A Slav is who? History and myths of the Slavs

In the history of the Slavs, there are a lot of blank spots, which makes it possible for numerous contemporary "researchers" based on conjectures 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 understood inaccurately and is regarded as a synonym for "Russian". Moreover, there is an opinion that the Slav is a nationality. All this is a delusion.

Who are the Slavs?

The Slavs make up the largest in Europe ethno-linguistic community. Inside it there are three main groups: the Eastern Slavs (ie the Russians, Byelorussians and Ukrainians), the Western (Poles, Czechs, Luzhichans and Slovaks) and the southern Slavs (among them we will call Bosnians, Serbs, Macedonians, Croats, Bulgarians, Montenegrins, Slovenians). Slav is this Not a nationality, because a nation is a narrower concept. Separate Slavic nations were formed relatively late, while the Slavs (or rather, the Proto-Slavs) were separated from the Indo-European community fifteen hundred years before Christ. E. Several centuries passed, and ancient travelers learned about them. At the turn of the epoch, the Slavs were mentioned by Roman historians under the name "Venedov": from written sources it is known that the Slavic tribes waged wars with 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 ancient times, people were often named after the river on whose shores they lived. The Dnieper in ancient times was just called "Slavutich". The root of the "Slavs", perhaps, goes back to the common for all Indoeuropeans word kleu, meaning rumor or fame. There is another popular version: "Slovak", "tslovak" and, ultimately, "Slav" - it's just a "man" or "a man who speaks our way." Representatives of the ancient tribes of all strangers who spoke an incomprehensible language, did not consider people at all. The self-name of any people - for example, "Mansi" or "Nenets" - in most cases means "man" or "man."

Economy. Social order

A Slav is a farmer. The ancestors of the Slavs learned to work the land back in those times when all Indo-Europeans had a common language. In the northern territories slash-and-burn farming was practiced, in the south - perelog. Growing millet, wheat, barley, rye, flax and hemp. They knew vegetable crops: cabbage, beet, turnip. The Slavs lived in the forest and forest-steppe zones, so they engaged in hunting, beekeeping, and fishing. They also raised cattle. Slavs made high-quality weapons for those times, ceramics, agricultural tools.

In the early stages of development, the Slavs had a clan community that gradually evolved into a neighboring one. As a result of military campaigns, the nobles separated from the communes; The nobility received the lands, and the communal system was replaced by the feudal system.

General information History of the Slavs in ancient times

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

History of the Slavs of the East European Plain

Eastern Slavs (the ancestors of modern Ukrainians, Byelorussians and Russians) by the 9th century AD. E. They occupied the lands from the Carpathians to the middle course of the Oka and the Upper Don, from Ladoga to the Middle Dnieper. They actively interacted with local Finno-Ugrians and Balts. As early as the 6th century, small tribes began to join each other, which marked the birth of statehood. At the head of each such union was the military leader.

The names of tribal unions are known to all from the school history course: these are the Drevlyane, Vyatichi, Northerners, and Krivichi. But the most famous were, perhaps, the meadow and the ilmen Slovene. The first inhabited the middle course of the Dnieper and founded Kiev, the latter lived on the banks of the Ilmen Lake and built Novgorod. The "way from Varangians to the Greeks" that arose in the 9th century promoted the rise and, eventually, the unification of these cities. So in 882 the state of the Slavs of the East European Plain appeared - Rus.

Higher Mythology

Slavs can not be called an ancient people. Unlike the Egyptians or Indians, they did not have time to develop a developed mythological system. It is known that the cosmogonic myths of the Slavs (ie myths about the origin of the world) have much in common with the Finno-Ugric myths. They also have an egg from which the world "is born," and two ducks, which, on the orders of the supreme god, bring mud from the ocean floor to create the earth's firmament. Initially, the Slavs worshiped the Roda and the Rozhanitsy, later - the personified forces of nature (Perun, Svarog, Mokosha, Dazhbog).

There were ideas about paradise - Irya (Vyria), World Tree (Oak). Religious representations of the Slavs developed according to the same pattern as the other peoples of Europe (after all, the ancient Slav - a European!): From the deification of natural phenomena to the recognition of a single God. It is known that in the 10th century AD E. Prince Vladimir tried to "unify" the pantheon, making Perun the supreme deity-patron of the warriors. But the reform failed, and the prince had to pay attention to Christianity. Forced Christianization, however, could not completely destroy pagan ideas: Ilya the prophet was identified with Perun, and Christ and the Mother of God were mentioned in the texts of magical plots.

The Lower Mythology

Alas, the myths of the Slavs about the gods and heroes were not recorded. But these peoples have created a developed lower mythology, the characters of which are woodpeckers, mermaids, ghouls, confederations, bannies, ovinniki and half-days - are known to us from songs, bylinas, proverbs. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, peasants told ethnographers how to protect themselves from a werewolf and negotiate with a water-man. Some survivals of paganism are still alive in the people's consciousness.