ancestors of the Slavs separated from the Indo-European group to about the first half of the first millennium BC.At the same time we can judge about the beginning of the resettlement of these tribes and their permanent settlement areas.The origin and settlement of the Slavs - debatable among most historians.It has been studied for many years, being based on various sources.According to some versions of the Slavs are autochthonous, ie local communities.Another part of the historians of the opinion that they - alien people.
major historical work, of which it is possible to trace the origins and dispersal of the eastern Slavs, is the "Tale of Bygone Years", written by the monk Nestor.According to a chronicle of his style, which is described in chronological order the events taking place in those days.At the beginning of the narrative defines a monk and resettlement area - the tribes of the Eastern Slavs, in his opinion, was originally lived in the Danube River Basin.Due to the fact that the Slavic tribes attacked the so-called "Volohov" they were forced to change their place of residence, and moved east to the Dnieper River.Archaeological sources, however, confirmed by the Slavs and stay in the basin of the Oder River, which casts doubt on the theory of Nestor, although at the moment it is the most appropriate.
Settling the Eastern Slavs in the Dnipro Basin leads to their residence in the territory.However, the "Tale of Bygone Years" Nestor - not the only source from which you can learn this information.So, Byzantine chronicles also show that at the time of the great migration of peoples Slavs occupied the territory of the center and east of Europe, and even then the Byzantines are three branches of the Slavs - sklaviny, Antes and Wends.All in all, these branches rank more than one hundred and fifty different tribes that lived in that territory.Unfortunately, today the majority of the names of these tribal unions lost, and to have survived only mention of the glades, drevlyans, Volhynians, Tivertsy northerners vyatichi, PRINCE, Radimichi buzhans, Krivich, convict, and other tribes.
the resettlement of the Slavs and wrote Romans and Arabs.Mention of these tribes are found in the writings of Tacitus, Pliny the Elder, Ptolemy.The Slavs, as a brave soldier, wrote the Gothic chiefs, namely Ermanaric, broken Slavic fighters.Although single victory, the Slavs were civilians, unadapted to the war.This is evidenced by the sources, describing the penalty seventy representatives of Slavic Vinitar, nephew Germanarich.
Settling the Eastern Slavs in the territory of the Danube was confirmed by such prominent Russian historians as Karamzin, Klyuchevskii Solovyov.However Kliuchevskoi version of ousting Slavs less acceptable - a historian says slow their resettlement in the direction of the Dnieper, which excludes the forced character of this process.For example, Boris Rybak prefers to combine these two theories, and not to provide the Danube Basin and the Dnieper.At present, the synthesis of these two points of view is the most acceptable, although recently conducted research in the northern regions.Perhaps, after a while, these theories will also be changed.
It is said that the resettlement of the eastern Slavs was not limited to the Danube Basin and the Dnieper.By the ninth century AD, they begin to appear the first cities that are increasingly distant from the primary settlement sites.One of the first outposts were the following: Kiev, Chernigov, Smolensk, Novgorod, Moore.And if consolidating near the Dnipro Kiev became the center, the closer to those of the north becomes Novgorod.
