In the history of Slavs lot of white spots, which enables many modern "researchers" based on speculation and unproven facts put forward the most fantastic theories about the origin and formation of the state of the Slavic peoples.Often, even the concept of "Slav" means wrong and is considered as a synonym for the concept of "Russian".Moreover, there is the opinion that the Slav - a nationality.All this is confusion.
Who are the Slavs?
Slavs make up Europe's largest ethno-linguistic community.Inside it, there are three main groups: the Eastern Slavs (t. E. Russian, Belarusians and Ukrainians), Western (Poles, Czechs, Sorbs and Slovakia) and Southern Slavs (among them will be called Bosniaks, Serbs, Macedonians, Croats, Bulgarians, Montenegrins,Slovenes).Slav - is not nationality as a nation - a narrower concept.Some Slavic nations were formed relatively late, while the Slavs (or rather, the ancient Slavs) stood out from the Indo-European community and a half thousand years BC.e.It took a few centuries, and they have learned the ancient travelers.At the turn of ages Slavs were mentioned by Roman historians as "Wends": from written sources that the Slavic tribes waged war with Germany.
believed that the birthplace of the Slavs (or rather, a place where they were formed as a community) was the territory between the Oder and Vistula (some authors say that between the Oder and middle reaches of the Dnieper).
Ethnonym
Here it makes sense to consider the question of the origin of the term "Slav."In olden peoples they are often called after the river on whose banks they lived.Dnieper River in ancient times was called just "Slavutich".The very root of the "glory" may be traced back to a common Indo-European word for all kleu, meaning the fame or notoriety.There is another common version, "Slovak", "tslovak" and ultimately, "Slav" - it's just a "man" or "a person who speaks our language."Representatives of the ancient tribes of strangers, speaking in an incomprehensible language, is not considered people.Self-any people - for example, "Mansi" or "Nenets" - in most cases it means "man" or "the man."
farm.The social system
Slav - a farmer.Cultivated land ancestors of the Slavs learned back in the days when we all had a common Indo-European language.In the Northern Territory have practiced slash-and-burn agriculture in the south - fallow.We grew millet, wheat, barley, rye, flax and hemp.Did vegetable crops: cabbage, beets, turnips.The Slavs lived in the forest and steppe zones, so engaged and hunting, and apiculture, as well as fishing.They also raised cattle.The Slavs produced quality at the time the guns, ceramics, agricultural tools.
In the early stages of development of the Slavs existed tribal community, which gradually evolved into a neighbor.As a result of the military campaigns of the commune was allocated to know;He got to know the land and communal system replaced the feudal.
Total history of Slavs in antiquity
the north Slavs lived side by side with the Baltic and Germanic tribes in the west - with the Celts, in the east - with the Scythians and Sarmatians, and in the south - with the ancient Macedonians, the Thracians, Illyrians.At the end of the 5th century BC.e.they came to the Baltic and Black Seas, and the 8th century reached Lake Ladoga and mastered the Balkans.By the 10th century the Slavs occupied the land from the Volga to the Elbe, from the Mediterranean to the Baltic Sea.This migration activity was due to the invasions of nomads from Central Asia, the attacks of neighbors-Germans, as well as climate change in Europe: the individual tribes were forced to look for a new land.
history of the Slavs of the East European Plain
Eastern Slavs (ancestors of modern Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russian) to the 9th century BC.e.They took the land from the Carpathians to the middle reaches of the Oka and the Upper Don, from Ladoga to the Middle Dnieper.They interacted with the local Finno-Ugric and Baltic countries.Already in the 6th century small tribes began to enter into alliances with each other, which marked the birth of statehood.At the head of each of the Union was a military leader.
names of tribal alliances known to all of the school course of history: it drevlyans and vyatichi and northerners, and krivichi.But the best known, perhaps, clearing and Ilmen Slovenia.The first lived along the middle reaches of the Dnieper and founded Kiev, last lived on the shores of Lake Ilmen Novgorod and built.Emerged in the 9th century "route from the Vikings to the Greeks" contributed to the rise and, subsequently, the union of these cities.So in 882 emerged the state of the Slavs of the East European Plain - Russia.
Higher mythology
Slavs can not be called old people.Unlike the Egyptians and Indians, they did not have time to develop advanced mythological system.It is known that the cosmogonic myths of the Slavs (t. E. The myths about the origin of the world) have a lot in common with the Finno-Ugric.They also present an egg from which the "born" the world, and two ducks on the orders of the supreme god-bearing mud from the ocean floor to create terra firma.Initially Slavs worshiped Rod and Rozhanitsy later - personified the forces of nature (Perun, Svarog, Mokosh Dazhdbog).
There idea of paradise - Iria (Vyrii), the World Tree (Dube).The religious ideas of the Slavs developed along the same lines as that of the other peoples of Europe (after the ancient Slavs - is European!), From the deification of natural phenomena to the recognition of one God.It is known that in the 10th century BC.e.Prince Vladimir was trying to "unify" the pantheon of making the supreme god Perun - the patron saint of soldiers.But the reform failed, and the prince had to pay attention to Christianity.Forced Christianization, however, was never able to completely destroy the pagan ideas: Elijah the Prophet became identified with Perun, and Christ and the Virgin Mary began to be mentioned in the texts of magic spells.
lower mythology
Alas, Slavic myths about gods and heroes were not recorded.But these people have created lower-developed mythology, the characters of which - goblins, mermaids, vampires, Zalozhnev, Bannikov, ovinnik and poludenitsy - known from songs, tales, proverbs.In the early 20th century, the peasants told ethnographers about how to protect yourself from a werewolf, and negotiate with the water.Some vestiges of paganism alive in the popular mind until now.
