Slavic peoples of the world. Western Slavs: history, peoples, culture and religion

The Slavs are one of the most ancient peoples of the European continent. Its culture dates back many centuries and has unique characteristics.

Today, few people know about the origin and life of the ancient Slavs. You can find out about this by downloading the Slavic video online, which can be found on one of the specialized sites.

Southern Slavs

Peoples are groups that spread over a large area of ​​Europe. According to some experts, their numbers number more than 350 million people.

The South Slavs are a group of peoples who, by coincidence, found a home closer to the south of the mainland. These include people living in the following countries:

• Bulgaria;
• Bosnia and Herzegovina;
• Macedonia;
• Slovenia;
• Montenegro;
• Serbia;
• Croatia.

This group of people inhabits almost all of the Balkans and the Adriatic coast. Today, the culture of these peoples is undergoing significant changes under the influence of Western peoples.

Eastern and Western Slavs

Western peoples are the indigenous descendants, since this is where the settlement originated from.

This group includes descendants of several nationalities:

• Poles;
• Czechs;
• Slovaks;
• Kashubians;
• Lusatians.

The last two peoples are small in number, so they do not have their own states. The Kashubians live in Poland. As for the Lusatians, then certain groups found in Saxony and Brandenburg. All these peoples have their own culture and values. But it should be understood that there is no clear division between nationalities, since there is a constant movement of people and their mixing.

Eastern Slavs live on the territory of several states:

• Ukraine;
• Belarus;
• Russia.

As for the latter, the Slavs did not settle throughout the country. They live close to all other peoples who have spread near the Dnieper and Polesie.

It should be noted that the culture of the Slavs was subject to certain changes. This is due to the fact that many territories were under the influence of neighboring peoples for a long time.

Thus, the southern peoples absorbed some of the traditions of the Greeks and Turks. In turn, the Eastern Slavs were for a long time under Tatar-Mongol yoke, which also contributed to their language and cultural values.

Slavic peoples are a unique group of people, distinguished by unconventional thinking and beautiful traditions.

There are many blank spots in the history of the Slavs, which makes it possible for numerous modern “researchers,” based on speculation and unproven facts, to put forward the most fantastic theories about the origin and formation of the statehood of the Slavic peoples. Often even the concept of “Slav” is misunderstood and considered as a synonym for the concept of “Russian”. Moreover, there is an opinion that a Slav is a nationality. These are all misconceptions.

Who are the Slavs?

The Slavs make up the largest ethno-linguistic community in Europe. Within it there are three main groups: (i.e. Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians), Western (Poles, Czechs, Lusatians and Slovaks) and Southern Slavs (among them we name Bosnians, Serbs, Macedonians, Croats, Bulgarians, Montenegrins, Slovenes) . Slav is not a nationality, since a nation is more narrow concept. Individual Slavic nations formed relatively late, while the Slavs (or rather, Proto-Slavs) separated from the Indo-European community one and a half thousand years BC. e. Several centuries passed, and ancient travelers learned about them. At the turn of the era, the Slavs were mentioned by Roman historians under the name “Venedi”: from written sources it is known that the Slavic tribes waged wars with the Germanic ones.

It is believed that the homeland of the Slavs (more precisely, the place where they formed as a community) was the territory between the Oder and the Vistula (some authors claim that between the Oder and the middle reaches of the Dnieper).

Ethnonym

Here it makes sense to consider the origin of the very concept of “Slav”. In the old days, peoples were often called by the name of the river on the banks of which they lived. In ancient times, the Dnieper was called “Slavutich”. The root of “glory” itself probably goes back to the word kleu, common to all Indo-Europeans, meaning rumor or fame. There is another common version: “Slovak”, “Clovak” and, ultimately, “Slav” are simply “a person” or “a person who speaks our language”. Representatives of ancient tribes did not consider all strangers who spoke an incomprehensible language to be people at all. The self-name of any people - for example, “Mansi” or “Nenets” - in most cases means “person” or “man”.

Farming. Social order

A Slav is a farmer. They learned to cultivate the land back in the days when all Indo-Europeans had common language. In the northern territories, slash-and-burn agriculture was practiced, in the south - fallowing. Millet, wheat, barley, rye, flax and hemp were grown. They knew garden crops: cabbage, beets, turnips. The Slavs lived in forest and forest-steppe zones, so they were engaged in hunting, beekeeping, and also fishing. They also raised livestock. The Slavs produced high-quality weapons, ceramics, and agricultural tools for those times.

In the early stages of development, the Slavs had a culture that gradually evolved into a neighboring one. As a result of military campaigns, nobility emerged from the community members; the nobility received land, and the communal system was replaced by feudalism.

General in ancient times

In the north, the Slavs neighbored the Baltic and in the west - with the Celts, in the east - with the Scythians and Sarmatians, and in the south - with the ancient Macedonians, Thracians, and Illyrians. At the end of the 5th century AD. e. they reached the Baltic and Black Seas, and by the 8th century they reached Lake Ladoga and mastered the Balkans. By the 10th century, the Slavs occupied lands from the Volga to the Elbe, from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. This migration activity was caused by invasions of nomads from Central Asia, attacks by German neighbors, as well as climate change in Europe: individual tribes were forced to look for new lands.

History of the Slavs of the East European Plain

Eastern Slavs (ancestors of modern Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians) by the 9th century AD. e. occupied lands from the Carpathians to the middle reaches of the Oka and Upper Don, from Ladoga to the Middle Dnieper region. They actively interacted with the local Finno-Ugrians and Balts. Already from the 6th century, small tribes began to enter into alliances with each other, which marked the birth of statehood. Each such union was headed by a military leader.

The names of the tribal unions are known to everyone from the school history course: these are the Drevlyans, and the Vyatichi, and the Northerners, and the Krivichi. But perhaps the most famous were the Polyans and Ilmen Slovenes. The first lived along the middle reaches of the Dnieper and founded Kyiv, the last lived on the banks of Lake Ilmen and built Novgorod. The “route from the Varangians to the Greeks” that emerged in the 9th century contributed to the rise and subsequent unification of these cities. Thus, in 882, the state of the Slavs of the East European Plain - Rus' - arose.

High mythology

The Slavs cannot be called Unlike the Egyptians or Indians, they did not have time to develop a developed mythological system. It is known that the Slavs (i.e., myths about the origin of the world) have much in common with the Finno-Ugric ones. They also contain an egg, from which the world is “born,” and two ducks, by order of the supreme god, bringing silt from the bottom of the ocean to create the firmament of the earth. At first, the Slavs worshiped Rod and Rozhanitsy, later - personified forces of nature (Perun, Svarog, Mokoshi, Dazhdbog).

There were ideas about paradise - Iria (Vyria), (Oak). The religious ideas of the Slavs developed according to the same pattern as those of other European peoples (after all ancient Slav- this is a European!): from the deification of natural phenomena to the recognition of one God. It is known that in the 10th century AD. e. Prince Vladimir tried to “unify” the pantheon by making Perun, the patron saint of warriors, the supreme deity. But the reform failed, and the prince had to turn his attention to Christianity. Forced Christianization, however, could not completely destroy pagan ideas: Elijah the prophet began to be identified with Perun, and Christ and the Mother of God began to be mentioned in the texts of magical conspiracies.

Low mythology

Alas, the Slavic myths about gods and heroes were not written down. But these peoples created a developed lower mythology, whose characters - goblins, mermaids, ghouls, hostages, banniki, ovinniks and middays - are known to us from songs, epics, and proverbs. Back at the beginning of the 20th century, peasants told ethnographers about how to protect themselves from werewolves and negotiate with the merman. Some remnants of paganism are still alive in the popular consciousness.

Western Slavs — these are Croats, Czechs, Serbs, Obodrits, Lyutichs, Moravians, Slovenians, Slovaks, Slenzanes, Pomeranians, Polyanas, Kujaws, Sieradzians, Lencians, Dulebs, Vistulas, Mazowsans, Prussians, Jatvingians, Wolanians. The Slavs are a kind of community different nations.

The Slavs never represented a single whole in the full sense of the word. They, like every ethnic group, have always had somatological, cultural, linguistic and territorial differences. These initial differences for a long time were insignificant, then increased as a result of resettlement and interbreeding with other ethnic groups. After the initial impulses of resettlement, the Slavic unified community broke up into a number of new formations that finally took shape over the following centuries. The settlement of the Slavs took place in three main directions: - to the south, to the Balkan Peninsula; - to the west, to the Middle Danube and the region between the Oder and Elbe; - to the east and north along the East European Plain. The path to the north was blocked by the sea, as well as lakes and swamps. As a result of the settlement, tribes of the Eastern, Western and Southern Slavs were formed, on the basis of which numerous Slavic peoples later arose. Their fate was different.
Some of the Slavs moved to the northeast, to the East European Plain, into the remote forest wilds, where there is no cultural heritage it wasn't - it's Eastern Slavs. They They left in two streams: one part of the Slavs went to Lake Ilmen, the other to the middle and lower reaches of the Dnieper. Others remained in Europe. Later they will get a name southern Slavs . The South Slavs, the ancestors of the Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Macedonians, and Montenegrins, went south to the Adriatic Sea and the Balkan Peninsula and fell into the sphere of influence of the Mediterranean civilization. And the third part of the Slavs - Western Slavs - these are the Czechs, Poles, Slovaks who moved further west to the Odra and Labe and even further than this river - to the Saale, and in a southwestern direction - to the middle Danube up to present-day Bavaria.

Western separation process Slavic branch began before our era and ended in general outline in the first millennium AD. The place of settlement of the Western Slavs was the eastern half of the vast region, which from the 1st century BC. e. was called Germany and the border, which in the west was the Rhine, in the south - first the Main River and the Sudeten Mountains, and later the Danube, in the east it was established along the Vistula. Western Slavs, who have been subjected to other cultural influences than the Eastern Slavs, over time they found themselves in new, even more distinctive conditions and in a new environment. The distinction between the Eastern and Western Slavs began in the 10th century, when two competing states emerged - Kievan Rus and Poland. The alienation was also deepened by the fact that the countries had Christianity of different rites (Catholicism and Orthodoxy). The connection with the eastern branch of the Slavs weakened also because between it and the western branch the endless and impassable Rokyten swamps stretched on one side, and the Lithuanian Prussians and Yotvingians wedged in on the other side. Thus, the western branch of the Slavs, its language, culture and foreign policy destinies began to further develop independently and independently of the southern and eastern Slavs.

A large group of West Slavic tribes at the end of the 1st and beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. e. inhabited the territory from the Laba River and its tributary the Sala River in the west to the Odra River in the east, from the Ore Mountains in the south and to the Baltic Sea in the north. To the west of all, starting from the Kiel Bay, the Obodrits settled, to the south and east along the Baltic coast lived the Lyutichs, and on the island of Rügen, close to the territory of the Lyutichs, lived the Ruyans. Pomeranians related to them lived along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, approximately from the mouth of the Odra to the mouth of the Vistula, in the south along the Notech River, bordering on Polish tribes. Those Slavs who in past centuries occupied vast areas on the Baltic coast are usually called Baltic Slavs. The groups were independent of each other. Only danger forced them to unite for a while with each other or with other West Slavic tribes in tribal unions:

• Bodrichi (military-tribal union), Vagr, Glinyan, Drevani;
• Lyutichs (military-tribal union), Ratari, Ruyans, Slovintsy, Smolintsy;
• Lusatian Lusatian Serbs (military-tribal union), Milchanians;
• Pomeranians, ancestors of today's Kashubians, Slenzans, Bohemians and others.

All these tribes are still called Polabian Slavs . They lived along the Laba River, hence their name, which was a collective name for a number of small tribes. Each of these groups consisted of smaller tribes, to which belonged the Vetnichi, or Betenchi, Pyzhichan, Volinyan, Vyzhychan, etc., who settled along the banks of small rivers. As a result of the lack of reliable relationships, small tribes were not connected into an independent state association. In the second half of the 6th century, at least a third of the lands of the modern German state in the north and northeast were covered by the Polabian Slavs. The Slavs replaced the “Germanic” tribes of the Lombards, Rugs, Lugii, Chizobrads, Varins, Velets and others who lived here in ancient times and headed south from the Baltic Sea coast. The eastern half of Germany (up to the Elbe), significantly deserted with the departure of most of the Germanic tribes living there, was gradually occupied by the Slavs. Confirmation that the Slavs lived in Germany from the very first centuries of our era is the coincidence of the tribal names of the Polabian, Pomeranian and other Western Slavs with the oldest ethnic names known in this territory mentioned in Roman sources. Total of such paired, matching ancient and medieval Slavic names There are about fifteen known tribes that lived in this area. This is evidenced by the multiple toponyms that they left behind. “German” Berlin is a distorted name for the ancient city of the Polabian Slavs, founded in the 1st millennium BC. e., and in translation meant (burlin) “dam.”
From the 10th century, German feudal lords began a systematic attack on the Polabian Slavs, first for the sake of receiving tribute, and then with the aim of spreading their power on their lands by establishing military regions (marks). The German feudal lords managed to subjugate the Polabian Slavs, but as a result of powerful uprisings (983, 1002), most of them, with the exception of the Lusatian Serbs, again became free. The scattered Slavic tribes could not provide adequate resistance to the conquerors. The unification of individual tribes under a single princely authority was necessary for their joint protection from the aggression of the Saxon and Danish feudal lords. In 623, the Polabian Serbs, together with the Czechs, Slovaks, Moravians, Black Croats, Dulebs and Horutans, united under the leadership of the merchant Samo to resist the Avars. In 789 and 791, together with the Czechs, the Polabian Serbs again participated in the campaigns of Charlemagne against the Avar Kaganate. Under the successors of Charlemagne, the Polabian tribes several times came out from under Saxon rule and again fell into dependence.

In the 9th century, part of the Polabian Slavs submitted to the Germans, the other part became part of the Great Moravian Empire that arose in 818. In 928, the Polabian Slavs united to provide successful resistance to the Saxon king Henry the Fowler, who seized the territory of the Polabian-Serbian tribe of Glomacs and imposed tribute on the Luticians. However, under Otto I, the Lusatian Serbs were again completely enslaved by the Germans, and their lands were given into fief ownership to knights and monasteries. In the Polabian lands, German feudal lords were appointed small-scale princes. In 983, the Polabian Slavs rebelled. Their troops destroyed the fortresses built by the Germans and devastated the border areas. The Slavs regained their freedom for another century and a half.
The Slavic world, both evolutionarily and under the pressure of the Roman Empire, has long passed the stage of tribal structure. It was, although not clearly organized, a system of proto-states. Long wars with the German feudal lords had a detrimental effect on economic development Polabian Slavs, slowed down the process of their formation of relatively large early feudal states. Vendian power - the early feudal state of the Polabian Slavs: Bodrichi, Lyutich and Pomeranians, existed from the 1040s to 1129 on the Baltic Sea coast between the mouths of the Laba and Odra rivers. It was headed by Gottschalk (1044-1066), the prince of the Bodrichis. Trying to unite the emerging alliance of the Polabian Slavs in the fight against the Billungs and their allies, Gottschalk chose Christianity as the dominant religion for the Obodrites and Lutichians. As a result of his reign, churches and monasteries were revived on the lands of the Obodrite tribes, and departments were restored: in Stargard among the Wagrians, in Veligrad (Mecklenburg) among the Obodrites, and in Ratibor among the Polabs. Liturgical books began to be translated into Vendian. The process of Christianization undermined the local power of the Polabian tribal nobility, which was actually removed from governance on the lands of the Vendian state. A conspiracy arose against Gottschalk's policies among members of his family, representatives of the tribal nobility, pagan priests and the Lutichs he conquered. At the head of the conspiracy of the tribal nobility stood Bluss, whose wife was Gottschalk’s sister. In 1066, simultaneously with the removal of Archbishop Adalbert from power and his loss of political influence, an uprising against Gottschalk began in Slavonia, the center of which became the city of Retra, located in the land of the Luticians. “Because of loyalty to God,” the prince was captured and killed in the church by the pagans. They also killed the Mecklenburg Bishop John, whose arms and legs were cut off, and his head was stuck on a spear as a sign of victory and brought as a sacrifice to the gods. The rebels devastated and destroyed Hamburg, as well as the Danish border lands in the Hed region. The popular uprising was suppressed by Prince Henry (son of Gottschalk), he called back the German bishops and ruled as a vassal of the Saxon Billungs. Some tribes, for example, the wounds did not recognize Henry and, together with the Polish princes, continued to fight against German aggression. Weakened by territorial losses and internal dynastic turmoil, the Vendian state finally collapsed around 1129. In the 12th century. The final stage of the struggle of the Polabian Slavs, led by the Bodrichi prince Niklot, began against German aggression, the organizers of which were Henry the Lion and Albrecht the Bear, who sought to finally enslave the Slavs beyond Laboi by the forces of peculiar crusaders.

Bishops took part in the campaign, and above all bishops of the Slavic regions, forced after the Slavic uprisings of the late 10th and early 11th centuries. leave their dioceses. These bishops, led by the Bishop of Havelberg, who was appointed papal legate to the crusaders, dreamed of returning the lost tithes and other incomes and lands once granted to them by Otto I. The Danes, who suffered from Slavic raids, and even the Burgundians, Czechs and Polish also joined the campaign. feudal lords. After failure in the first Crusade against the Slavs in 1147, Henry the Lion managed, as a result of subsequent campaigns to the east, to capture almost the entire territory of the Bodrichis and become the owner of a huge territory east of the Elbe. Thus, from 1160, the possessions of the Slavic princes in Mecklenburg became fief-dependent to the Germans. In 1167, the lands of the Bodrichis, with the exception of the County of Schwerin, were returned to Niklot's son Pribislav, who converted to Christianity and recognized himself as a vassal of Henry the Lion. In 1171 he founded the Doberan monastery, allocated funds for the bishopric of Schwerin and accompanied Henry to Jerusalem in 1172. Christianization was for the German feudal lords only a plausible pretext for theft in the Slavic lands beyond the Laba.

The Slavs did not have the organizing politics that the Germans became acquainted with in the south - in the former Rome, having adopted Christianity, and in fact having adopted many of the principles by which the Roman Empire was built. Since the second half of the 12th century, the Polabian-Baltic Slavs have been under German citizenship. This meant for them not only the loss of political freedom, their faith and culture, but also their nationality, since those who were not destroyed began to undergo increased Germanization, consolidated by the reverse colonization by the Germans of those areas in which they once lived in the beginning AD.

From the Oder to the Vistula, those who were named according to their coastal place of residence settled, occupying the territory east of the Oder and to the border of the Prussian region: Pomeranians.

The exact boundaries of the settlement of the Pomeranians are unknown. The border between the Lutichians and the Pomeranians ran along the Oder and separated these hostile tribes. After the collapse of the Lyutich union, some lands of the Lyutichs west of the Oder passed to the Pomeranians, and the territory of their settlement changed. There were other neighbors from the east - the Prussians. The Prussians crossed the borders of this region only in the 12th century, conquering the so-called Pomesania, located between the Vistula and Drwenza. In the 13th century, the lands of the Prussians were captured by the Teutonic Order. A massive influx of Lithuanian and Polish populations into the region began. As a result, at the beginningThe 18th century saw the complete disappearance of the Prussians as a separate nation. In the south, the border between the Pomeranian and Polish regions was the Warta and Notec rivers, but this was only in name, since the actual border was a vast impenetrable virgin forest. Only along the lower reaches of the Vistula did the Poles advance to the areas of Kocevo and Chelmno, and soon they began to advance to the sea...

Pomeranians - this is a union of tribes, which included tribes that differed significantly from each other - these are the Kashubians, who occupied the area from the mouth of the Vistula to Lake Žarnow, extending to the line of Bytov, Lebork, Miastko, Ferstnow, Kamen, and the Slovinians, who settled near Lake Łebski. In the west, their lands border on Germany. In the Middle Ages, the Kashubians settled in the western regions of Pomerania, in the Parsenta River basin near the city of Kołobrzeg. In the 13th century, Western Pomerania was called Kashubia. The Kashubians are descendants of the ancient Pomeranians, currently living on the Baltic Sea coast, in the northeastern regions of Poland.

The only Pomeranian language that has survived to this day is Kashubian; speakers of other Pomeranian languages ​​have switched to German. The preservation of the Kashubian language was facilitated by the fact that the part of Pomerania west of Gdansk maintained ties with the Polish state and was part of it for a long time. Regarding the language of the Pomeranian Slavs, there is still a debate about whether to classify it as a Polish language and consider it only as a dialect of the Polish language, or to classify it as a group of independent languages.

Each region included in Pomerania had its own political center - a city, with the territory surrounding it. Further on there were other, smaller cities.

In the 9th century, some Slavic settlements near the mouth of the Odra, such as Szczecin and Wolin, as well as Kolobrzeg, were transformed into densely built-up settlements surrounded by fortifications, with trading centers in which auctions were held, for example in Szczecin twice a week. The population - artisans, fishermen, merchants - was mostly free, burdened only by appropriate tributes and duties in favor of public authorities. In some places, aliens settled and enjoyed considerable freedom of action.

Already in the 10th century. from the fortified points around which many Slavic villages were originally located, cities grew up, representing the military-administrative centers of individual tribes or their alliances: Branibor - the center of the Gavolian tribe, Retra - the main point of the four Lutean tribes, Michelin or Mecklenburg - in the land of the Obodrites. These cities in the X-XI centuries. conducted brisk trade with Saxony, Denmark, Sweden and Russia, exporting grain, salt and fish. Gradually, handicraft production also developed in Slavic cities: weaving, pottery, jewelry and construction. The buildings in Slavic cities were distinguished by their beauty, which amazed their contemporaries. Numerous cities of the Western Slavs were built of wood, as later in Rus'. The word “city” itself meant “enclosed space.” Most often, the fence consisted of ditches filled with water, a stream with a changed bed, and ramparts. Shafts are logs covered with earth, into which powerful stakes pointed at the ends were inserted, pointing outward.

Such protective structures reached a height of five (and above) meters, and the same amount in width. It was precisely such settlements that were excavated by German archaeologists. For example, Tornov on the banks of the Spree. In total, one and a half dozen fortifications of the 9th–11th centuries have been excavated to the west of the Oder in the lands of the Polabian Slavs, but this is only a small part of the cities that once existed here.

In the 40s - 60s of the 12th century, Pomerania was a federation of Slavic principalities, headed by the Slavic city of Szczecin, whose decisions were significant for other principalities and cities. Szczecin represented the interests of Pomerania before the Polish prince, seeking a reduction in tribute. The supreme body - the People's Assembly - VECHE met in the city, but the Slavic population also participated in it from the rural surroundings of the city. The will of the prince was adamant for all the Pomeranians: when the prince of the Pomeranians in the winter of 1107-1108, upon meeting with the Polish prince Boleslav Wrymouth, approached Boleslav, bowed before him and declared himself a loyal knight and servant, the Polish prince, without a single battle, was able to annex almost the entire Principality of Pomerania.

The annexation of Pomerania and the Serbian-Lusatian lands contributed to the strengthening of the Slavs in these lands and their subsequent resistance to Germanization. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the princes of Pomerania made campaigns against Poland.

Like all Slavs, the basis of the Pomeranian economy was agriculture and cattle breeding, supplemented by forestry, hunting and fishing. Pomeranians sowed millet, rye, wheat, barley, and at the beginning of the Middle Ages, oats. In the 7th-8th centuries, beef predominated in the diet, but in subsequent centuries it was almost completely replaced by pork. Forestry and hunting were well developed in the spacious forests. Many rivers and lakes and the sea contributed to the development of fishing. In Kołobrzeg, Pomeranians had been brewing salt since the 6th-7th centuries.

Around 1000, Pomeranian saltworks became famous far beyond the borders of Pomerania. Salt was one of the most important items of trade, both imported and exported, depending on its availability in a particular Slavic region. There were areas inhabited by the Slavs where there was no salt, but there were areas rich in this mineral, where the salt trade developed. Salt was known to the Indo-Europeans, who had a common name for it, and from this it follows that the Slavs also knew and used salt already in prehistoric times. We do not know how it was mined in those days, since there are no reports about it; perhaps it was obtained, like other northern peoples, by pouring salt water on burning firewood, from which the ashes mixed with salt were then collected.

The first reports of the Slavs using salt in food and as an item of trade appear only in the 9th century AD. e.; At that time, the Slavs were already using several methods of obtaining salt, depending on the conditions of its location. The coasts of the Adriatic, Aegean and Black Seas were dominated by ancient saltworks, where water was evaporated by the sun. They also evaporated water in large iron frying pans, called sartago in Latin sources, and chren, cheren in Slavic sources. To this day, salt is produced this way in Bosnia or Galicia, where salt-bearing raw materials are dug out of pits. Pieces of salt were removed from the frying pans like loaves of bread, then these pieces were divided into parts, for which several ancient terms have been preserved, for example: golvazhnya, pile. Boiled salt was an expensive commodity, so the Varangian salt makers were well armed and united to protect their product on the road, which they traded everywhere. Initially, the Varangians were entirely Slavic, and later their number began to include passionate youth from Scandinavia. The word “Varangian” itself meant “salt maker” from the word variti, that is, to evaporate and cook salt. Hence the name mitten - varega, which was used by salt workers to protect their hands from burns, and later the mitten was also useful in the northern regions in winter to protect their hands from frost. There is another interpretation of the word “Varangian” - from the Sanskrit meaning of the word water - “var”. In this case, “Varyags” means people living near the water, Pomors.

In the 10th century, long-distance trade flourished there. Free tribes of the Pomeranians by the 10th century AD. e. gradually merged into larger unions. Pomorie has contacts with almost all European countries. From here, grain was exported to barren Scandinavia, and salted herring was exported to the interior of Poland. In addition to connections with Scandinavia, which were supported by the cities of Wolin, Szczecin, Kamen, Kolobrzeg, Gdansk, stable relations were established with Russia and other Slavic lands, among which the internal Polish regions should be especially highlighted. In addition, relations are being improved with the Prussians, Byzantium, some Arab countries, England and Western Europe. Connections with the Prussians manifested themselves not only in the appearance of imported Prussian products, but also in the formation of some new cultural features, for example, the spread of metal scabbards for knives, and also, perhaps, in the appearance of some pagan idols. On the other hand, the Prussians adopted the forms of Pomeranian pottery. The influence of Pomeranian ceramic production also spread to Scandinavia. Large shopping centers Szczecin and Wolin, in which auctions were held and in Szczecin, for example, twice a week.

Local production is booming. Quite early they began to manufacture here lathe amber beads. By the 6th or 7th century. refers to a find in Tolishchek: in a clay vessel there were silver rings and beads made of glass, amber and clay, a necklace made of glass beads, and another made of amber, including polished ones. Excavation materials, for example, in Kołobrzeg-Budzistowa indicate that in subsequent centuries, work on amber, bone and horn was carried out by the same artisans or in the same workshops.

Metallurgy and blacksmithing are developing. The basis for the growth of metallurgy was created by swamp, meadow and partly lake ores. The main centers of iron mining were located mainly in villages. Kritsy (kritsa is a loose, spongy iron mass impregnated with slag, from which kritsa or steel is obtained through various treatments) were smelted in furnaces. Charcoal was used for heating. Processing of raw materials took place in the settlement centers; forges also appeared there. In the towns of Radaszcze in Kendrzyno, Wolin, Szczecin, Kolobrzeg and Gdańsk, production workshops producing tin and lead appeared. Rich deposits of silver were discovered in the lands of the Slavs. Among silver jewelry there are forms that were undoubtedly made in Pomerania.

The territory of free Pomerania passed several times to the power of Poland or Germany, which at that time was part of the Roman Empire. Only in 995 did Pomerania recognize its dependence on the Polish prince Boleslav the Brave. At the beginning of the 11th century (1018), Boleslav the Brave annexed Lusitia to Poland, but already in 1034 it again fell under German rule. During the same period, the Pomeranian lands regained independence for some time. In 1110, the Polish king Boleslav Wrymouth again annexed the Pomeranians, who retained Slavic paganism, to Poland, while the Pomeranian princes did not lose their inheritance.

Polish rule over Pomerania did not last long. The Pomeranians resisted Polish power and raised uprisings over and over again, especially since the Poles not only tried to have political power over the Pomeranians, but also to Christianize them, which caused particular indignation among the latter. In 1005 Wolin rebelled, but by 1008 Boleslav managed to restore his power over Pomerania. But as a result of a new uprising of the Volinians after 1014, Poland’s position in Pomerania weakened again. The previously founded bishopric in Kołobrzeg was liquidated and the process of Christianization of Pomerania was interrupted.

The annexation of Pomerania to Poland in the second half of the 10th century had far-reaching socio-political consequences for these lands. Many cities were destroyed, and some of them, which served as castellan centers in the 12th century, were expanded. Bolesław the Brave located his main church center in Kołobrzeg. In the 12th century, Boleslav Wrymouth managed to subjugate eastern Pomerania with the city of Gdansk to his power, and bring the princes of western Pomerania into political dependence. The emerging Pomeranian principality of Wartislaw largely imitated the structure of the Polish Piast monarchy, borrowing many elements of its system, which was manifested in the functioning of the system of tributes and duties, the organization of the court, administration, courts, etc.

From the end of the 13th century, German feudal lords resumed the consistent seizure of the lands of the Polabian and Pomeranian Slavs, accompanied by their Germanization. In cities it is forbidden to speak the Slavic language, all office work is translated into German, education is conducted in German in schools, and you can engage in any privileged craft only if you speak German. Such conditions forced the Serbian population to adopt the language and culture of the Germans. Slavic dialects are preserved almost only in rural areas. Due to the devastating wars with the Danes, the Pomeranian feudal lords welcomed the settlement of the devastated lands by the Germans. The most active process of Germanization took place in the western lands of the Polabian Slavs. During the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), more than 50% of the Serbs died here, as a result of which the area of ​​distribution of the Slavs in Germany was significantly reduced. The language of the Slavs and their customs were maintained longest in the Duchy of Mecklenburg and Hanoverian Wendland.

The Western Slavs preserved the pagan tradition for a long time. It received particular development among the inhabitants of Polish Pomerania. New King Poland Boleslav Krivousty realized that in order to annex Pomerania to Poland, it was necessary to eliminate religious differences. Bishop Otto of Bamberg volunteered to preach in Pomerania after Boleslav approached him with this request. At first, the pagans show some resistance, but the planting of the new cult is carried out very aggressively, using cruel measures against the adherents of the old days. Having traveled through several cities, Otto arrived in Wolin in 1127. Before that, he visited Shchetin. To discuss the issue of accepting Christianity, countless people were convened in Szczecin - pagans from villages and towns. Some of the noble people of the city, who were already inclined towards Christianity, decided to expel the pagan priests “from the borders of the fatherland” and follow the leadership of Otto in religion. After this, Otto did not meet any resistance in Wolin. The city followed the example of Shchetin, as was customary there, and Otto continued on his way. This was the beginning of the Christianization of Pomerania. Among the Pomeranians it spread along with the adoption of Christianity by Great Moravia and Poland, among the Polabian Slavs - along with the spread of German (Saxon) power. Among the Pomeranians, their discontent with the Poles weakened - now they had one religion.

The main sanctuary of the Pomeranians was located in Szczecin. There were four continuations in the city of Szczecin, but one of them, the main one, was built with amazing diligence and skill. Inside and outside it had sculptures, images of people, birds and animals protruding from the walls, so faithful to their appearance that they seemed to breathe and live. There was also a triple statue here, which had three heads on one body, called Triglav.

Triglav is a three-headed statue whose eyes and mouth are covered with a golden bandage. As the priests of idols explain, main god has three heads, because he oversees three kingdoms, that is, heaven, earth and the underworld, and covers his face with a bandage, because he hides the sins of people, as if not seeing or talking about them. They also had other gods. They worshiped Svyatovit, Triglav, Chernobog, Radigost, Zhiva, Yarovit. Temples and groves were dedicated to the gods. To this day, in the lands inhabited by the Polabian and Pomeranian Slavs, evidence of pagan culture is found. One of them is the Zbruch idol, as well as Mikrozhin runic stones.

The inhabitants of Kolobreg worshiped the sea as the home of some gods. Like other pagans, the Pomeranians brought sacrifices to the gods. But they did not practice human sacrifice.

All Baltic Slavs had priests. But unlike the Lyutichs and Ruyans, the power and influence of the priests among the Pomeranians was not significant. Important information about the level of medicine of that time is provided by Slavic bodily burials of the 10th-12th centuries. Of greatest interest are the most complex operations on the skull—trepanations. They are known in much earlier times - for example, skulls with trepanations are also known from the megalith culture in Mecklenburg. And if their purpose is not completely clear, and it is assumed that they had a mystical and cult character, then it is unnecessary to talk about the complexity of such operations. The end of Slavic paganism in Polabye was the destruction of the Svyatovit sanctuary in Arkona.

In addition to trepanation itself, symbolic trepanation is also known among the Baltic Slavs. In this case, part of the patient’s skull was not completely removed, but only the top layer of bone was cut or scraped off.

It is believed that in a similar way could “treat” head wounds. It is most likely that the operations were carried out by pagan priests. There is no direct medieval evidence of such practices among Slavic priests, but it is known that the Celtic priests were skilled in such healing. The technique of performing such complex operations as trepanation disappeared immediately with the adoption of Christianity - when the priesthood was destroyed. The Slavs maintained the belief that pagan idols could cure diseases. When a plague epidemic broke out in the Pomeranian city of Szczecin, which had just converted to Christianity, the city residents perceived it as the revenge of Triglav, whose idol had been overthrown by Christians shortly before. The widespread epidemics that have plagued Europe since the Middle Ages are directly linked to the fact that, along with the destruction of paganism in Europe, the medical knowledge of the priests, accumulated over thousands of years, was also lost.

The Polabian and Pomeranian Slavs have now been almost completely assimilated by the German and Polish peoples. Of the numerous tribes that inhabited the vast territories of Polabia in the 6th – 11th centuries AD, only the Lusatians (Federal Republic of Germany) and the Kashubians (Polish Republic) now associate themselves with the Slavs. Currently, Western Pomerania is part of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the rest is Polish territory.

Slavic peoples belong to one of the largest ethnolinguistic groups in Eurasia and Europe. Despite this, their history is replete with blank spots. Moreover, some scientists believe that the history of the Slavs was rewritten more than once, which means that it is incredibly difficult to identify reliable facts from the abundance of information. However, year after year, historians manage to piece together more and more data about the lives of our ancestors and their cultural traditions. And they, as experts say, are very diverse. After all, the Slavs have never been a single nation with identical beliefs, culture and language. They were settled over quite vast territories, so over time they became more and more different from each other.

Our article examines the historical development of the Western Slavs, their identity and religious beliefs, which differ significantly from the peoples who are commonly called the Eastern and Southern Slavs.

Brief characteristics of the ethno-linguistic group

The Western Slavs, as our reader probably already understood, are a kind of community of tribes united by a single name, cultural values ​​and traditions. Historians claim that this group emerged as a result of the settlement of tribes in various territories. This became the catalyst that launched the process of isolation of some Slavs from others.

For many, it remains unclear who belongs to the Western Slavs. After all, in general ethno-linguistic group There are quite a few tribes included. The most prominent representatives of this bloc are the Croats, Czechs, Poles, Polans and similar nationalities.

The Slavic peoples, according to historians, were never united even at the initial stage of historical development. They had certain differences due to their residence in one area or another. Initially, it was difficult to call them noticeable and in any way significant, however, after time, the cultural gap between the Slavic peoples only began to widen. This was mainly influenced by two factors:

• mass relocation to new territories;
• interbreeding with representatives of other ethnic groups.

The first wave of resettlement gave way to a new one, and gradually communities were created on the reclaimed lands that were significantly different from their prototypes. Cultural and trade ties between the Slavic tribes began to break down, which was largely influenced by distance. We can say that this particular moment is considered the starting point at which the isolated history of the Western Slavs begins.

If we consider the topic of tribal settlement in a little more detail, it should be noted that it occurred in three directions: south, east and west. The Slavs, who later became known as Western Slavs, headed to the lands of the Middle Danube, and also settled the territories between the Oder and Elbe.

Territory of the Western Slavs

Historians write that the process of separation of this Slavic branch began before our era and continued for several centuries. It was during this period that the very traits that in the future became the basis of a new ethnic group were formed. The first thing that united the resettled tribes was territorial boundaries.

The settlement of the Western Slavs was a long process, as a result of which vast territories were occupied:

• Odra River;
• Labe River;
• Saala River;
• middle Danube.

According to the latest data, it can be judged that the Slavs reached all the way to modern Bavaria and even entered into military conflicts with ancient Germanic tribes. It is interesting that today more than a hundred tribes are classified as Slavic, of which approximately fifty ethnic groups are Western, bringing their traditions to new lands.

Historians, studying the language and culture of peoples who trace their history back to the West Slavic group, have noted that the latter have much in common with their ancestors. This can be seen in the etymology of names and, first of all, in religious beliefs, which played a very important role until the adoption of Christianity.

By the way, many scientists believe that the Slavs, who mastered the western territories, accepted Christian religion according to the type of Catholicism, another nuance that once divided fraternal peoples. However, even during the times of the ancient Western Slavs religious schism between them had already been observed and subsequently only changed its shape and scale.

Religious Beliefs

Before the adoption of Christianity, the people described were pagans who worshiped not only certain deities, but also nature spirits, as well as animals. A distinctive feature of Slavic religious cults is the fact that they often did not single out individual gods, but worshiped spirits as a whole. For example, according to the beliefs of ancient tribes, a huge number of deities lived in the forest. Therefore, when going hunting or collecting forest gifts, our ancestors turned to everyone at once, asking for their mercy and protection.

It is noteworthy that the Slavs also believed in demons. However, in their minds they were not evil entities. Ancient peoples believed that demons were just the souls of animals, plants and stones. They can live in certain objects, but if necessary, they leave them and travel around the world.

Totemism, or the veneration of the animal progenitor, was also widespread among tribes. This cult was especially important for the Western Slavs. Each tribe chose its own totem animal and worshiped it, but killing a sacred animal was not considered something criminal. This fact is a significant difference between Slavic totemism and the form that it later took, for example, in Egypt. It is interesting that some historians consider the legends about werewolves, so widespread in Europe, to be the result of the influence of such cults. Many Slavic communities revered wolves and wore their skins during ritual events. Sometimes the ritual required movement in such a way across the terrain, which, naturally, looked wild and even terrifying for random travelers.

In the paganism of the Western Slavs, it was customary to serve the gods in specially constructed places where idols were installed. The temples, as they were called, were built mainly on hills, which were clearly visible from all sides. Nearby there was a place for sacrifices or a breviary. Pagan cults always involve the sacrifice of animals during ritual service.

The Western Slavs, after their final formation into a separate community, slightly modified the temples. They began to build them closed and placed all the idols inside at the same time. It is noteworthy that only the Magi could enter this semblance of a temple. Ordinary members of the tribe had the opportunity to attend some rituals near the temple, but most of the rituals were hidden from prying eyes.

The gods of the Western Slavs were not much different from the deities of their eastern and southern counterparts. And this is quite natural, because all the Slavs had a common pantheon of gods. Although each tribe separately revered its own idol, which was considered the patron saint of this particular community. If we turn to the classification of deities, we can say that they are divided into three groups:

• higher;
• average;
• inferior.

Such a division corresponded to the understanding of the world order, according to which our world consists of three levels: Reality, Rule and Nav.

Slavic deities

In the religion of the ancient Slavs, the highest group of gods included representatives celestial sphere such as Perun, Svarog, Dazhdbog and others. For most tribes, Perun was the supreme deity, as he was responsible for thunder and lightning. A little later, he began to be considered the patron of the princely squad and was in given status up to the adoption of Christianity. However, the Western Slavs revered him as an ordinary deity of the highest level. Among them he was known as Perkūnas.

It is interesting that the described group revered Svarog above other spirits and gods. Once upon a time, for all tribes, he was the highest power, as he mastered fire and metal. Our ancestors believed that he not only gave the people fire and taught them how to smelt metal, but also sent down from above a certain set of rules and regulations relating to all aspects of life. For example, it was Svarog who commanded a man to have only one woman and take her as his wife for the rest of his days.

The Western Slavs called him Sventovit, and over time he turned into the god of war. To glorify him, sanctuaries were built where absolutely everything, including the walls and roof, was red. The deity itself was depicted with four heads turned in all directions. Usually he held a hunting horn in his hands, which the priests filled with wine once a year. After this period, they looked at how much wine remained at the bottom of the vessel and made assumptions about the future harvest.

The gods of the middle group were close to the earth, human needs and fears. Among them, Lada, the goddess of fertility, was very revered. The lowest group included various perfumes and entities: mermaids, goblins, brownies.

To summarize, we can say that the religion of the ancient Slavs practically did not change as a result of the settlement of tribes in different territories. Before the adoption of Christianity, it had common recognizable features.

A few words about tribes

The article already briefly mentioned which nationalities can be classified as Western Slavs. However, this information does not reveal the full diversity of these groups, which have common roots. I would like to note that at the first stage of their settlement into new territories, the Slavs actively created military-tribal alliances. Such communities had clear advantages, as they made it possible to quickly develop land, establish trade, build fortified settlements, and even gradually move from defense to the seizure of new territories.

Historians divide all Western Slavs into several groups. The most numerous of them were the Polabian Slavs. Several tribes and military-tribal alliances are united under this name. The most major unions Bodrichi, Lusatians and Luticians were considered. The latter, by the way, worshiped wolves and inspired real terror in their neighbors. Their military-tribal union united fifteen tribes.

Scientists also distinguish Polish (Kujaws, Lubushans, Goplians), Silesian (Opolans, Slupians, Dedoshans) and Czech tribes (Hods, Dudlebs, Hanaks). In addition to those listed, there were also Pomeranians (Slovinians, Kashubians, and so on).

If we mention settlement, then the Obodrites were located to the west of all. They established their settlements, starting from Kiel Bay and further along the rivers. Their southern and eastern neighbors there were Lyutichs. Since they were a large tribe, they actively populated the Baltic coast. Almost very close to them was the island of Rügen. It belonged entirely to the Ruyans. And the vast territory from the Odra to the Vistula was occupied by the Pomeranians. Their settlements were also often found near the Notech River. The neighbors of the Western Slavs of this group were Polish tribes, who settled in small communities on fertile lands, suitable for agriculture.

It is interesting that despite the common roots and large number identical cultural traditions, the Slavic tribes were scattered. No connections were established between them, and the unification occurred only under the influence of a common threat. Scientists believe that it is precisely the reluctance of the tribes to pursue a policy of unification and develop in in this direction slowed down the transition to statehood, despite the abundance of prerequisites for the emergence of a single centralized power.

Emergence and assimilation of the Western group

Scientists are looking for the origins of the Slavic ethnic group around the 1st century BC. It was during this period that small pro-Slavic tribes united with the Wends, who lived east of the German lands. By the 2nd century, other tribes joined this group, which began to form a single cultural layer with a similar linguistic base.

From the 3rd to the 6th centuries, the Slavs began their settlement in various territories, occupying the Baltic coast, the Elbe, Vistula, Oder and Danube basins. Byzantine chroniclers noted that they constantly met numerous tribes of Slavs, as the Slavs were then called. They confidently moved through the Danube territories and in the process established contacts with the indigenous local population - the Germans.

Their main occupation until the 8th century was agriculture. Cattle breeding was after it in second place, since cattle were used for arable land. By the 6th century Western Slavs managed to master two types of agriculture:

• slash-and-burn;
• arable.

The latter was more advanced and required the use of iron tools. Each tribe produced them independently and did it very skillfully.

It is interesting that, having moved to new lands, the Slavs began to be in close contact not with their brothers, but with their neighbors, gradually adopting their cultural traditions. The Western Slavs, depending on their place of residence, came under the influence of the Germans, Greeks, Thracians and other peoples. As a result, they literally assimilated, acquiring more and more traits from more developed cultures.

The first Slavic states

By the 7th century, the Western Slavs began to form the first states. They arose in the Danube and Laba basin. The reason for their formation was class stratification and constant wars with the Germanic tribes. First Slavic state was formed by Czech and Slovenian tribes, as well as Polabs. They all united under the rule of one single prince, who ruled until the middle of the 7th century.

The capital of the Western Slavs during the reign of Prince Samo was located not far from today's Bratislava and was a fairly fortified settlement. The young state very quickly established trade relations with neighboring tribes, which caused discontent among the Germans. The war with them turned out to be successful for Samo, but his state did not last long. The death of the prince led to its disintegration. In place of the once single center, several small associations arose, created on the principles of statehood.

From the 7th to the 9th centuries, more than thirty such centers already existed on the Moravian Plain. They were fortified settlements that provided a roof over their heads and protection for an entire community. Its head was the prince, and inside settlements Crafts, shipbuilding, ore mining, agriculture and cattle breeding actively developed.

The beginning of the 8th century was marked by the formation of the Great Moravian Power, which became the second West Slavic state in history. It was based on the lands of several tribes:

• Moravians;
• Czechs;
• Slovenes;
• Serbs;
• Polabian Slavs;
• Polish Slavs.

The territory of the state was quite vast and bordered on Bavaria, Bulgaria and Khorutania. From the 9th century, the principality began to strengthen, which was facilitated by the wise policy of its ruler, Moimir. Over the next century, the state expanded due to the seizure of neighboring lands and according to the political course of the princes, who advocated strengthening the state and its ties with the Orthodox world.

For these purposes, even the well-known Cyril and Methodius were invited to the principality, who conducted services according to the Orthodox model, which did not suit the Catholic priests, who dreamed of taking such rich lands under their power.

Over time, they managed to cause discord between the Moravian princes and at the end of the 9th century. Small appanage principalities gradually began to emerge from a single power. The Czech Slavs were the first to separate, creating two independent principalities that sought to improve relations with Russia.

Formation of Polish states

Polish Slavic tribes went through their own development path. The initial stage of their unification dates back to the 9th century. Initially, this process took place around several centers, but soon two independent states were formed: Lesser Poland and Greater Poland. The first was captured by Moravian rulers at the end of the 9th century, and the second became the only Old Polish state.

Its formation occurred at the beginning of the 11th century, when the system of public administration was finally formed. It was based on cities and their rulers. They simultaneously performed a lot of functions, among which were, for example, military and judicial.

It’s interesting that Greater Poland’s relations with its neighbors have always been difficult. Military conflicts often arose between them, which were resolved not in favor of the Polish state. It is worth noting that his position was rather weak, therefore, from approximately the middle of the 11th century. it periodically fell into vassalage from stronger neighbors.

Western Slavic culture

The cultural traditions of the West Slavic group were formed under the influence of more developed states. On the one hand, they contributed to the rapid cultural growth of the tribes, but deprived the Slavs of the opportunity to go their own way and preserve their identity. Since the adoption of Christianity, the influence of the West has only intensified; now it was reinforced by priests who implanted their own rituals and even language. Western Slavs on for many years were forced to speak and write in Latin. Only by the 13th century did some states begin to develop their own written language.

The cultural traditions of different West Slavic tribes differed markedly, so it is quite difficult to talk about all of them in one article. It is enough to give several characteristic features of the cultural development of this group using the example of a comparison of two states - the Czech principalities and Greater Poland.

In the Czech state, chronicles on native language were carried out since the 12th century, which allowed the literary and theater arts. Interestingly, they often staged on stage satirical works. This was very rare for that time. But Polish literature began to take shape only in the 13th century. Moreover, for a long time, teaching was conducted only in Latin, which significantly hampered the development of the literary direction.

Czech architecture is distinguished by a certain symbiosis of Romanesque and Gothic styles. This art reached its greatest flourishing by the 14th century, while Polish architecture reached its peak only by the 15th century. In Greater Poland, the Gothic style prevailed, to which most of the monuments of West Slavic architecture belong.

In general, we can say that by the 15th century. in many West Slavic states there was a rise in painting, architecture, sculpture and science. The cultural achievements of this period are today the real heritage of modern states.

Instead of a conclusion

The history of the Slavs is more interesting and eventful than it might seem at first glance. However, it has not yet been fully studied and keeps many secrets.

Slavic peoples occupy more space on earth than in history. The Italian historian Mavro Orbini, in his book “The Slavic Kingdom,” published back in 1601, wrote: “ The Slavic family is older than the pyramids and so numerous that it populated half the world».

Written history about the Slavs BC does not say anything. Traces of ancient civilizations in the Russian North are a scientific question that has not been resolved by historians. The country is a utopia, described by the ancient Greek philosopher and scientist Plato Hyperborea - presumably the Arctic ancestral home of our civilization.

Hyperborea, aka Daaria or Arctida - ancient name North. Judging by the chronicles, legends, myths and traditions that existed among different peoples of the world in ancient times, Hyperborea was located in the north of today's Russia. It is quite possible that it also affected Greenland, Scandinavia, or, as shown on medieval maps, was generally spread out on the islands around the North Pole. That land was inhabited by people who were genetically related to us. The real existence of the continent is evidenced by a map copied by the greatest cartographer of the 16th century, G. Mercator, in one of Egyptian pyramids in Giza.

Map of Gerhard Mercator, published by his son Rudolf in 1535. In the center of the map is the legendary Arctida. Cartographic materials of this kind before the flood could only be obtained using aircraft, highly developed technologies and the presence of a powerful mathematical apparatus necessary to create specific projections.

In the calendars of the Egyptians, Assyrians and Mayans, the catastrophe that destroyed Hyperborea dates back to 11542 BC. e. Climate change and Flood 112 thousand years ago they forced our Ancestors to leave their ancestral home Daaria and migrate through the only isthmus of the now Arctic Ocean (Ural Mountains).

“...the whole world turned upside down and the stars fell from the sky. This happened because a huge planet fell to Earth... at that moment “the heart of Leo reached the first minute of the head of Cancer.” The great Arctic civilization was destroyed by a planetary catastrophe.

As a result of an asteroid impact 13,659 years ago, the Earth made a “leap in time.” The leap affected not only the astrological clock, which began to show a different time, but also the planetary energy clock, which sets the life-giving rhythm for all life on Earth.

The ancestral home of the peoples of the White race of clans did not completely sink.

From the vast territory of the north of the Eurasian Plateau, which was once dry land, today only Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands are visible above the water.

Astronomers and astrophysicists studying the problems of asteroid safety claim that every hundred years the Earth collides with cosmic bodies less than a hundred meters in size. More than a hundred meters - every 5000 years. Impacts from asteroids a kilometer across are possible once every 300 thousand years. Once every million years, collisions with bodies with a diameter of more than five kilometers cannot be ruled out.

Surviving ancient historical chronicles and the study shows that over the past 16,000 years, large asteroids measuring tens of kilometers across struck the Earth twice: 13,659 years ago and 2,500 years before that.

If scientific texts are missing, material monuments are hidden under Arctic ice or are not recognized, language reconstruction comes to the rescue. Tribes, settling, turned into peoples, and marks remained on their chromosome sets. Such marks remained on Aryan words, and they can be recognized in any Western European language. Mutations of words coincide with mutations of chromosomes! Daaria or Arctida, called Hyperborea by the Greeks, is the ancestral home of all Aryan peoples and representatives racial type white people of Europe and Asia.

Two branches of Aryan peoples are evident. Approximately 10 thousand years BC. one spread to the east, and the other moved from the territory of the Russian Plain to Europe. DNA genealogy shows that these two branches sprouted from one root from the depths of thousands of years, from ten to twenty thousand years BC, it is much older than the one about which today's scientists write, suggesting that the Aryans spread from the south. Indeed, there was an Aryan movement in the south, but it was much later. At first there was a migration of people from north to south and to the center of the continent, where future Europeans, that is, representatives of the white race, appeared. Even before moving south, these tribes lived together in the territories adjacent to the Southern Urals.

The fact that the predecessors of the Aryans lived on the territory of Russia in ancient times and there was a developed civilization is confirmed by one of them discovered in the Urals in 1987 ancient cities, an observatory city that existed already at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. uh... Named after the nearby village of Arkaim. Arkaim (XVIII-XVI centuries BC) is a contemporary of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, Cretan-Mycenaean culture and Babylon. Calculations show that Arkaim is older than the Egyptian pyramids, its age is at least five thousand years, like Stonehenge.

Based on the type of burials in Arkaim, it can be argued that proto-Aryans lived in the city. Our ancestors, who lived on Russian soil, already 18 thousand years ago had the most accurate lunar-solar calendar, solar-stellar observatories of amazing accuracy, ancient temple cities; they gave humanity perfect tools and started animal husbandry.

Today, Aryans can be distinguished

1. by language - Indo-Iranian, Dardic, Nuristan groups
2. Y chromosome - carriers of some R1a subclades in Eurasia
3. 3) anthropologically - the Proto-Indo-Iranians (Aryans) were carriers of the Cro-Magnoid ancient Eurasian type, which is not represented in the modern population.

The search for modern “Aryans” encounters a number of similar difficulties - it is impossible to reduce these 3 points to one meaning.

In Russia, there has been interest in the search for Hyperborea for a long time, starting with Catherine II and her envoys to the north. With the help of Lomonosov, she organized two expeditions. On May 4, 1764, the Empress signed a secret decree.

The Cheka and Dzerzhinsky personally also showed interest in the search for Hyperborea. Everyone was interested in the secret of the Absolute Weapon, similar in power to nuclear weapons. Expedition of the 20th century

under the leadership of Alexander Barchenko, she was looking for him. Even the Hitlerite expedition, consisting of members of the Ahnenerbe organization, visited the territories of the Russian North.

Doctor of Philosophy Valery Demin, defending the concept of the polar ancestral home of humanity, gives versatile arguments in favor of the theory according to which in the North in the distant past there was a highly developed Hyperborean civilization: the roots of Slavic culture go back to it.

Slavs, like everyone else modern peoples, arose as a result of complex ethnic processes and are a mixture of previous heterogeneous ethnic groups. The history of the Slavs is inextricably linked with the history of the emergence and settlement of Indo-European tribes. Four thousand years ago, the single Indo-European community began to disintegrate. The formation of the Slavic tribes occurred in the process of separating them from among the numerous tribes of the large Indo-European family. In Central and Eastern Europe separates language group, which, as genetic data has shown, included the ancestors of the Germans, Balts and Slavs. They occupied a vast territory: from the Vistula to the Dnieper, some tribes even reached the Volga, pushing out the Finno-Ugric peoples. In the 2nd millennium BC. The German-Balto-Slavic language group also experienced fragmentation processes: Germanic tribes go to the West, beyond the Elbe, and the Balts and Slavs remain in Eastern Europe.

From the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. over large areas from the Alps to the Dnieper, Slavic or speech understandable to the Slavs predominates. But other tribes continue to be located in this territory, some of them leaving these territories, others appearing from non-contiguous areas. Several waves from the south, and then the Celtic invasion, encouraged the Slavs and related tribes to move north and northeast. Apparently, this was often accompanied by a certain decline in the level of culture and hampered development. Thus, the Baltoslavs and the isolated Slavic tribes found themselves excluded from the cultural and historical community, which was formed at that time on the basis of the synthesis of Mediterranean civilization and the cultures of alien barbarian tribes.

In modern science, the most widely recognized views are those according to which the Slavic ethnic community originally developed in an area either between the Oder (Odra) and the Vistula (Oder-Vistula theory), or between the Oder and the Middle Dnieper (Oder-Dnieper theory). The ethnogenesis of the Slavs developed in stages: Proto-Slavs, Proto-Slavs and the Early Slavic ethnolinguistic community, which subsequently split into several groups:

• Romanesque - from it the French, Italians, Spaniards, Romanians, Moldovans will descend;
• Germanic - Germans, English, Swedes, Danes, Norwegians; Iranian - Tajiks, Afghans, Ossetians;
• Baltic - Latvians, Lithuanians;
• Greek - Greeks;
• Slavic - Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians.

The assumption about the existence of the ancestral home of the Slavs, Balts, Celts, and Germans is quite controversial. Craniological materials do not contradict the hypothesis that the ancestral home of the Proto-Slavs was located between the Vistula and Danube, Western Dvina and Dniester rivers. Nestor considered the Danube lowlands to be the ancestral home of the Slavs. Anthropology could provide a lot for the study of ethnogenesis. During the 1st millennium BC and 1st millennium AD, the Slavs burned their dead, so researchers do not have such material at their disposal. And genetic and other research is a matter of the future. Taken separately, various information about the Slavs in the ancient period - historical data, archaeological data, toponymic data, and linguistic contact data - cannot provide reliable grounds for determining the ancestral homeland of the Slavs.

Hypothetical ethnogenesis of proto-peoples around 1000 BC. e. (Proto-Slavs are highlighted in yellow)

Ethnogenetic processes were accompanied by migrations, differentiation and integration of peoples, assimilation phenomena in which various ethnic groups, both Slavic and non-Slavic, took part. Contact zones emerged and changed. Further settlement of the Slavs, especially intensive in the middle of the 1st millennium AD, occurred in three main directions: to the south (to the Balkan Peninsula), to the west (to the region of the Middle Danube and between the Oder and Elbe rivers) and to the northeast along the East European plain. Written sources did not help scientists determine the boundaries of the distribution of the Slavs. Archaeologists came to the rescue. But when studying possible archaeological cultures, it was impossible to single out exactly the Slavic one. Cultures overlapped each other, which indicated their parallel existence, constant movement, wars and cooperation, mixing.

The Indo-European linguistic community developed among a population whose individual groups were in direct communication with each other. Such communication was possible only in a relatively limited and compact area. There were quite extensive zones within which the related languages. In many areas there lived multilingual tribes, and this situation could also persist for centuries. Their languages ​​were getting closer, but the formation of a relatively common language could only take place under state conditions. Tribal migrations seemed to be a natural cause of the disintegration of the community. So the once closest “relatives” - the Germans - became Germans for the Slavs, literally “mute”, “speaking an incomprehensible language”. The migration wave threw out this or that people, crowding out, destroying, assimilating other peoples. As for the ancestors modern Slavs and the ancestors of the modern Baltic peoples (Lithuanians and Latvians), they formed a single nation for one and a half thousand years. During this period, the northeastern (mainly Baltic) components increased in the Slavic composition, which introduced changes in the anthropological appearance and in certain elements of culture.

Byzantine writer of the 6th century. Procopius of Caesarea described the Slavs as very tall and enormous strength, with white skin and hair. Entering the battle, they went to the enemies with shields and darts in their hands, but they never put on shells. The Slavs used wooden bows and small arrows dipped in a special poison. Having no leader over them and being at enmity with each other, they did not recognize the military system, were unable to fight in a proper battle and never showed themselves in open and level places. If it happened that they dared to go into battle, then they all slowly moved forward together, shouting, and if the enemy could not withstand their shout and onslaught, then they actively advanced; otherwise, they fled, slowly trying to measure their strength with the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. Using the forests as cover, they rushed towards them, because only among the gorges they knew how to fight well. Often the Slavs abandoned the captured booty, allegedly under the influence of confusion, and fled into the forests, and then, when the enemies tried to take possession of it, they unexpectedly struck. Some of them wore neither shirts nor cloaks, but only pants, pulled up by a wide belt on the hips, and in this form they went to fight the enemy. They preferred to fight the enemy in places covered with dense forest, in gorges, on cliffs; They suddenly attacked day and night, taking advantage of ambushes and tricks, inventing many ingenious ways to surprise the enemy. They easily crossed rivers, courageously enduring their stay in the water.

The Slavs did not keep captives in slavery for an unlimited time, like other tribes, but after a certain time they offered them a choice: to return home for a ransom or to remain where they were, in position free people and friends.

Indo-European language family- one of the largest. The language of the Slavs retained the archaic forms of the once common Indo-European language and began to take shape in the middle of the 1st millennium. By this time, a group of tribes had already formed. Slavic dialectal features proper, which sufficiently distinguished them from the Balts, formed the linguistic formation that is commonly called Proto-Slavic. The settlement of the Slavs in the vast expanses of Europe, their interaction and miscegenation (mixed ancestry) with other ethnic groups disrupted pan-Slavic processes and laid the foundations for the formation of individual Slavic languages ​​and ethnic groups. Slavic languages ​​fall into a number of dialects.

The word “Slavs” did not exist in those ancient times. There were people, but they had different names. One of the names, the Wends, comes from the Celtic vindos, which means “white.” This word is still preserved in the Estonian language. Ptolemy and Jordan believe that the Wends are the oldest collective name of all the Slavs who lived at that time between the Elbe and the Don. The earliest news of the Slavs under the name of the Wends dates back to the 1st - 3rd centuries AD and belongs to Roman and Greek writers - Pliny the Elder, Publius Cornelius Tacitus and Ptolemy Claudius. According to these authors, the Wends lived along the Baltic coast between the Gulf of Stetin. Odra, and the Bay of Danzing, into which the Vistula flows; along the Vistula from its headwaters to Carpathian mountains and to the coast of the Baltic Sea. Their neighbors were the Ingevon Germans, who may have given them that name. Such Latin authors as Pliny the Elder and Tacitus also distinguish them as a special ethnic community with the name “Vendi”. Half a century later, Tacitus, noting the ethnic differences between the Germanic, Slavic and Sarmatian worlds, assigned the Wends a vast territory between Baltic coast and Prykarpattya.

The Wends inhabited Europe already in the 3rd millennium BC.

Veneda withVcenturies occupied part of the territory of modern Germany between the Elbe and Oder. INVIIcentury, the Wends invaded Thuringia and Bavaria, where they defeated the Franks. The raids on Germany continued untilXcentury, when Emperor Henry I began an offensive against the Wends, setting their acceptance of Christianity as one of the conditions for concluding peace. The conquered Wends often rebelled, but each time they were defeated, after which more and more of their lands passed to the winners. The campaign against the Wends in 1147 was accompanied by mass destruction Slavic population, and henceforth the Wends did not offer any stubborn resistance to the German conquerors. For once Slavic lands German settlers arrived, and the new towns founded began to play an important role in the economic development of northern Germany. From about 1500, the area of ​​distribution of the Slavic language was reduced almost exclusively to the Lusatian margraviates - Upper and Lower, later included in Saxony and Prussia, respectively, and adjacent territories. Here, in the area of ​​​​the cities of Cottbus and Bautzen, they live modern descendants Wends, of whom there are approx. 60,000 (mostly Catholic). In Russian literature, they are usually called Lusatians (the name of one of the tribes that were part of the Vendian group) or Lusatian Serbs, although they themselves call themselves Serbja or Serbski Lud, and their modern German name is Sorben (formerly also Wenden). Since 1991, the Foundation for Lusatian Affairs has been in charge of preserving the language and culture of this people in Germany.

In the 4th century, the ancient Slavs finally became isolated and appeared on the historical arena as a separate ethnic group. And under two names. This is “Slovene” and the second name is “Anty”. In the VI century. The historian Jordanes, who wrote in Latin in his work “On the Origin and Deeds of the Getae,” reports reliable information about the Slavs: “Starting from the birthplace of the Vistula River, there were numerous tribe Veneti. Although their names now change according to different clans and localities, they are still predominantly called Sclaveni and Antes. The Sklavens live from the city of Novietuna and the lake called Mursian, to Danastra, and to the north - to Viskla; instead of cities they have swamps and forests. The Antes, the strongest of both (tribes), spread from Danaster to Danapra, where the Pontic Sea forms a bend.” These groups spoke the same language. At the beginning of the 7th century, the name “Anta” ceased to be used. Apparently, because during the migration movements a certain tribal union, which was called by that name, disintegrated. In ancient (Roman and Byzantine) literary monuments the name of the Slavs looks like “Sklavins”, in Arabic sources as “Sakaliba”, sometimes the self-name of one of the groups of Scythians “Skoloty” is brought closer to the Slavs.

The Slavs finally emerged as an independent people no earlier than the 4th century AD. when the “Great Migration of Peoples” “teared apart” the Balto-Slavic community. Under their name “Slavs” appeared in chronicles in the 6th century. From the 6th century information about the Slavs appears in many sources, which undoubtedly testifies to their significant strength by this time, to the entry of the Slavs into the historical arena in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, to their clashes and alliances with the Byzantines, Germans and other peoples inhabiting at that time Eastern and Central Europe. By this time they occupied vast territories, their language retained archaic forms of the once common Indo-European language. Linguistic science has determined the boundaries of the origin of the Slavs from the 18th century BC. until the 6th century AD The first news about the Slavic tribal world appears on the eve of the Great Migration of Peoples.