi - Lyubech were built by the northerners, and Smolensk was founded by the Krivichi. Slavic settlers settled in settlements - villages along the banks of rivers, which fed the Slavs and served to move through the water. Military squads invariably appeared in the cities, in which Slavic warriors united, and the Princes became at the head of the troops. The nascent power gradually gained more and more influence, becoming sovereign rulers in their lands. For example, the Varangians Askold and Dir founded a principality in Kyiv, Rurik reigned in Novgorod, and Rogvolod reigned in Polotsk.

Religion of the ancient Slavs

The ancient Slavs, whose customs and customs, as well as ideas about the world, were pagan, deified nature, deceased ancestors and believed in the existence of all kinds of gods. The Slavs called the sky Svarog, the celestial phenomena of which were considered to be his children, svarozhichi. For example, Perun, the Svarozhich, was a thunderer and was highly respected by the Slavs. In addition to owning lightning and thunder, he was the god of war, patronizing the Slavic warriors. The Sun and Fire were revered for their power, life-giving or destructive. For example, the kind Dazhbog gave light and warmth, and the angry Khors could burn crops and nature with heat and fire. Stribog ruled over the winds.

Our ancestors attributed dominion over all to the divine will natural phenomena and processes, trying to win the favor of the gods by various sacrifices and holidays. Magi, sorcerers - Slavic priests, were able to recognize the will of the gods, and had religious power in their tribes. At the same time, anyone who wished could make a sacrifice to the gods himself. In later times, the Slavs began to create numerous idols from processed wood, which served as displays of their gods. Christianity adopted in the 10th century by Prince Vladimir, for many years was engaged in the eradication of paganism in Rus', and, nevertheless, the faith and traditions of the Slavs have survived to this day, in the form of folklore, folk signs and all kinds of holidays.
Video: Slavic holidays

Pages of the history of Russia. Life of the ancient Slavs.

1. Our ancestors
2. Appearance Slavs

4. Dwellings of the Slavs
5. Beliefs of the Slavs
6. Spirits, deities of nature
7. The beginning of the resettlement of the Slavs

1. Our ancestors

In the middle of the first millennium AD, in the vastness of Eastern Europe there were dense forests, marshy swamps, full-flowing rivers and small streams. inhabited this area East Slavs from which Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians descended. The Slavs lived in tribes. Tribe consisted of several genera. Genus are several families living together. Our ancestors, Eastern Slavs, lived along the banks of the rivers Oka, Volga, Don, Dnieper, Western Dvina.

The names of the Slavic tribes: glades, Dregovichi, Slovenes, Drevlyans, northerners, Rodimichi, Volhynians, Vyatichi, Ulichi, Krivichi, etc..

2. The appearance of the Slavs

The Slavs were strong, tall, hardy people.

Clothing of the Slavs —men It consisted of a long shirt woven from linen and adorned with embroidery, trousers, a belt and leather shoes. Leather footwear was like a boot with a soft leather sole, or just a piece of leather wrapped around the foot and reinforced with a rope. Of course, in the summer they did without shoes at all. Women's clothing included a long linen dress, also adorned with embroideries. Ornaments made of metals, glass, amber and semi-precious stones were worn only on solemn occasions during holidays and wedding ceremonies.

3. Occupation of the Slavs, tools and household items

The ancient Slavs were engaged hunting, fishing, beekeeping (collecting honey from wild bees), cattle breeding, agriculture, construction, pottery, gathering.

The men hunted on bears, wild boars, roe deer. In those days there was a lot of game in the forests. Blacksmiths forged weapons and necessary tools.

The female half cooked, wove, spun, sewed, and gardened. There were skillful healers who prepared medicinal potions from herbs.

Slavs were engaged in agriculture together. To plow the land, the Slavs had to cut down the forest. Trees were burned and ash fertilized the earth. The land was plowed with a plow, loosened with a hoe, then sown. A man with a sieve walked and scattered seeds across a plowed field. They did not sow in the wind. To cover the seeds with earth, the field treated with a harrow - dry wool . The plot was sown for 2-3 years, while the land was fertile and gave a good harvest. Then they moved on to new areas.

All knowledge, skills and experiences were passed down from generation to generation - from father to son, from mother to daughter.

4. Dwellings of the Slavs

The time was restless, the inhabitants of neighboring villages often fought among themselves, so the Slavs usually settled in places surrounded by steep slopes, deep ravines or water. They erected earth ramparts around the settlements, dug ditches, and erected a palisade. And it was convenient to build houses on such land.

The Slavs built chopped huts or settled in semi-dugouts, which half went into the ground. Livestock were kept in pens and barns.

The situation in the huts was the simplest: wooden benches, tables, a stove made of stones or clay .. There were no pipes in the huts. Burnt in black. Smoke escaped through small windows and doors.

From the dishes were clay pots and pans.

5. Beliefs of the Slavs

The Slavs believed that gods controlled all natural phenomena:

One of the main gods was Perun - god of thunder and lightning . It was a formidable god, he was also considered the god of war. Wooden idols made of mighty oak were erected in his honor. There were idols in the open air, and next to them was a stone on which sacrifices were made to this god. And this place was called the temple of Perun.
Yarilo - deity of awakening nature, patron flora. Yarilo - identified with the sun
Svarog - sky god
Dazhdbog - the son of Svarog. God of the harvest, keeper of the keys of the earth.
Veles - the patron god of animals, especially domestic ones.
Stribog - the god of the wind.
Makosha - Mother of a good harvest, goddess of the harvest, giver of blessings.

In order for the gods to be kinder to people, the Slavs held holidays in their honor. Many of them have survived to this day:

The main god - the Sun - was dedicated Maslenitsa .
The biggest holiday is Ivanov's day, or Ivan Kupala , took place on the night of June 23-24.
July 20, at Perun's day , guys and girls did not lead cheerful round dances, did not sing songs - they prayed for the mercy of a formidable deity.

6. Spirits, deities of nature

The Slavs inhabited their native, familiar world with the most fantastic creatures. They believed that the house was guarded by a brownie. , water and mermaids live in rivers and lakes, and wood goblins are found in the forest. There were other spirits of nature - good and evil. The Slavs turned to the souls of their ancestors for protection from evil forces, for advice, asking them for help and a good harvest.

7. The beginning of the resettlement of the Slavs

Over time, the Eastern Slavs began to settle in new territories. The resettlement was peaceful. The Slavs did not impose their customs on their neighbors - the Finno-Ugric tribes. They fought together against common enemies.

By the 8th century, the tribes of the Eastern Slavs united in tribal unions. Each union was headed by a prince.

Wars

All peoples at that time were at war, and the Slavs were no exception. The Slavs were not bloodthirsty and particularly cruel, unlike the ancient Romans, for example. Those wars waged by the Slavs began only for the sake of preserving statehood.

At first, the Slavs had nothing more than ordinary settlements, but then they grew into cities. Slavic cities were built along the banks of the rivers, which protected them from the enemy.

Gathering, cattle breeding, beekeeping and agriculture

The ancient Slavs were also engaged in hunting. They hunted both animals that were found in the forests and birds. The Slavs at that time already had a bow with arrows and spears. The forests were along the banks of the rivers, which gave Slavic life convenience.

The Slavs were engaged in fishing. Fish, of course, was included in the Slavic diet.

The Slavs were engaged in gathering. Berries, plants - everything was included in the diet. The Slavs also harvested medicinal herbs.

Agriculture is the main Slavic occupation. For a long time they have grown wheat, rye and other crops. It was hard work, because the land was cultivated with their own hands using a plow.

The Slavs were engaged in beekeeping. Honey played one of the main roles in their lives. Honey was a sweetener.

The Slavs were also engaged in cattle breeding - animal breeding, however, due to climatic conditions, it was not highly developed.

Feature of life - purity

Clean living conditions are a distinctive feature of the ancient Slavs. While the Europeans were drowning in mud, dying from the plague, the Slavs used the baths. They even had a bath day. Women, giving birth to children, arranged special rituals in the bathhouse. At many religious holidays, they were cleansed with water.

The ancient Slavs were engaged in hunting wild animals, fishing, farming, finding and collecting wild honey, extracting wax. They sowed cereal plants - millet and buckwheat, and for the manufacture of various clothes they grew flax and hemp. In addition, various livestock were bred - sheep, cows, pigs. The men hunted, extracted honey and wax, and fished. Women were engaged in weaving, cooking, gathering various berries and herbs. Together, men and women were engaged in agriculture.

Would you be able to live like the ancient Slavs? Plowing gardens, picking berries and fruits, raising livestock, hunting, fishing, living in rickety huts without a floor, washing with your hands in the river, raising more than six children and enduring the raids of neighboring tribes? Life in antiquity for us would have been real hard labor, but for our ancestors it was the norm and even better than it could be. How the ancient Slavs lived, what they ate, drank, how they dressed and how they built their life, read on.

Someone from our modern society the way of life of the ancient Slavs can terrify to the depths of the soul, but at that time everything suited people and everyone was practically happy. The Slavs did not strengthen their settlement, since they were practically not afraid of anyone. Their houses were significantly different from the dwellings of foreign contemporaries (Greeks, Germans, Turks, etc.).

Houses were built like dugouts or semi-dugouts, and an earthen stove was obligatory for everyone (otherwise how to cook food), and it was always built in the most remote corner of the room. As for the material for building a house, our ancestors believed that not every tree could suit them. As old signs say, some wood could bring trouble to the house, and some protection. Therefore, dwellings were built from pine, oak and larch. An interesting fact is that the aspen was considered an unclean tree.

In choosing a tree, our ancestors were very superstitious. A huge role was played by the place where the tree grew, the shape and even the side on which it fell after it was cut down. In no case was it possible to cut trees that grew in a cemetery or in a sacred place. Also, young or too old trees were often refused to be cut, and those who had a hollow, an unusual growth, or just a strange shape were considered the abode of evil spirits.

As for the site for the construction of the settlement, over time, the Slavs began to choose difficult places (swamps, high banks of a river or lake). Since the settlement itself was never fortified, nature served as a talisman against the raids of warring tribes. It is also worth noting that the ancient Slavic tribes were very resourceful, so in their dwellings (for some reason few people mention this) they often built several emergency exits in case of danger.

The life of the ancient Slavs in the settlements - the concept of "clan"

All Slavs built settlements where everyone lived with his family. Now the concept of "kind" has changed a bit. Now we say "relative", "relatives", "kinship". In those days, the family was considered not only close people by blood. No. Both the closest and the most distant lived there, since the word "genus" was used by the Slavs as a "tribesman", or in the sense of "people". At the head of the clan was the ancestor, the father of the whole family.

Many chroniclers described the habitation of the Slavs as an inaccessible building, elevated in an impassable place, with many escape routes, with valuables buried in the ground. Thus, they lived like bandits, hiding and fleeing at the first threat. One cannot but agree here, since the ancient Slavs really often fought with each other, because of which the tribe could be completely slaughtered in just a day.

The economy of the ancient Slavs

The main occupation of the ancient Slavs was agriculture. In this they succeeded as nowhere else. For TOO to survive cold winter and not die of hunger, people were very kind to the land, and tried to grow everything they could on it (recall that there were no potatoes then, and therefore the tribes ate cereals and bread). In order for the land to be fertile, it began to be cultivated even in winter. First, they cut down a section of the forest (the trees were not cut to the end so that they would dry out and could be easily felled), the stumps were uprooted and all the wood was burned. Such a month was called “cut”, from the word “cut”, “cut”. After that, in the spring, people sprinkled the area with ashes, loosened the ground with a special wooden plow and sowed the seeds. The main grain crops were millet, rye, wheat and barley. From vegetables turnip and peas. This type of processing was common only in forest areas, and in swamps and fields, fallow was used more.

Fallow is the second way to cultivate the soil for sowing. The land was first plowed and fertilized, and then sown. The following year, another site was taken, since this one was already depleted.

The second most important type of economy that the ancient Slavs were engaged in was cattle breeding. They raised sheep, cows, chickens and pigs. They often hunted wild animals in the forests and caught fish. In addition, beekeeping was still popular - collecting honey in wild hives.

The craft of the ancient Slavs

Forges were very common, where blacksmiths made plows for plowing the land, made weapons for the troops (squads), created the finest jewelry (bracelets, pendants and rings) from gold, bronze and silver, which were decorated with embossing, filigree and fading enamel. Kuznetsk business was not just popular, but necessary both for simple Slavic tribes and for the princes of the state. Sickles, coulters and scythes were made for farmers, and swords, spears and arrows for warriors. For women, needles, hooks, locks, keys, knives, awls, staples, etc. were often forged. If in our time blacksmiths create mostly works of art, then in ancient Rus' their craft was essential for survival.

Thanks to the yarn, the Slavs made fabric from flax, hemp and sheep wool, after which they could sew clothes and bedding. The fabric was made not only simple, but also patterned for the outfits of princes or secular people. The loom was considered the most difficult craft, but at the same time as necessary as the forges.

Weaving was very popular in Rus'. Especially popular were bast shoes - natural shoes of the common people. In addition to bast shoes, they wanted shoes made of leather. It was not sewn, but simply laid in folds and tied with ropes on the leg. Leather was very popular, so horse harness, quivers and other household items of the ancient Slavs were often made from it.

They also could not live without pottery. Pottery appeared a little later than the blacksmith's craft, and it improved especially when the potter's wheel was invented. Dishes, children's toys, bricks, washstands, etc. were made from clay.

Faith of the ancient Slavs

Like all ancient peoples, the Slavs were pagans, with well-thought-out customs and norms. Their world was inhabited by various gods and goddesses, most of which were associated with natural phenomena. Among them were evil and kind, fair and vile, playful and weak. The most important of them are Perun - the god of lightning and thunder, Svarog - the god of fire, Mokosh - the goddess who protects women, Veles - the patron of cattle breeding, Simargl - the god of the underworld. The god of the sun, who was called by different names, was especially held in high esteem: Dazhdbog, Horos, Yarylo.

The life and way of life of the ancient Slavs has always been on the verge of peace and war. Constant quarrels with neighboring tribes, frequent migrations, barren lands, robber raids, difficult living conditions and harsh laws of the gods. It is not for nothing that foreign chroniclers wrote about the Russians as a strong, strong-willed and courageous people who could withstand everything and break any wall in their path. Such were the ancient Slavs, our ancestors.

We all know that the Slavs played an important role in the formation of the states of Eastern Europe. This group of kindred peoples, the largest on the continent, have similar languages and similar customs. Its population is approximately three hundred million people.

Eastern Slavs in antiquity: settlement in Europe

Our ancestors were a branch Indo-European family peoples, which during the Great Migration scattered throughout Eurasia. The closest relatives of the Slavs are the Balts, who settled in the territories of modern Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Their neighbors were the Germans in the south and west, the Scythians and Sarmatians in the east. Eastern Slavs in ancient times passed the Eastern and Central Europe, where the first cities of Ukraine and Poland were founded in the interfluve of the Dnieper and Vistula. Then they overcame the foothills of the Carpathians, settling along the banks of the Danube and on the Balkan Peninsula. The great territorial remoteness of the Proto-Slavs made its own adjustments to their language, customs and culture. Therefore, the group was divided into three branches: western, southern and eastern.

Eastern Slavs in antiquity

This branch of our forefathers occupied a vast territory. From Lake Ladoga and Onega to the Black Sea, from the Oka and Volga to the Carpathian Mountains, they plowed the land, ordered trade, built temples. In total, historians name fifteen tribes of the Eastern Slavs. In the neighborhood with them, the Finno-Ugric tribes coexisted peacefully - our ancestors were not distinguished by excessive militancy, but preferred to support a good relationship with everyone.

Occupations of the Eastern Slavs

Our ancestors were farmers. They skillfully wielded a plow, a sickle, a hoe, a plow with a plowshare. The steppe inhabitants plowed the expanses of virgin lands, in the forest zone, trees were first uprooted, and the ash was used as fertilizer. The gifts of the earth were the basis of the diet of the Slavs. Millet, rye, peas, wheat, barley, buckwheat, oats were used for baking bread and for cooking cereals. Industrial crops were also grown - flax and hemp, from the fibers of which threads were spun and fabrics were made. People treated pets with special love, since each family raised cattle, pigs, sheep, horses, and poultry. Together with the Slavs, cats and dogs lived in their houses. Hunting, fishing, beekeeping, blacksmithing and pottery were developed at a very high level.

Religion of the Proto-Slavs

Before the arrival of Christianity in the Slavic lands, paganism reigned here. Eastern Slavs in ancient times worshiped a whole pantheon of gods who personified the forces of nature. Svarog, Svarozhich, Rod, Stribog, Dazhdbog, Veles, Perun had their own places of worship - temples where idols stood and sacrifices were made. The dead were burned at the stake, and mounds were piled over the ashes placed in a pot. Unfortunately, the Eastern Slavs in antiquity did not leave written evidence of themselves. The famous book of Veles raises doubts among researchers about its authenticity. However, archaeologists find a large number of household items, weapons, remnants of clothing, jewelry, cult items. They can tell about the life of our ancestors no less than chronicles and legends.