The name “Balts” can be understood in two ways, depending on the sense in which it is used, geographical or political, linguistic or ethnological. Geographical significance suggests talking about the Baltic states: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, located on the western coast of the Baltic Sea. Before World War II, these states were independent, with a population of approximately 6 million. In 1940 they were forcibly incorporated into the USSR.
This publication is not about the modern Baltic states, but about a people whose language is part of the common Indo-European language system, a people consisting of Lithuanians, Latvians and old, ancient, that is, related tribes, many of which disappeared in prehistoric and historical periods. Estonians do not belong to them, since they belong to the Finno-Ugric language group, they speak a completely different language, of a different origin, different from Indo-European.
The very name “Balts”, formed by analogy with the Baltic Sea, Mare Balticum, is considered a neologism, since it has been used since 1845 as a common name for peoples speaking “Baltic” languages: ancient Prussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Shelonians. Currently, only Lithuanian and Latvian languages have been preserved.
Prussian disappeared around 1700 due to the German colonization of West Prussia. The Curonian, Semgalian and Selonian (Seli) languages disappeared between 1400 and 1600, absorbed by Lithuanian or Latvian. Other Baltic languages or dialects disappeared during the prehistoric or early historical period and are not preserved in written sources.
At the beginning of the 20th century, speakers of these languages began to be called Estonians (Esti). Thus, the Roman historian Tacitus in his work “Germania” (98) mentions Aestii, gentes Aestiorum - Aestii, people who lived on the western coast of the Baltic Sea. Tacitus describes them as amber collectors and notes their particular industriousness in collecting plants and fruits in comparison with the German people, with whom the Aestians showed similarities in appearance and customs.
Perhaps it would be more natural to use the term “Aesti”, “Aesti” in relation to all the Baltic peoples, although we do not know for sure whether Tacitus meant all the Balts, or only the ancient Prussians (Eastern Balts), or the amber collectors who lived on the Baltic coast around the Gulf of Frisches Haf, which Lithuanians still call the “Sea of Estov”.
It was also called by Wulfstan, the Anglo-Saxon traveler, in the 9th century.
There is also the Aista River in eastern Lithuania. The names Aestii and Aisti appear frequently in early historical records. The Gothic author Jordanes (6th century BC) finds the Aestii, “a completely peaceful people,” east of the mouth of the Vistula, on the longest stretch of the Baltic coast. Einhardt, the author of the “Biography of Charlemagne” (approximately 830-840), finds them on the western shores of the Baltic Sea, considering them neighbors of the Slavs. It seems that the name "Esti", "Estii" should be used in a broader context than the specific designation of a single tribe.
The most ancient designation of the Balts, or most likely the Western Balts, was Herodotus’ mention of them as the Neuroi. Since it is a common view that the Slavs were called neuros, I will return to this issue when discussing the problem of the Western Balts in the time of Herodotus.
The general name of the Prussians, that is, the Eastern Balts, appeared in the 9th century. BC e. - these are “brutzi”, first immortalized by a Bavarian geographer almost exactly after 845. It was believed that before the 9th century. One of the eastern tribes was called Prussians, and only over time they began to call other tribes this way, like, say, the Germans “Germans.”
Around 945, an Arab merchant from Spain named Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, who came to the Baltic shores, noted that the Prussians had their own language and were distinguished by their brave behavior in wars against the Vikings (Rus).
The Curonians, a tribe that settled on the shores of the Baltic Sea in the territory of modern Lithuania and Latvia, are called Cori or Hori in the Scandinavian sagas. The wars between the Vikings and Curonians, which took place in the 7th century, are also mentioned. BC e.
The lands of the Semigallians - today the central part of Latvia and Northern Lithuania - are known from Scandinavian sources in connection with the attacks of the Danish Vikings on the Semigallians in 870. The designations of other tribes arose much later. The name Latgalians, who lived in the territory of modern Eastern Lithuania, Eastern Latvia and Belarus, appeared in written sources only in the 11th century. Between 1st century new era
and in the 11th century, one after another, the names of the Baltic tribes appeared on the pages of history. In the first millennium, the Balts experienced a prehistoric stage of development, therefore the earliest descriptions are very scarce, and without archaeological data it is impossible to get an idea of the boundaries of residence or the way of life of the Balts. The names that appeared in the early historical period make it possible to identify their culture from archaeological excavations. And only in some cases the descriptions allow us to draw conclusions about the social structure, occupation, customs, appearance, religion and behavioral characteristics of the Balts. From Tacitus (1st century) we learn that the Aestians were the only tribe that collected amber, and that they cultivated plants with a patience that did not characterize the lazy Germans. According to the nature of religious rites and
Around 880-890, the traveler Wulfstan, who sailed by boat from Haithabu, Schleswig, along the Baltic Sea to the lower reaches of the Vistula, to the Elbe River and Frisches Haf Bay, described the vast land of Estland, in which there were many settlements, each of which was headed leader, and they often fought among themselves.
The leader and rich members of society drank kumis (mare's milk), the poor and slaves drank honey. They did not brew beer because there was honey in abundance.
Wulfstan describes in detail their funeral rites, the custom of preserving the dead by freezing. This is discussed in detail in the section on religion.
The first missionaries who entered the lands of the ancient Prussians usually considered the local population to be mired in paganism. Archbishop Adam of Bremen wrote this around 1075: “The Zembs, or Prussians, are the most humane people. They always help those who get into trouble at sea or who are attacked by robbers. They consider gold and silver to be the highest value... Many worthy words could be said about this people and their moral principles, if only they believed in the Lord, whose messengers they brutally exterminated. Adalbert, the brilliant bishop of Bohemia, who died at their hands, was recognized as a martyr. Although they are in all other respects similar to our own people, they have prevented, down to the present day, access to their groves and springs, believing that they might be desecrated by Christians. They eat their draft animals and use their milk and blood as drink so often that they can become intoxicated. Their men
blue color
[maybe blue eyes? Or do you mean tattoo?], red-skinned and long-haired. Living mainly in impenetrable swamps, they will not tolerate anyone’s power over them.”
Today, the Old Prussian language is known only to linguists, who study it from dictionaries published in the 14th and 16th centuries. In the 13th century, the Baltic Prussians were conquered by the Teutonic Knights, German-speaking Christians, and over the next 400 years the Prussian language disappeared.
The crimes and atrocities of the conquerors, perceived as acts in the name of faith, are forgotten today. In 1701, Prussia became an independent German monarchical state. From that time on, the name “Prussian” became synonymous with the word “German”.
The lands occupied by the Baltic-speaking peoples were approximately one-sixth of those occupied in prehistoric times, before the Slavic and German invasions.
Throughout the territory located between the Vistula and Neman rivers, ancient place names are common, although mostly Germanized. Presumably Baltic names are also found west of the Vistula, in Eastern Pomerania.
Archaeological evidence leaves no doubt that before the appearance of the Goths in the lower Vistula and Eastern Pomerania in the 1st century BC. e.
Baltic names of rivers and places exist throughout the entire territory located from the Baltic Sea to Western Great Russia.
There are many Baltic words borrowed from the Finno-Ugric language and even from the Volga Finns who lived in western Russia. Since the 11th-12th centuries, historical descriptions have mentioned the warlike Baltic tribe of the Galindians (Golyad), who lived above the Protva River, near Mozhaisk and Gzhatsk, southeast of Moscow. All of the above indicates that the Baltic peoples lived on the territory of Russia before the invasion of the Western Slavs. Baltic elements in archeology, ethnography and the language of Belarus have occupied researchers since late XIX
centuries. The Galindians living in the Moscow region created an interesting problem: their name and historical descriptions of this tribe indicate that they were neither Slavs nor Finno-Ugric. Then who were they?
In the very first Russian chronicle, “The Tale of Bygone Years,” the Galindians (Golyad) were first mentioned in 1058 and 1147. Linguistically, the Slavic form “golyad” comes from the Old Prussian “galindo”.
"The etymology of the word can be explained by the Eton word galas - 'end'.
On modern maps of Belarus and Russia one can hardly find Baltic traces in the names of rivers or localities - today these are Slavic territories. However, linguists were able to overcome time and establish the truth. In his studies of 1913 and 1924, the Lithuanian linguist Buga found that 121 river names in Belarus are of Baltic origin. He showed that almost all names in the upper Dnieper region and the upper reaches of the Neman are undoubtedly of Baltic origin.
Some similar forms are found in the names of rivers in Lithuania, Latvia and East Prussia, their etymology can be explained by deciphering the meaning of the Baltic words. Sometimes in Belarus several rivers can bear the same name, for example, Vodva (this is the name of one of the right tributaries of the Dnieper, another river is located in the Mogilev region). The word comes from the Baltic "vaduva" and is often found in the names of rivers in Lithuania.
The next hydronym “Luchesa”, which in Baltic corresponds to “Laukesa”, comes from the Lithuanian lauka - “field”. There is a river with the same name in Lithuania - Laukesa, in Latvia - Lautesa, and is found three times in Belarus: in the north and southwest of Smolensk, as well as south of Vitebsk (a tributary of the upper Daugava - Dvina).
Until now, the names of rivers are the best way to establish the zones of settlement of peoples in ancient times. Buga was convinced of the original settlement of modern Belarus by the Balts. He even put forward a theory that in the beginning the lands of the Lithuanians may have been located north of the Pripyat River and in the upper Dnieper basin. In 1932, the German Slavist M. Vasmer published a list of names that he considered Baltic, which included the names of rivers located in the areas of Smolensk, Tver (Kalinin), Moscow and Chernigov, expanding the zone of Baltic settlement far to the west.
In 1962, Russian linguists V. Toporov and O. Trubachev published the book “Linguistic analysis of hydronyms in the upper Dnieper basin.” They discovered that more than a thousand river names in the upper Dnieper basin are of Baltic origin, as evidenced by the etymology and morphemics of the words. The book became obvious evidence of the long occupation by the Balts in ancient times of the territory of modern Belarus and the eastern part of Great Russia.
The spread of Baltic toponymy in the modern Russian territories of the upper Dnieper and the upper Volga basins is more convincing evidence than archaeological sources. I will name some examples of Baltic names of rivers in the regions of Smolensk, Tver, Kaluga, Moscow and Chernigov.
The Istra, a tributary of the Vori in the territory of Gzhatsk, and a western tributary of the Moscow River has exact parallels in Lithuanian and West Prussian. Isrutis, a tributary of Prege-le, where the root *ser"sr means "swim", and strove means "stream". The Verzha rivers in the territory of Vyazma and in the Tver region are associated with the Baltic word "birch", Lithuanian "berzas". Obzha, tributary Mezhi, located in the Smolensk region, is associated with the word meaning “aspen”.
The Tolzha River, located in the Vyazma region, took its name from *tolza, which is associated with the Lithuanian word tilzti - “to dive”, “to be under water”; the name of the city of Tilsit, located on the Neman River, is of the same origin. The Ugra, an eastern tributary of the Oka, correlates with the Lithuanian “ungurupe”; Sozh, a tributary of the Dnieper, comes from *Sbza, goes back to the ancient Prussian suge - “rain”. Zhizdra - a tributary of the Oka and a city bearing the same name, comes from the Baltic word meaning "grave", "gravel", "rough sand", Lithuanian zvigzdras, zyirgzdas.
The name of the Nara River, a tributary of the Oka, located south of Moscow, was reflected repeatedly in Lithuanian and West Prussian: the Lithuanian rivers Neris, Narus, Narupe, Narotis, Narasa, lakes Narutis and Narochis are found, in Old Prussian - Naurs, Naris, Naruse, Na -urve (modern Narev) - all of them are derived from narus, which means “deep”, “one in which one can drown”, or nerti- “dive”, “to plunge”.
The farthest river, located in the west, was the Tsna River, a tributary of the Oka, it flows south of Kasimov and west of Tambov. This name is often found in Belarus: the Usha tributary near Vileika and the Gaina tributary in the Borisov region comes from *Tbsna, Baltic *tusna; Old Prussian tusnan means "calm".
River names of Baltic origin are found as far south as the Chernigov region, located north of Kyiv. Here we find the following hydronyms: Verepet, a tributary of the Dnieper, from the Lithuanian verpetas - “whirlpool”; Titva, a tributary of the Snov, which flows into the Desna, has a correspondence in Lithuanian: Tituva. The largest western tributary of the Dnieper, the Desna, is possibly related to the Lithuanian word desine - "right side".
Probably, the name of the Volga River goes back to the Baltic jilga - “long river”. Lithuanian jilgas, ilgas means "long", hence Jilga - "long river". Obviously, this name defines the Volga as one of the longest rivers in Europe. In Lithuanian and Latvian there are many rivers with the names ilgoji - “longest” or itgupe - “long river”.
For thousands of years, the Finno-Ugric tribes were neighbors of the Balts and bordered them in the north and west. During the short period of relations between the Baltic and Finno-Ugric-speaking peoples, there may have been closer contacts than in later periods, which was reflected in borrowings from the Baltic language in the Finno-Ugric languages.
There are thousands of similar words known since V. Thomsen published his remarkable study of the mutual influences between the Finnish and Baltic languages in 1890.
Borrowed words relate to the field of animal husbandry and agriculture, to the names of plants and animals, body parts, flowers; designations of temporary terms, numerous innovations, which were caused by the higher culture of the Balts. Onomastics, vocabulary from the field of religion, was also borrowed. The meaning and form of the words prove that these borrowings
ancient origin
, linguists believe that they date back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Many of these words were borrowed from Old Baltic rather than from modern Latvian or Lithuanian. Traces of Baltic vocabulary were found not only in the Western Finnish languages (Estonian, Livonian and Finnish), but also in the Volga-Finnish languages: Mordovian, Mari, Mansi, Cheremis, Udmurt and Komi-Zyrian. In 1957, Russian linguist A. Serebrennikov published a study entitled “Study of extinct Indo-European languages correlated with Baltic in the center of the European part of the USSR.” He cites words from Finno-Ugric languages that expand the list of borrowed Balticisms compiled by V. Thomsen., is confirmed by the fact that many Baltic borrowings into the Volga-Finnish languages are unknown to Western Finns. Perhaps these words came directly from the Western Balts, who inhabited the upper Volga basin and during the Early and Middle Bronze Age constantly sought to move further and further west. Indeed, around the middle of the second millennium, the Fatyanovo culture, as mentioned above, spread to the lower reaches of the Kama, the upper reaches of the Vyatka and even in the Belaya River basin, located in modern Tataria and Bashkiria.
During the Iron Age and in early historical times, the immediate neighbors of the Western Slavs were the Mari and Mordvins, respectively "Merya" and "Mordovians", as noted in historical sources.
The Mari occupied the areas of Yaroslavl, Vladimir and the east of the Kostroma region.
The Mordvins lived west of the lower part of the Oka. The boundaries of their settlement throughout the territory can be traced by a significant number of hydronyms of Finno-Ugric origin. But in the lands of the Mordvins and Mari, names of rivers of Baltic origin are rarely found: between the cities of Ryazan and Vladimir there were huge forests and swamps, which for centuries served as natural boundaries separating the tribes.
As noted above, a huge number of Baltic words borrowed from the Finnish languages are the names of domestic animals, descriptions of ways to care for them, names of grain crops, seeds, designations of soil cultivation techniques, and spinning processes.
The Baltic word for the name of a horse, stallion, horse (Lithuanian zirgas, Prussian sirgis, Latvian zirgs), in Finno-Ugric it means an ox (Finnish Ъагка, Estonian bdrg, Livonian - arga). The Finnish word juhta - “joke” - comes from the Lithuanian junkt-a, jungti - “to joke”, “to make fun of”. Among the borrowings there are also words to designate a portable wicker fence used for livestock when kept open (Lithuanian gardas, Mordovian karda, kardo), the name of a shepherd.
A group of borrowed words to denote the spinning process, the names spindle, wool, thread, spindles show that the processing and use of wool was already known to the Balts and came from them. The names of alcoholic drinks, in particular beer and mead, were borrowed from the Balts, respectively, and words such as “wax”, “wasp” and “hornet”.
Words also borrowed from the Balts: axe, hat, shoe, bowl, ladle, hand, hook, basket, sieve, knife, shovel, broom, bridge, boat, sail, oar, wheel, fence, wall, support, pole, fishing rod, handle, bath The names of these have arrived musical instruments, like kankles (lit.) - “zither”, as well as color designations: yellow, green, black, dark, light gray and adjectives - wide, narrow, empty, quiet, old, secret, brave (gallant).
Words with the meaning of love or desire could have been borrowed in the early period, since they were found in both West Finnish and Volga-Finnic languages (Lithuanian melte - love, mielas - dear; Finnish mieli, Ugro-Mordovian teG, Udmurt myl). The close relationship between the Balts and the Finno-Ugric peoples is reflected in the borrowings used to designate body parts: neck, back, kneecap, navel and beard. Not only the word “neighbor” is of Baltic origin, but also the names of family members: sister, daughter, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, cousin, which suggests frequent marriages between Balts and Ugro-Finnish people.
The existence of connections in the religious sphere is evidenced by the words: sky (taivas from the Baltic *deivas) and the god of air, thunder (Lithuanian Perkunas, Latvian Regkop, Finnish perkele, Estonian pergel).
A huge number of borrowed words associated with food preparation processes indicate that the Balts were the carriers of civilization in the southwestern part of Europe, inhabited by Finno-Ugric hunters and fishermen. The Ugro-Finns who lived next door to the Balts were to a certain extent subject to Indo-European influence.
At the end of the millennium, especially during the early Iron Age and the first centuries BC. BC, the Ugro-Finnish culture in the upper Volga basin and north of the Daugava-Dvina River knew food production.
From the Balts they adopted the method of creating settlements on hills and building rectangular houses.
Archaeological finds show that over the centuries bronze and iron tools and patterns were “exported” from the Baltics to the Finno-Ugric lands. Starting from the 2nd century and up to the 5th century, the Western Finnish, Mari and Mordovian tribes borrowed ornaments characteristic of the Baltic culture.
In the case of a long history of Baltic and Finno-Ugric relations, the language and archaeological sources provide the same data, as for the spread of the Balts into the territory that now belongs to Russia, borrowed Baltic words found in the Volga-Finnish languages , become invaluable evidence.
The beginning of Russian history. From ancient times to the reign of Oleg Tsvetkov Sergei Eduardovich
not preserved. Archaeological excavations show that the Balts, who settled on the lands of ancient Rus', were descendants of tribes who were carriers of the Corded Ware culture. In particular, this is indicated by copper bells from Baltic burials, similar to those that were discovered in the North Caucasus. In ancient times cultural development
Balts and Slavs happened more or less synchronously, so that by the 8th–9th centuries. they were at approximately the same level of material culture. Finds in Baltic burials and settlements - iron bits, stirrups, copper bells and other parts of horse harness - suggest that the Balts were warlike riders. The famous Lithuanian cavalry later played an important role in Of Eastern Europe. According to surviving news, the Yatvingians, a tribe that lived in Western Polesie, Podlasie and partly in Mazovia, were particularly warlike. Believing in the transmigration of souls, the Yatvingians did not spare themselves in battle, did not flee or surrender, preferring to die along with their families. The Belarusians have preserved a proverb: “He looks like a Yatvingian,” that is, a robber.
The type of Baltic dwelling for the early Middle Ages is difficult to establish. Apparently it was a log cabin. Even in sources of the 17th century. a typical Lithuanian house is described as a structure made of spruce logs, with a large stone stove in the middle and no chimney. In winter, livestock were housed in it along with people. The social organization of the Baltic tribes was characterized by clan association. The head of the clan had absolute power over the rest of his clans; the woman was completely excluded from public life. Agriculture and animal husbandry were firmly rooted in economic life, but the main sectors of the economy were still hunting and fishing.
Close contacts between the Balts and Slavs were facilitated not only by significant linguistic proximity, but also by the similarity of religious ideas, explained by the Indo-European origin of both, as well as partly by Venetian influence. In addition to the cult of Perun, common to both peoples was the veneration of the forest spirit - the goblin (Lithuanian likshai) and the funeral rite - cremation. But Baltic paganism, unlike Slavic, was of a more archaic and gloomy nature, expressed, for example, in the worship of snakes and ants and the widespread use of witchcraft, divination and sorcery. The late Kiev Chronicle reports that the Lithuanian prince Mindovg (XIII century), even after accepting Christianity, secretly worshiped pagan deities, among whom was such an exotic figure as Diverkis - the god of the hare and snake.
The Balts’ much stronger commitment to paganism, compared to the Slavs, was apparently due to the existence of their influential priestly class - the Vaidelots, who kept secular power under their control and transferred the idea of inter-tribal unity from the political sphere to the spiritual, presenting it as loyalty to traditional deities. Thanks to the dominance of the Vaidelots, the customs of the Baltic tribes were thoroughly imbued with religious principles. For example, the custom according to which the father of a family had the right to kill his sick or crippled children was sanctified by the following theological maxim: “The servants of the Lithuanian gods should not groan, but laugh, because human misfortune causes grief to gods and people”; on the same basis, children with a clear conscience sent their elderly parents to the next world, and during famine, men got rid of women, girls and female infants. Adulterers were given to be devoured by dogs, since they violated the gods, who knew only two states - marriage and virginity. Human sacrifices in general were not only allowed, but also encouraged: “Whoever in a healthy body wants to sacrifice himself, or his child, or a household member to the gods, can do this without hindrance, because, sanctified through fire and blessed, they will have fun with gods." The high priests themselves, for the most part, ended their lives by voluntary self-immolation in order to appease the gods.
According to anthropological data, the Western Krivichi are the closest to the Balts. However, direct mixing seems to have played a minor role in the Russification of the Baltic population. The main reason its dissolution into the Old Russian people was the higher military-political organization of the Eastern Slavs, expressed in the rapid development of their state structures (principalities) and cities.
This text is an introductory fragment.
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From the book Starazhytnaya Belarus. Polack and Novagarod periods author Ermalovich MikolaSLAVS I BALTS It goes without saying that the Masavs and the ever-growing Slavs on the other Balts could not help but achieve their own self-sustaining ethnic revolution. Menavita with the passage of the Slavs to the territory of Belarus and the beginning of their crazy life with the Balts and the beginning
A funny thesis lives and wanders through publications: “Previously, the Lithuanians lived almost to Pripyat, and then the Slavs came from Polesie and pushed them beyond Vileika.”[A good example is the classic work of Professor E. Karsky “Belarus” Vol.1.]
Considering the area of the Republic of Belarus (entirely lying in the area of Baltic hydronyms - names of bodies of water), the genocide of the “Lithuanians” was 20 times larger than the extermination of Indians in Jamaica (an area of 200/10 thousand km2).
And Polesie until the 16th century. Herodotus was depicted on maps as the sea.
And if we use the terms of archeology and ethnography, the thesis looks even funnier.
To begin with, what time are we talking about? Until the 5th century AD -"Hatched Pottery Culture"
. The corresponding terms are “Antes”, “Vends”, “Budins”, “neurs”, “androphages”, etc. In the IV-VI centuries AD. -"Bantserovskaya (Tushemlinskaya) culture"
. The terms “Krivichi”, “Dregovichi”, etc. correspond.
“The final stage of the Przeworsk and Chernyakhov cultures corresponds in time to the collapse of the Roman Empire [V century AD] and the beginning of the “great migration of peoples”. ... Migration mainly affected the emerging princely-druzhina class. Thus, the Slavic cultures V-VII centuries should be considered not as a direct genetic development of the Przeworsk and Chernyakhov cultures, but as the evolution of the culture of the population."
Sedov V.V. "The problem of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs in the archaeological literature of 1979-1985."
“It is not possible to isolate the local Baltic and alien Slavic ethnic components in the population of the Bantserov (Tushemlinskaya) culture. In all likelihood, in the area of this culture a cultural Slavic-Baltic symbiosis with common house-building, ceramic material and funeral rituals was formed. It can be assumed that time Tushemlinskaya culture was the initial stage of Slavicization of the local population."
Sedov V.V. "Slavs. Historical and archaeological research"
Anthropologists believe that the autochthonous population within the Republic of Belarus remained constant within 100-140 generations (2000-3000 years). In Soviet anthropology there was such a very neutral term -"Valdai-Verhnedvinsk anthropological complex"
, practically coinciding with the map of M. Dovnar-Zapolsky.
* For reference, the term “Slavicized Lithuanians” is already more than a hundred years old. And yes, in the 19th-20th centuries. the reverse process began - and the “Kozlovskis” became “Kazlauskas” (the most common surname in Lietuwa).“The most important ethnographic features of the Slavic cultures of the 5th-7th centuries are molded ceramics, funeral rites and house-building... Life on the settlements of the Early Iron Age completely fades out, the entire population is now concentrated in open settlements, shelters with powerful fortifications appear.”
(c) V.V. Sedov.
That is, “Slavism” is a transition from a dugout to something like cities and developed crafts.
Probably, by the 9th-10th centuries - the beginning of the formation of the Principality of Polotsk on the “path from the Varangians to the Greeks” - a common language - “Koine” - had developed.
We are not talking about migration comparable to the Hungarians’ march from the Urals to the Danube.
The “acceptance of the Slavs” and the displacement of local dialects by a common language, Koine, could last for centuries.
Other things also took part in the process of the formation of the Old Russian people: non-Slavic, Eastern European population. This means Merya, Muroma, Meshchera. all, Golyad, Vod, etc., unknown to us by name, but traceable through archaeological cultures, tribes of Finno-Ugric, Baltic and other languages, which over time completely or almost completely became Russified and, thus, can be considered historical components of the Eastern Slavism. Their languages disappeared when crossed with the Russian language, but they enriched the Russian language and expanded its vocabulary.
The material culture of these tribes also contributed to the material culture Ancient Rus'. Therefore, although this work is devoted to the origin of the Russian people, nevertheless we cannot help but say at least a few words about those ethnic formations that, over time, organically became part of the “Slovenian language in Rus'”, part of the Eastern Slavs, or experienced his influence and entered the sphere of ancient Russian culture, into Old Russian state, into his sphere of political influence.
Together with the Eastern Slavs, submitting to their leadership role, they acted as the creators of ancient Russian statehood, defended Rus' from the “invaders” - the Varangians, Turkic nomads, Byzantines, Khazars, troops of the rulers of the Muslim east, “established” their lands, took part in the creation of the “Russian Truth” ", represented Rus' during diplomatic embassies.
Tribes are the creators of ancient Russian statehood together with the Slavs
The Tale of Bygone Years lists the peoples who give tribute to Rus': Chud, Merya, Ves, Muroma, Cheremis. Mordovians, Perm, Pechera, Yam, Lithuania, Zimigola, Kors, Noroma, Lib (Livs) The Nikon Chronicle adds the Meshchera to the number of tributaries of Rus', distinguishing it as a special tribe.
It is unlikely that all of the listed tribes were genuine tributaries of Rus' already at the time of the formation of the Old Russian state. In particular, placing yam (em) and lib (liv) among the tributaries of Rus', the chronicler had in mind the contemporary situation, that is, the end of the 11th - beginning of the 12th centuries.
Some of the listed tribes were not as organically connected with the Russians and Russia (Lithuania, Kors, Zimigola, Lib, Yam) as others assimilated by the Slavs (Merya, Muroma, Ves). Some of them subsequently created their own statehood (Lithuania) or stood on the eve of its creation (Chud) and formed into the Lithuanian and Estonian nationalities.
Therefore, we will mainly focus only on those tribes that were most closely connected with the Eastern Slavs, with Russia and the Russians, with the Old Russian state, namely: Merya, Muroma, Chud, Ves, Golyad, Meshchera, Karelians.
The tribes of the Volga and Baltic regions were by no means savages. They went through a complex and unique path, learned bronze early, mastered agriculture and cattle breeding early, entered into trade and cultural relations with their neighbors, in particular with the Sarmatians, switched to patriarchal-tribal relations, learned property stratification and patriarchal slavery, and became acquainted with iron.
Balts, Baltic tribes
Tribes of the Baltic languages from the deepest antiquity accessible to linguistic analysis inhabited the Poneman region, the Upper Dnieper region, the Poochie and Volga regions and most of the Western Dvina. In the east, the Balts reached the Moscow, Kalinin and Kaluga regions, where in ancient times they lived interstriated with the Finno-Ugrians, the aborigines of the region. Baltic hydronymy is widespread throughout this territory. As for archaeological cultures, the Balts of that distant time are associated with the cultures of hatched ceramics, apparently belonging to the ancestors of the Lithuanians (the western part of the Upper Dnieper), the Dnieper, Verkhneok, Yukhnov (Posemye) and, as some archaeologists believe (V.V. Sedov, P.N. Tretyakov), somewhat specific Milograd (Dnieper region, between Berezina and Ros, and Nizhny Sozh). In the southeast of this territory, in Posemye, the Balts coexisted with the Iranians, who left the so-called ash pit culture. Here, in Posemya, toponymy takes place both Iranian (Seim, Svapa, Tuskar) and Baltic (Iput, Lompya, Lamenka).
The culture of the Balts, farmers and pastoralists, is characterized by above-ground buildings of a pillar structure. In ancient times, these were large, long houses, usually divided into several living spaces of 20-25 m2 with a fireplace.
Later, the home of the Balts evolves, and the ancient long multi-chamber houses are replaced by small quadrangular pillar houses.
The main occupation of the inhabitants of these settlements was shifting agriculture (as evidenced by sickles, stone grain grinders, remains of wheat, millet, beans, vetch, and peas), combined with cattle breeding (finds of bones of horses, cows, pigs, rams) and developed forms of hunting.
High development Various household crafts were achieved (mining and processing of iron, bronze casting, pottery production, spinning, weaving, etc.).
Everywhere among the Balts, a primitive communal system with a patriarchal clan organization dominated. The main economic and social unit was the large patriarchal family, i.e., the family community. Its dominance was determined by the type of economy itself. Swidden farming required communal, collective labor. The presence of fortified settlements in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. speaks of the beginning of the process of accumulation and property stratification and the wars associated with it. Perhaps patriarchal slavery already existed.
The culture of hatched ceramics finds a complete analogy in the culture of settlements (Pilkalnis) of the Lithuanian SSR, the population of which was undoubtedly ancient Lithuanians.
The settlement of the Slavs across the lands of the Baltic-speaking tribes led to the Slavicization of the latter. Just as once in Poochie and adjacent regions the ancient Indo-European languages of the Fatyanovo people and tribes close to them were absorbed by the Finno-Ugric ones, and then the Finno-Ugric speech was replaced by Baltic, so in the 7th-9th centuries. the Baltic languages of the Yukhnovites and others gave way to the language of the Eastern Slavs. On ancient culture the Balts were layered Slavic culture
. The culture of the Vyatichi was layered on the Eastern Baltic Moshchin culture, the Krivichi - on the culture of hatched ceramics, Old Lithuanian, the Northerners - on the Yukhnovsky, Eastern Baltic. The contribution of the Balts to the language and culture of the Eastern Slavs is very great3. This is especially typical for Krivichi. It is no coincidence that the Lithuanians have preserved legends about the Great Krivi, about the high priest Kriv Kriveito. In Latvia, near the city of Bauska in Zemgale until the middle of the 19th century. lived the Krivins. They spoke a Western Finno-Ugric language, close to the Vodi language. In the middle of the 19th century. they were completely assimilated by the Latvians. It is characteristic that in the women's clothing of the Krivins there were a lot of East Slavic features...
Yatvingians. Cultural and linguistic connection between the Balts and Slavs due either to the ancient Balto-Slavic community, or to long-term neighborhood and communication. Traces of the participation of the Balts in the formation of the Eastern Slavs are found in funeral rites (eastern burial orientation, snake-headed bracelets, special scarves pinned with brooches, etc.), in hydronymy. The process of Slavicization proceeded quickly, and this was due to the ethnocultural and linguistic proximity of the Slavs and Balts. There were Slavic tribes close to the Balts (for example, Krivichi), and Baltic tribes close to the Slavs. Such a tribe, apparently, were the Yatvingians (Sudavians), who lived in Ponemanya and the Bug region, related to the Western Baltic-Prussians, whose language is believed to have had much in common with the Slavic and represented a transitional form between the Baltic and Slavic languages.
Stone mounds Yatvingians with burnings and burials are not found either among the eastern Balts or among the Slavs. The treaty between Rus' and Byzantium, concluded by Igor, is mentioned among the Russian ambassadors of Yatvyag (Yavtyag) 4. Apparently, Golyad also belongs to the Western Balts. Ptolemy also speaks about the Baltic Galindas. Under 1058 and 1147 chronicles speak of loach in the upper reaches of the Porotva (Protva) River 5. In addition to golyad, the islands of the Balts have been preserved for the longest time in the Ostashkovsky district of the Kalinin region and in the Eastern Smolensk region.
During the formation of the Old Russian state, the process of assimilation of the Balts by the Slavs on its territory was basically completed. Among the Balts, the dolichocrania, wide- and medium-faced racial type predominated, apparently light-pigmented, which became part of the Slavic population as a substrate.
It should also be noted that on the indigenous lands of the Baltic tribes, where the Baltic languages have been preserved, there is a very strong influence of the Russian language and Russian culture. In the eastern part of Latvia, Latgale, archaeologists find many things of Russian origin dating back to the 9th-12th centuries: dishes with wavy and ribbon ornaments, Ovruch pink slate whorls, silver and bronze twisted bracelets, brooches, beads, pendants, etc. In the material culture of Eastern Lithuania in the 10th-11th centuries. has a lot in common with Old Russian culture: the type of potter's wheel, the wavy ornament of ceramics, sickles of a certain shape, wide-bladed axes, common features funeral rite. The same is true for Eastern Latvia. The great influence of Russians on their neighbors - Latvians - is evidenced by a number of borrowings from the Russian language (borrowings, and not consequences of the Balto-Slavic linguistic community or proximity), indicating the spread of elements of a higher culture of the Eastern Slavs in the Eastern Baltic (for example, dzirnavas - millstone, stikls - glass, za- bak - boot, tirgus - bargaining, sepa - price, kupcis - merchant, birkavs - berkovets - pood, bezmen - steelyard, etc.). The Christian religion penetrated the faith of the Latvian tribes also from Rus'. This is evidenced by such borrowings from Russian in the Latvian language as baznica - shrine, zvans - bell, gavenis - fasting, fasting, svetki - Christmastide6. Such borrowings in the Latvian language as boyars, virnik, serfs, smerdy, pogost, orphans, druzhina, are evidence of the great influence of the socio-economic and political system of Ancient Rus' on Latvians and Latgalians. According to the testimony of Henry of Latvia, Russian princes have long taken tribute from Lets (Latgalians), villages and Livs7.
Chud tribe
Over a vast area, the Eastern Slavs coexisted with various Finno-Ugric tribes, which later became Russified. Some of them retained their language and their culture, but were just as much tributaries of the Russian princes as the East Slavic tribes.
In the extreme north-west the neighbors of the Slavs were the chronicle " Chud"
Chud in ancient Rus' was the name given to the Baltic Finno-Ugric tribes: the Volkhov Chud, which represented people from various tribes attracted by the great waterway “from the Varangians to the Greeks,” Vod, Izhora, all (except Belozersk), Estonians6. Once upon a time, during the time of Jordan, the Balts were called aysts (ests). Only over time did this name pass to the Finno-Ugric peoples in Estonia.
Connections between the Estonians and the Eastern Slavs were established a long time ago, at least not later than the 8th century. n. e., when mounds and hills of the Krivichi and Ilmen Slovenes appeared in the southeast of Estonia to the west of Lake Pskov. They penetrate into the territory of distribution of Estonian stone graves. In Slavic burial mounds discovered in Estonia, some items of Estonian material culture are found.
The revolution in the technique of shifting farming among the Estonians is almost connected precisely with their contact with the Slavs. Apparently, the plow, which replaced the primitive one-toothed ralo, was borrowed by the Estonians from the Slavs, since the very term denoting it in the Estonian language is of Russian origin (sahk - coxa, sirp - sickle). Later borrowings from the Russian language into Estonian speak of the influence of Russian culture on the Estonians and are associated mainly with crafts, trade, writing (piird - reed, varten - spindle, look - arc, turg - bargaining, aken - window, raamat - book and etc.).
At the Otepää settlement (“Bear’s Head” in Russian chronicles), dating back to the 11th-13th centuries, there is a lot of Slavic ceramics, jewelry, and arrowheads characteristic of Russian lands.
Slavic burial mounds were discovered along the Narova River. All this predetermined the subsequent entry of the southeastern part of Estonia into the Old Russian state. In some places in southeastern Estonia, the Slavic population was assimilated by the Estonians over time, but all of southeastern Estonia became part of the Old Russian state. The saga of Olaf Trygvasson tells that envoys of Prince Holmgard (Novgorod) Vladimir are collecting tribute in Estland. Yaroslav establishes the city of Yuryev (Tartu) in the * land of Chud (Estonians). Chud participated in the campaigns of Oleg and Vladimir, the Chudins Kanitsar, Iskusevi and Apubskar took part in the conclusion of the treaty between Rus' and Byzantium during the time of Igor. The “Russian Truth” of the Yaroszavichs, along with the Russians, was “set up” by the Russified Chudiy Minula, the thousand-year-old Vyshegorodsky. His brother Tuky is known to the Tale of Bygone Years. Vladimir “recruited” soldiers and populated with them the border fortifications erected against the Pechenegs, not only from among the Slavs: Slovenians, Krivichi, Vyatichi, but also Chud. In Novgorod there was Chudintseva Street. Finally, from among the Chud-Ests, Belozersk Chud or Vod came those kolbyags who act in Rus' in approximately the same role as the Varangians9.
Vod, Ves and Izhora tribes
To the east of the Estonians, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, lived the Vod (Vakya, Vaddya). Vodian monuments are considered to be the so-called “zhalniki”, which are group burial grounds without embankments, with stone fences in the form of a quadrangle, oval or circle. Quadrangular fences accompany the most ancient zhalniki with collective burials. Zhalniki are found in different places of the Novgorod land in combination with Slavic burial mounds. Their burial goods are unique, but there are many things typical of the Estonians, which indicates that the Vodi belong to the group of Estonian tribes. At the same time, there are many Slavic things. The memory of water is the Vodskaya Pyatina of Novgorod10.
Archaeologists consider the monuments of Izhora to be the mounds near Leningrad (Siverskaya, Gdov, Izhora) with multi-beaded temple rings, necklaces made of cowrie shells, etc. In terms of the level of socio-economic development, the farmers of Vod and Izhora are close to the Estonians.
The whole population played a significant role in the history of the population of Eastern Europe. “The Tale of Bygone Years” reports that “everyone is turning gray on Beleozero,” but, apparently, everyone was moving east from the southern shore of Lake Ladoga. The entire inter-lake region of Ladoga, Onega and Beloozero, Pasha, Syas, Svir, Oyat, reached the Northern Dvina. Part of the Vesi became part of the Karelian-Livviks (Ladoga region), part - of the Karelian-Luddiks (Prionezhye), and part took part in the formation of the “Chudi-Zavolotskaya”, i.e. Komi-Zyryans (Podvinye).
Vesi culture is generally homogeneous. Vesi owns small mounds in the southeastern Ladoga region, located alone or in numerous groups. Material culture characterizes the whole as a tribe that was engaged in the 11th century. shifting agriculture, cattle breeding, hunting, fishing and beekeeping. The primitive communal system and patriarchal tribal life were preserved. Only from the middle of the 11th century. Large burial mound groups are spreading, indicating the formation of a rural community. Plowshares from plows indicate the transition to arable farming. Vesya is characterized by ring-shaped and end-to-end temporal rings. Gradually, Slavic things and monuments of Christian worship are spreading more and more among the people.
There is a Russification of the world. Everything is known not only to the Tale of Bygone Years, but also to Jordan (vas, vasina), the chronicler Adam of Bremen (vizzi), a Danish chronicler of the 13th century. Saxo Grammar (visinus), Ibn Fadlan and other Arabic-speaking writers of the 10th century. (visu, isu, vis). The descendants of the Vesi are seen in the modern Vepsians11. The memory of the village is such names as Ves-Egonskaya (Vesyegonsk), Cherepo-Ves (Cherepovets).
It is difficult to trace the history of the Karelians in the period preceding the formation of the Old Russian state and in the initial stages of its history.
The Tale of Bygone Years does not talk about Karelians. Karelians at that time lived from the coast of the Gulf of Finland near Vyborg and Primorsk to Lake Ladoga. The bulk of the Karelian population was concentrated in the northwestern Ladoga region. In the 11th century part of the Karelians went to the Neva. This was Izhora, Inkeri (hence Ingria, Ingria). The Karelians included part of the vesi and the Volkhov miracle.
“Kalevala” and very few archaeological finds characterize the Karelians as farmers who used shifting agriculture, cattle breeders, hunters and fishermen who lived in separate stable clans. The social system of the Karelians intricately combined archaic (remnants of matriarchy, the strength of the clan organization, worship of forest and water deities, bear cult, etc.) and progressive features (accumulation of wealth, wars between clans, patriarchal slavery).
Karelians
Speaking about racial types, it should be noted that in the territory of Chud, Vod, Izhora, Vesi, Karelians, and Emi, the Caucasoid long-headed racial type, usually broad-faced, dominated, although there were also representatives of other Caucasoid racial types. But the further to the east, the more often apparently dark-colored uralolaponoid racial types were encountered.
If the Baltic Finno-Ugrians for a long time preserved and preserved their language, culture, linguistic and ethnographic features to the present day, then the Volga and Kama eastern Finno-Ugric tribes, such as Merya, Muroma, Meshchera, Belozerskaya Vse, and maybe some others, whose names are not known to us They arrived and were completely Russified.
Tribes Merya, Muroma
The ancestors of the chronicle Meri, Murom and other eastern Finno-Ugric tribes belonged to the so-called “Dyakova-type settlements” with above-ground houses and flat-bottomed mesh or textile ceramics, common in the area between the Volga and Oka rivers, the Upper Volga region and Valdai. In turn, the Dyakovo settlements with reticulate (textile) ceramics grew out of various cultures of round-bottomed pit-comb ceramics that belonged to hunters and fishermen of the forest belt of Eastern Europe during the Neolithic era.
The Dyakovo settlements replaced their unfortified settlements in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. The Dyakovites were predominantly cattle breeders. They bred mainly horses that knew how to forage for themselves under the snow. This was very significant, since it was difficult to prepare hay for the winter, and there was nothing - there were no scythes. Horse meat was eaten, as was mare's milk.
In second place among the Dyakovites was a pig, in third place were large and small livestock. The settlements were located mainly near rivers, on river capes, and near pastures. It is no coincidence that the “Chronicle of Pereslavl of Suzdal” calls the Finno-Ugrians “horse feeders.” Livestock was the property of the clan, and the struggle for it led to interclan wars. The fortifications of the dyak settlements were intended to protect the population during such inter-tribal wars.
In the middle and lower reaches of the Oka, in the southern regions of the Western Volga region, the Gorodets culture was widespread. Being very close to the Dyakovo culture, it differed from the latter in the predominance of ceramics with matting imprints and dugouts instead of above-ground dwellings.
“The Tale of Bygone Years” places merya in the Upper Volga region: “merya on Rostov Lake, and merya on Kleshchina Lake”15. The area of Mary is wider than outlined by the chronicle. The population of Yaroslavl and Kostroma, Galich Merenoy, Nerl, lakes Nero and Plesheevo, the lower reaches of Sheksna and Mologa were also Meryan. Merya is mentioned by Jordan (merens) and Adam of Bremen (mirri).
Monuments of the Meri are burial grounds with corpses burned, numerous women's metal jewelry, so-called “noisy pendants” (openwork images of a horse, pendants made of flat wire spirals, openwork pendants in the form of a triangle), men's belt sets, etc. The tribal characteristics of the Meri are temporal wire round rings in the form of a sleeve at the end where another ring was inserted. Celt axes, archaic eyed axes, spears, darts, arrows, bits, swords, and knives with a humped back were found in male burials. Ribbed vessels dominate in ceramics.
Many clay figurines in the form of bear paws made of clay, bear claws and teeth, as well as mentions of written sources indicate a widespread cult of the bear. Human idol figurines and images of snakes are specifically Meryan, indicating a cult that is different from the beliefs of the Finno-Ugric tribes of the Oka, Upper and Middle Volga.
Many elements of material culture, features of pagan beliefs, the laponoid racial type, toponymy, the more ancient Finno-Ugric and the later Ugric proper - all this suggests that the Merya was a Ugric tribe in language, Kama region in its origin. Ancient Hungarian legends tell that next to Great Hungary lay the Russian land Susudal, i.e. Suzdal, a city founded by the Russians on the site of villages with a non-Vyan population.
The settlement of Bereznyaki, located not far from the confluence of the Sheksna and the Volga near Rybinsk, can be associated with the measures. It dates back to the 3rd-5th centuries. n. e. The settlement of Bereznyaki is surrounded by a strong fence made of logs, wattle fence and earth. On its territory there were eleven buildings and a cattle pen. In the center stood a large log house - a public building. The living quarters were small houses with a fireplace made of stones. In addition to them, on the site there was a grain barn, a forge, a house for women who were engaged in spinning, weaving and sewing, and a “house of the dead”, where the remains of the dead, burned somewhere on the side, were preserved16. The dishes are smooth, molded by hand, of the late Dyakovsky type. Primitive sickles and grain graters speak of shifting agriculture, but it did not prevail. Cattle breeding dominated. The settlement was a settlement of a patriarchal family, a family community. Weights and dishes of the Dyakovo type and, in general, the Late Dyakovo inventory from the Bereznyaki settlement indicate ethnic composition
its population. The type of the village itself speaks for this, finding a complete analogy in the ancient houses of its neighbors - the Udmurts, who are the same Finno-Ugric in language as the Merya.
Mary owns the Sarskoye settlement, located 5 km from Lake Nero on the site of an ancient settlement of the 6th-VHI centuries, similar to the settlement of Bereznyaki. At the Sarskoe settlement, things similar to those from the Bereznyaki settlement were also found (large temple wire rings, celt axes, etc.). On the other hand, many things bring the material culture of the inhabitants of the Sarsky settlement closer to the Mordovians and Murom. Sarskoye settlement in the 9th-10th centuries. was already a real city, a craft and trade center, the predecessor of Rostov.
Like the Merya, the Meshchera and Muroma, the inhabitants of the Oka, were completely Russified. They own burial grounds (Borkovsky, Kuzminsky, Malyshevsky, etc.) with numerous tools, weapons, jewelry (torches, temple rings, beads, plaques, etc.). There are especially many so-called “noisy suspensions”. These are bronze tubes and plates suspended on hinges from small rocker arms. They were richly decorated with hats, necklaces, dresses, and shoes. In general, a lot of metal products are found in the Murom, Meshchera and Mordovian burial grounds. The Muroma women's headdress consisted of arched plaits and a belt entwined with a bronze spiral. The braids were decorated with dorsal pendants and temple rings in the form of a shield with a hole in one side and an end with a curved shield. Murom women wore belts and shoes, the straps of which were covered with bronze clips at a height of 13-15 cm from the ankle.
Muroma buried its dead with their heads facing north.
The Meshchera monuments are less visible. Their characteristic features should be considered decorations in the form of hollow figurines of ducks, as well as a funeral rite - the Meshchera buried her dead in a sitting position.
The modern Russian Meshchera is a Russified Mordovian-Erzya. The Turkicized Ugric Meshchera (Myaschyar, Mozhar) are modern Tatars - Mishars (Meshcheryaks) 18. Muroma and Meshchera quickly became Russified. The penetration of the Slavs into their lands, on the Oka, began a very long time ago. There are a lot of Slavic things, including temple rings (Vyatichi, Radimichi, Krivichi), as well as Slavic burials. Slavic influence is felt in everything.
It intensifies from century to century. The city of Murom was a settlement of the Muroms and Slavs, but in the 11th century. its population was completely Russified.
The spread of the ritual of corpse burning among the Mordovians suggests that Russians lived nearby for a long time, who assimilated part of the Mordovian population. Apparently, the name Erdzian, Russian Ryazan, came from the Mordovian tribal name Erzya. In the Mordovian lands back in the 13th century.
Purgasova Rus was located.
Among the tributaries of Rus', the Tale of Bygone Years also names the mysterious Nora (Neroma, Narova), in which some researchers see the Latgalians, and others the Estonians who lived along the Narova River, the Libi (Liv, Livs), a small southern Baltic Finno-Ugric tribe that lived off the coast of the Baltic Sea, which was strongly influenced by the Balts, as well as the “Cheremis... Perm, Pecheru” living in the “midnight countries.” The list of tributaries of Rus' in the "Tale of Bygone Years", which mentions Lib, Chud, Kors, Muroma, Mordovians, Cheremis, Perm, Pechera, covers the Baltic and Finno-Ugric tribes that lived from the Gulf of Riga to the Pechora River, from the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland to the forest-steppe stripes of the Right Bank of the Volga.
Written mentions The first written mentions of the tribes living on the territories adjacent to the southern coast of the Venedian (now Baltic) Sea are found in the essay “On the Origin of the Germans and the Location of Germany” by the Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus (), where they are named estia (lat. aestiorum gentes ). In addition, Herodotus mentions the Budin people, who lived in the upper reaches of the Don between the Volga and Dnieper. Later these tribes of the Estii under different names
were described in the writings of the Roman-Ostrogoth historian Cassiodor (), the Gothic historian Jordan (), the Anglo-Saxon traveler Wulfstan (), and the North German chronicler Archbishop Adam of Bremen (). The current name of the ancient tribes living in the territories adjacent to the southern coast of the Baltic Sea is Balts (German) Balten ) And Balts Baltic language baltische Sprache ) as scientific terms were proposed by the German linguist Georg Nesselmann (-), a professor at the University of Königsberg, instead of the term Letto-Lithuanians , the name is formed by analogy with Mare Balticum
(White Sea) .
Historical settlement
It is believed that the Balts took part in the ethnogenesis of the Vyatichi and Radimichi. This is evidenced by characteristic jewelry - neck hryvnias, which are not among the common jewelry in the East Slavic world of the 12th century. Only among two tribes (Radimichi and Vyatichi) did they become relatively widespread. An analysis of Radimichi neck torcs shows that the prototypes of many of them are found in Baltic antiquities, and the custom of their widespread use is due to the inclusion of Baltic aborigines in the ethnogenesis of this tribe. Obviously, the distribution of neck grivnas in the area of the Vyatichi also reflects the interaction of the Slavs with the Golyad Balts. Among the Vyatichi jewelry there are amber jewelry and neck torcs, not known in other ancient Russian lands, but having complete analogies in Letto-Lithuanian materials.
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Notes
Literature
- Balty - BRE, Moscow 2005. ISBN 5852703303 (volume 2)
- Valentin Vasilievich Sedov “Slavs of the Upper Dnieper and Podvinia.” - Science, Moscow 1970.
- Raisa Yakovlena Denisova - Zinātne, Riga 1975.
Links
- http://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/22864
Excerpt characterizing the Balts
There was deadly silence all around. There was nothing else to see...This is how the gentle and kind queen died, until the very last minute she managed to stand with her head held high, which was then so simply and mercilessly demolished by the heavy knife of the bloody guillotine...
Pale, frozen, like a dead man, Axel looked with unseeing eyes out the window and it seemed that life was flowing out of him drop by drop, painfully slowly... Carrying his soul far, far away, so that there, in the light and silence, he could forever merge with the one whom he loved so deeply and selflessly...
“My poor... My soul... How did I not die with you?.. Everything is over for me now...” Axel whispered with dead lips, still standing at the window.
But it will all be “over” for him much later, in about twenty years. for long years, and this end will, again, be no less terrible than that of his unforgettable queen...
– Do you want to watch further? – Stella asked quietly.
I just nodded, unable to say a word.
We saw another, raging, brutal crowd of people, and in front of it stood the same Axel, only this time the action took place many years later. He was still just as handsome, only almost completely gray-haired, in some magnificent, very important military uniform, he still looked just as fit and slender.
And so, the same brilliant, smartest man stood in front of some half-drunk, brutalized people and, hopelessly trying to shout them down, tried to explain something to them... But none of those gathered, unfortunately, wanted to listen to him... In Stones were thrown at poor Axel, and the crowd, inciting their anger with nasty curses, began to press. He tried to fight them off, but they threw him to the ground, began to brutally trample him, tear off his clothes... And some big guy suddenly jumped on his chest, breaking his ribs, and without hesitation, easily killed him with a blow to his temple. Axel's naked, mutilated body was dumped on the side of the road, and there was no one who at that moment would want to feel sorry for him, already dead... There was only a rather laughing, drunk, excited crowd around... who just needed to throw it out on someone - your accumulated animal anger...
Axel’s pure, suffering soul, finally freed, flew away to unite with the one who was his bright and only love, and who had been waiting for him for so many years...
This is how, again, very cruelly, an almost stranger to Stella and I, but who became so close, a man named Axel, ended his life, and... the same little boy who, having lived only a short five years, managed to accomplish an amazing and unique feat in his life, of which any adult living on earth could be honestly proud...
“What horror!..” I whispered in shock. - Why is he doing this?
“I don’t know...” Stella whispered quietly. “For some reason people were very angry back then, even angrier than animals... I looked a lot to understand, but I didn’t understand...” the little girl shook her head. “They didn’t listen to reason, they just killed.” And for some reason everything beautiful was destroyed too...
– What about Axel’s children or wife? – Having come to my senses after the shock, I asked.
“He never had a wife - he always loved only his queen,” said little Stella with tears in her eyes.
And then, suddenly, a flash seemed to flash in my head - I realized who Stella and I had just seen and for whom we were so sincerely worried!... It was the French queen, Marie Antoinette, about whose tragic life we had very recently (and very briefly!) took place in a history lesson, and the execution of which our history teacher strongly approved, considering such a terrible end to be very “correct and instructive”... apparently because he mainly taught “Communism” in history. .
Despite the sadness of what happened, my soul rejoiced! I simply could not believe the unexpected happiness that had fallen upon me!.. After all, I had been waiting for this for so long!.. This was the first time when I finally saw something real that could be easily verified, and from such a surprise I almost squealed from the puppyish delight that gripped me!.. Of course, I was so happy not because I didn’t believe in what was constantly happening to me. On the contrary, I always knew that everything that happened to me was real. But apparently I, like any ordinary person, and especially a child, sometimes still needed some kind of, at least the simplest confirmation that I was not yet going crazy, and that now I could prove to myself, that everything that happens to me is not just my sick fantasy or invention, but a real fact, described or seen by other people. That’s why such a discovery was a real holiday for me!..
I already knew in advance that as soon as I returned home, I would immediately rush to the city library to collect everything I could find about the unfortunate Marie Antoinette and would not rest until I found at least something, at least some fact that coincided with our visions... Unfortunately, I found only two tiny books, which did not describe so many facts, but this was quite enough, because they completely confirmed the accuracy of what I saw from Stella.
Here's what I managed to find then:
the queen's favorite man was a Swedish count named Axel Fersen, who selflessly loved her all his life and never married after her death;
their farewell before the count's departure to Italy took place in the garden of the Little Trianon - Marie Antoinette's favorite place - the description of which exactly coincided with what we saw;
a ball in honor of the arrival of the Swedish King Gustav, held on June 21, at which all the guests for some reason were dressed in white;
an escape attempt in a green carriage, organized by Axel (all other six escape attempts were also organized by Axel, but none of them, for one reason or another, failed. True, two of them failed at the request of Marie Antoinette herself, since the queen did not wanted to run away alone, leaving her children);
the beheading of the queen took place in complete silence, instead of the expected “happy riot” of the crowd;
a few seconds before the executioner struck, the sun suddenly came out...
The queen's last letter to Count Fersen is almost exactly reproduced in the book "Memoirs of Count Fersen", and it almost exactly repeated what we heard, with the exception of only a few words.
Already these small details were enough for me to rush into battle with tenfold force!.. But that was only later... And then, in order not to seem funny or heartless, I tried my best to pull myself together and hide my delight at my wonderful insight." And to dispel Stellino’s sad mood, she asked:
– Do you really like the queen?
- Oh yeah! She is kind and so beautiful... And our poor “boy”, he suffered so much here too...
I felt very sorry for this sensitive, sweet little girl, who, even in her death, was so worried about these completely strangers and almost strangers to her, just as many people do not worry about their closest relatives...
– Probably in suffering there is some amount of wisdom, without which we would not understand how precious our life is? – I said uncertainly.
- Here! Grandma says that too! – the girl was delighted. – But if people only want good, then why should they suffer?
– Maybe because without pain and trials even the most the best people would not truly understand the same good? – I joked.
But for some reason Stella did not take this at all as a joke, but said very seriously:
– Yes, I think you’re right... Do you want to see what happened to Harold’s son next? – she said more cheerfully.
- Oh no, perhaps no more! – I begged.
Stella laughed joyfully.
- Don't be afraid, this time there will be no trouble, because he is still alive!
- How - alive? – I was surprised.
Immediately, a new vision appeared again and, continuing to surprise me unspeakably, this turned out to be our century (!), and even our time... A gray-haired, very pleasant man was sitting at the desk and was thinking intently about something. The whole room was literally filled with books; they were everywhere - on the table, on the floor, on the shelves, and even on the windowsill. A huge fluffy cat was sitting on a small sofa and, not paying any attention to its owner, was intently washing itself with its large, very soft paw. The whole atmosphere created the impression of “learnedness” and comfort.
“What, is he living again?..” I didn’t understand.
Stella nodded.
- And this is right now? – I didn’t let up.
The girl again confirmed with a nod of her cute red head.
– It must be very strange for Harold to see his son so different?.. How did you find him again?
- Oh, exactly the same! I just “felt” his “key” the way my grandmother taught me. – Stella said thoughtfully. – After Axel died, I looked for his essence on all the “floors” and could not find it. Then I looked among the living - and he was there again.