The appearance of the Russian people is brief. The history of the origin of the Russian people. Modern studies of the problem

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The decision to create the Oceanarium of the USSR Navy was made on June 18, 1965. In the beginning of April next year on the shore of the Cossack Bay, the first tents of builders and scientists appeared. Even now, the bay area is one of the most deserted outskirts of Sevastopol, and in those days it was a real "bear's corner", where you had to get on your own two feet, risking stumbling upon an unexploded shell that was waiting in the wings from the war. However, the remoteness and desolate nature of the area fully corresponded to the regime of strict secrecy in which the Oceanarium was created ...

By the 21st century, in the north of Eastern Siberia, fur-bearing animals, especially arctic foxes, were thoroughly knocked out. Animal dealers climbed farther and farther to the Arctic Ocean. The history of the development of the Far North is full of heroic and tragic pages.

Scotland is famous for its haunted castles. But none of them is famous for such a number of mysterious phenomena as Glams Castle. It is believed that one of the rooms of the castle - Duncan Hall - inspired Shakespeare to describe the scene of the murder of King Duncan in the tragedy "Macbeth". We will also visit the most sinister castle in Europe ..!

When the British came to India in the 18th century, their biggest problem was the sweltering summer heat. Of course, the colonialists tried to fight this scourge: they slept in damp linen, hung soaked grass mats on windows and doors, hired special Abdar servants to cool water, wine and ale with saltpeter. However, all this did not give the desired result.

EPRON. This abbreviation stands for "Special Purpose Underwater Expedition". The organization was created under the OGPU in 1923 to carry out a special task - to search for treasures allegedly lying off the coast of Balaklava, in the Crimea.

Lavrenty Beria for many years was considered the most terrible person in the USSR, who destroyed millions of fellow citizens. But at the same time, even in Gorbachev's times, he was not particularly demonized, and sometimes he was completely exposed as a person worthy of respect. So is there anything to respect the most famous Stalinist people's commissar for?

We know little about the life of Jesus Christ, the God-man, in whom divine and human nature are united. Christian books talk a lot about him as the Messiah, Savior, Redeemer and Son of God. But the information about Jesus as the Son of Man is fragmentary. The Bible (Gospel of Luni, 2.41-51) describes how, as a twelve-year-old youth, Jesus, along with his parents, came to Jerusalem for the Passover feast, where his parents then lost him in the crowd, but three days later they found him in full health, calmly talking in the temple with the priests . The next time the age of Jesus - about thirty years old - is mentioned only when describing his Baptism in the Jordan River (Gospel of Luni, 3.23). It remains unclear why almost 18 years have fallen out of the biblical chronology of the life of Christ.

Exactly 40 years ago, in April 1970, all Soviet media reported that the Volga Automobile Plant in Togliatti, which was being built a little over three years released its first product. The new car at the same time received the trade name "Zhiguli". However, this purely Russian word turned out to be unacceptable for foreign countries, since in a number of countries it sounded, to put it mildly, ambiguous. Therefore, in the export version, the VAZ-2101 and other models of the plant began to be called Lada.

Who are we Russians? What kind of people? How did it come about? Virtually no one knows anything about it. No wonder the Russians are called: Ivans, who do not remember kinship. Psychologists are convinced that most of the troubles of modern Russia are due to the fact that the consciousness of the titular nation, that is, the Russians, is, as it were, covered with a veil. Sometimes it seems that some universal demiurge clouded our reason for the time being. But the time for clearing the mind is already coming. Recently, a new book by Gennady Klimov "Russian Vedas" has been published, which tells in detail about the ancient history of Russia, the archaic civilizations of Eastern Europe, where, as it turned out, the evolution of mankind took place. It turned out that from school textbooks we approximately know the history of only 5 thousand years, and then with great distortions, and the history of the civilization of Russia has at least 50 thousand years, that is, 10 times more. Gennady Klimov is a professional researcher of ancient religions and epics. In the last book there is a fragment that tells about the birth of the peoples who became the progenitors of the Slavs. Today we asked Gennady Klimov to tell about the origin of the Russian people.


- Let's discard some of the myths that haunt us from the very beginning. Russians can be considered Slavs with a certain stretch. The Slavs are one of the peoples that separated from Russia and nothing more. For example, in the Voronezh, Rostov, Kharkov regions, the population consists of 60 percent of the descendants of the Aryans, who later formed the Sarmatian-Scythian world. And in Novgorod. Tver, Pskov also 40 percent of the descendants of the Scandinavians. The lower Volga region is inhabited in a certain proportion by a people, from which the Jews emerged in two waves. Russians are a praethnos from which other peoples emerged. In the Russian language, in the Russian mentality, two codes are combined, as it were - Sarmatia, the world of female matriarchal foundations and Scythia, the world of male sichs and Cossack hordes. Russians have a very complex archetype, which is why Russian civilization has so many problems so far. But soon the consciousness of Russian-speaking people will be cleansed, a transformation will come. That's when the true dawn of the Russian world will come. This process has already begun.
The question is often asked: where did the Russians come from? The Russians have always lived in their place in Eastern Europe, even during the glaciation and flood. The continuous history of Russia observes from a depth of 50-70 thousand years. For example, China is barely 5,000 years old. And the Egyptian pyramids were built only 4,000 years ago. But of course the Slavs played a significant role in the entosogenesis of the Russian nation. In figurative form, the ancient authors of the Aryan books preserved for us the message about the birth of the peoples of the Northern Black Sea region, including the Slavs. It can be considered to a certain extent the ancestors of the Russian people - the Wends. Aryan ancient books tell the following.
Kadru and Vinata were sisters. Their father was Daksha - the lord of creatures. He had 13 daughters, whom he gave in marriage to the sage Kashyapa. Kadru gave birth to a thousand sons, and Vinata only two. Kadru brought a lot of eggs, but Vinata brought only two eggs. Five hundred years later, a thousand mighty snakes - nagas - hatched from Kadru's eggs. By this time, no one had yet been born to another sister, Vinata. In her impatience, Vinata broke one egg and saw her son, who was only half developed. She named him Aruna. Aryan texts contain many secrets. The name Arun means "runes of the stone Alatyr". This is a system of signs used by the priests of Valdai as secret writing. For his ugliness, the angry Arun cursed his impatient mother Vinata, and predicted her to be a slave for five hundred years. From the name of Vinat comes the Russian word "wine" and the name of the ancient Slavic families of the Wends. This word in different time used in relation to different peoples, sometimes to all Slavs in general, also sometimes associated with vandals. During the Middle Ages, the Germans generally called all the neighboring Slavic peoples Wends (except for the Czechs and Poles, who descend from another branch of immigrants from Russia): Lusatians, Lutichs, Bodrichs (who lived on the territory of modern Germany) and Pomeranians. In Germany during the Weimar Republic, a special Wendian Department still existed in the internal affairs bodies, which was engaged in work with the Slavic population of Germany. Today, to a large extent, modern Germans are the genetic descendants of the Baltic Slavs. A large number of words with the root “vend” were found in the lands of eastern Germany: vendhaus, vendberg, vendgraben (grave), windenheim (homeland), windischland (land of the Wends), etc. On the territory of modern Latvia in the XII-XIII centuries. AD inhabited by a people known as the "Vendi". It is not difficult to assume that they come from the clans that laid two sons of the matriarchal commune of Vinata, mentioned in the Aryan Vedas. The word "Russia" in Finnish and Estonian sounds, respectively, "Venaja" and "Vene". It is assumed that the Finnish and Estonian names of the Russians are also associated with the name "Venedi".
The story that has been preserved in the Aryan Vedas says that the Slavs at the beginning of time appeared in the form of the son of Vinata, who was born prematurely, but received the name Arun, which means "possessing secret knowledge." Cursing his mother (having left the matriarchal commune that gave birth to him), he said: "In five hundred years, another son will deliver you from slavery if you do not break the second egg ahead of time."
This was shortly before the start of the Trojan War. At this time, the gods and asuras were in the world. The unified Aryan empire mobilized all forces to build a giant wall that separated the north from the south. So the ancients tried to protect themselves from diseases that were approaching Russia from the south. At this time, the sisters Kadru and Vinata saw the wonderful horse Uchchaihshravasa emerging from the waters of the sea. A dispute arose between them - what color is the tail of that horse. Vinata said that she was white (as she really was). Her sister Kadru is the same - that of black. According to the condition of the dispute - the one that loses must become a slave.
At night, Kadru sent a thousand of her sons - "black kites" to hang on the tail of a white horse, and thus hide its natural color. So the insidious Kadru tricked her sister into slavery. And so the curse of the first Slavs of the Arun came true. Most likely, this is one of the tribes of the Scythians or Sarmatians, who moved to the Balkans after the Trojan War. Here the descendants of Arun began to be called Kolovyans - southern Slavs. They formed 12 Etruscan clans that created the ancient Etruscan state and Rome.
In the Russian epic, the history of the migrations of this people is preserved in the fairy tale about the kolobok. Actually, the bun is the Kolovyans. It was approximately 1200 BC. After 2200 years, some of them will return to Russia in Kyiv and Novgorod, after Moravia was conquered by the Hungarians. When they returned, they brought with them many tales and tales about their ancient history. So in Russia there was a fairy tale about a kolobok.

But this is only half of the history of the Slavs. Vinata gave birth to a gigantic eagle from the second egg. He was destined to become a naga slayer in revenge for his mother's servitude. When he was born, all living beings and the gods of Mount Alatyr themselves were in turmoil. The circumstances of the life and struggle of the giant eagle are very reminiscent of the circumstances of the history of modern Russia, although the Aryan Vedas were written several thousand years earlier. The peoples descended from the gigantic eagle Garuda are the Baltic Slavs, Germans and modern Russians. The eagle Garuda, at birth, broke the egg shell with its beak and, barely born, soared into the skies in search of prey. The place of his birth, apparently, was the river Don. In slavery, the matriarchal commune of Vineta was among the steppe nomads of the Nagas. Nagas formed numerous southern peoples.
At that time, Surya, the god of the sun, began to threaten that he would burn the world. Drought began in the steppes. Then the eagle Garuda took on his back his older brother, the one who was born prematurely, and placed him on the chariot of the Sun, so that with his body he shielded the world from the destructive rays. From then on, Vinata's eldest son became Surya's charioteer and deity of the dawn.
Apparently, the Garuda tribe, whose coat of arms was an eagle, was born 500 years after the Trojan War and after the first expedition of immigrants from Russia to the Balkans and the settlement of Sicily. That is, it was about 750 BC. It was at this time that another religious crisis occurred in Russia. At this time, a new Jerusalem temple will be built in Russia, which continues the religious reforms begun in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC by the Aryan king Melchisidek on the transition to Monotheism. In addition, the reason that prompted the huge masses of the people of Eurasia to move was the drought.
Waves of people of “free will” appear at the mouth of the Don, a naval base of the southern Varangians appears on the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. These "people of the sea" are called Hellenes. They attack the shores of all inland seas, destroying the remnants of the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization. The dark ages are coming. The city of Panticapaeum (the modern city of Kerch) arises in the Crimea. This is a transshipment naval base, from which thousands of ships sail across the seas. At the shipyards near the modern city of Voronezh, thousands of thousands more ships are being built from ship pines. The maritime expansion of Russia ends with the emergence of many independent cities along the shores of the Black and Mediterranean Seas. It was these settlers who became the nutrient medium on which ancient culture grew.
And Garuda, having delivered his brother to the south, returned to Russia. Dejected, he asked his mother: "Why should I serve snakes?" And his mother Vinata told him about how she fell into slavery to her sister. Garuda then asked the snakes: "What can I do to free myself and my mother from slavery?" And the snakes said to him: “Get us amrita from the gods. Then we will deliver you from slavery.” Amrita is the drink of immortality. The concept of "amrita" in the Aryan texts corresponds to Ayurveda - the science of the laws of life. It was the creation by the priests of the foundations of ancient medicine that made it possible to begin a less safe development of the territory outside of Russia. A person is not well adapted to live far from glaciers - in the southern world he is pursued by exotic diseases. After the foundation of Ayurveda was created, people began to populate the southern countries. There they met people from primitive eras, who also somehow adapted to live in the south. But these were already other people, unlike the northerners. The sun changed them appearance, and their habits, worldview, ethical standards were from archaic eras. Their archetype of consciousness corresponded to eras long gone. This is how the mechanism of evolution on planet Earth works. Evolution in the south is slower than in the north.
Garuda flew north, where the gods kept the amrita. On the way, he passed the Gandhamadana mountain, where he saw his meditating father, the wise Kashyapa. On the advice of his father, Garuda got himself an elephant and a giant tortoise to eat and sat down on a tree to eat his prey. But the branch gave way under his weight. Garuda picked her up with his beak and saw on her a lot of tiny sages - Valakhilyas, hanging upside down. Valakhilyas - mythical sages, sixty thousand in number, each the size of a finger; in the Aryan books they are called the sons of Kratu, the sixth son of Brahma.

With a branch in its beak and with an elephant and a tortoise in its claws, Garuda flew on. When he again flew past the Gandhamadana mountain, Kashyapa said: “Beware of harming the Valakhilyas! Fear their wrath!" Kashyapa told Garuda how powerful these tiny creatures were. Then Garuda carefully lowered the Valakhilyas to the ground, and he himself flew to a mountain covered with snow, and, sitting on a glacier, ate an elephant and a tortoise. Then he continued his flight.

The father of the Valakhilyas is one of the Sapta Rishis, Kratu. From the name of this rishi (sage) comes the Russian word "mole". Why? Understand a little later. The Valakhilyas drink the sun's rays and are the guardians of the sun's chariot. In fact, their place of residence is Valdai and the Riphean mountains, the mountains of sages. They study Vedas and Shastras. One of the main features of the Valakhilyas is their purity, virtue and chastity; they are constantly praying. Elders usually live in dugouts and are indifferent to wealth. Sometimes they are called "siddhis" in books.
These are the holy hermits of Russia. They settled in the upper reaches of the Volga, Beloozerye and the shores of the White Sea. The sketes of the holy elders can be found even far on the Kola Peninsula beyond the Arctic Circle. The Mahabharata tells how the leader of the gods Indra, together with the Valakhilyas, were responsible for kindling the fire. Indra, having collected a whole mountain of firewood, laughed at the Valakhilyas, each of which was barely pulling a stalk of grass. The wise men were offended and began to pray that another leader of the gods Indra, much more powerful, would appear. Indra, learning about this, was frightened and asked for help from the sage Kashyapa. The powerful priest was able to pacify the Valakhilyas, but so that their efforts would not be in vain, he decided that Indra should be born in the form of an eagle.
Not far from my house near Tver, in 2009, the relics of St. Savvaty, an old man who lived here at the end of the 14th century AD, were opened. His relics were found on 19 August. This is very symbolic. On this day the Orthodox Church celebrates the Transfiguration. This concept is a reflection of the philosophical concept of "smart doing" or the vision of the Light of Tabor. In the forest hermitages, hermit monks brought themselves to a state of religious ecstasy, which began directly, on Earth, to see the Light of Tabor and communicate directly with God.

The tradition of building hermitages in Russia has its roots in the era of Cancer (7-6 thousand years BC) - a sign addressed to the world of the soul, and maybe even more ancient times. In the 4th-2nd millennium, the era of Taurus begins - the Valakhily populate the lands that have been released again from under the glacier. 60,000 hermit monks “weave” the Vedas here, which still determine the consciousness of modern man. It was they who created the archetype of consciousness that underlies world culture. The Valakhilyas persisted throughout the millennia. They exist today. In relatively recent history, the Valakhilis, who in the Russian Church are called Trans-Volga elders, have become most famous. These are the monks of the Belozersky, Vologda and Tver small monasteries and forest monasteries. The external, ritual side of religion did not play any role for them. Their monasteries differed sharply in their poor, simple furnishings from rich churches. They were not afraid to tell the kings the truth. The divorce of the Russian Tsar Vasily III from his wife and his new marriage caused condemnation from the Volga people. In 1523, one of the Zavolzhets, hegumen Porfiry, was even imprisoned for standing up for Prince Vasily Shemyachich, who was summoned to Moscow and imprisoned, despite the oaths of the Grand Duke and Metropolitan Daniel. Nil Sorsky was at the head of the Trans-Volga elders.
Today, in the village of Savvatyevo near Tver, Father Andrei Yegorov (the archpriest was once a famous Tver rocker) revives and builds a small monastery on the banks of the Orsha River and preserves the forest monastery of St. Savvaty Orshinsky, a hermit who, according to legend, came to Russian soil with Metropolitan Cyprian, and who brought the teachings of the Hesychasts to Russia. It was at the end of the 14th century.
Many names of the rivers, descriptions of the climate and the starry sky in the Aryan books indicate that the famous seven wise men, who gave people all the knowledge, in whose honor the seven stars of the Ursa Major constellation shine, lived in these places along the banks of the rivers Medveditsa, Orsha, Mologa. And at the end of the 14th century, Orthodox monks settled here in sketes, the keepers of the doctrine of the Light of Tabor. Already at the beginning of the 15th century, in just a few decades, sketes and small monasteries spread from Tver to the very Arctic Ocean.
Father Andrei during our meeting was surprised at the speed with which the teaching of the Hesychasts spread throughout Russia. I think this is God's work. This is the Tabor Light of the Transfiguration - it spreads at the same speed as Holy Fire from the Holy Sepulcher.
Many Orthodox monks settled in sketes in the very places where the rishis indicated in the Vedas lived. But there are at least 2500 years between these events. Seems like history repeats itself. The fact that the rishis from the Aryan epic and the hesychasts from relatively recent history manifested themselves in one place on the planet is an amazing fact. It seems that events not only repeat themselves, but also happen in the same place.
Valakhily and Orthodox hermit monks of the northwest of Russia and Karelia are a continuous tradition of one phenomenon. It has been here for thousands of years. I know several monks who live in the forests even today.
And while Garuda was approaching Valdai, the abode of the gods, terrible signs appeared in the sky. The wind rose, thunder roared, ominous clouds shrouded the peaks. The gods were alarmed. But they have not yet seen who is going to attack them. Then the wise Brihaspati said to them: “A mighty bird is coming here to steal the amrita. Now the prophecy of the Balakhilyas is being fulfilled.”
Hearing this, the gods, led by Indra, dressed in shining armor and armed with swords and spears, says the epic of the Aryans. Surrounding the vessel with the drink of immortality amrita, they prepared for battle. And then a huge bird appeared, sparkling like the sun. She fell on the celestials and scattered them in different directions. Recovering from this onslaught, the gods, led by Indra, rushed to Garuda, showering him from all sides with spears, darts and war discs. The bird flew up, and attacked the gods from above, and overwhelmed many with blows of claws and beak. Unable to withstand the battle with the invincible bird, the gods retreated, and Garuda penetrated to where the amrita was kept. So the Proto-Slavs became the owners of the secret knowledge of the sages from Valdai.
Garuda grabbed the vessel of amrita and set off on his return journey.
The leader of the Valdai gods Indra rushed in pursuit and, having overtaken him in the air, dealt a terrible blow with his vajra. But Garuda did not flinch. He said to Indra: “Great is my strength, and I can carry away on my wings all this land with mountains and forests, and you along with it. If you want, be my friend. Don't worry, I won't give the amrita to the snakes. You will have her back when I free myself and my mother from slavery." Indra is, among other things, a religion that was in Russia 6-4 thousand years BC. This was the first manifestation of monotheism cults. Indra was the harbinger of the coming of Krishna. The Aryan Vedas believe that in the form of Krishna, the Almighty once again descended to earth in about 3100 BC. At the same time, Krishna, as it were, is a harbinger of the coming of Jesus Christ, and Indra, respectively, is Andrew the First-Called. The descendants of the second son of the slave Vinata brought the cult of monotheism to the south of Russia. Along with the new religion, new knowledge of hygiene and healing methods spread, which made it possible to move further south.
Hearing these words, Indra said, “I accept your friendship, O mighty one. Demand whatever gift you want from me!” And Garuda said: "Let snakes be my food." From that time on, snakes are doomed to be food for Garuda and his offspring, the suparna birds. Since then, Russia has been absorbing many immigrants from the south and melting them down into the Russian ethnic group.

Garuda and his mother Vinata were freed from slavery. But in the meantime, Indra took the amrita and took it back to Valdai, to his kingdom. The snakes did not get the drink of immortality. Then they began to lick the kusha grass, on which stood a vessel with amrita. And the kusha grass, which was touched by amrita, has since become a sacred grass. That is, some knowledge of ancient medicine nevertheless fell into the environment of nomads - and this saved them in the process of evolution.
The great eagle Garuda - a solar bird - is one of the most popular images of Aryan mythology. In ancient books, the Most High (Vishnu) is often depicted flying in the sky riding on the eagle Garuda. That is, the northern Slavs were the force that in ancient times spread the faith in the one God around the world. Hence the expression among the Russians - God is with us!

The story of Gennady Klimov was recorded by Marina Gavrishenko

Only one people in Russian is called an adjective. And these are… Russians.

Why did it happen and where did this word come from?

Before speculating where the very name “Russian” came from, and where these same Russians appeared in Europe, it is necessary to remember one detail: the territory where Slavic tribes settled for a long time, despite the fact that each tribe had its own name, wore and the common name is Russian land. The early medieval chronicles and legends of all Slavic peoples without exception speak of the land of the Russes. Not only that, the ancient Scandinavians considered themselves Russes until the 9th century! “Russians-Nordwens” and “Russians-Dans” are recorded in Arabic and Byzantine chronicles. There is undeniable evidence that the early Germans - the inhabitants of modern Bavaria and Saxony - also considered their land to be Russian and called themselves "Russians" until the 13th century AD. This is evidenced by the works of such well-known German researchers as Hermann Wirth, Otto Rahn, Rene Guenon and others. There is evidence that the ancient Celts, before they were conquered by Caesar's legions, also called themselves Russians. And their neighbors in northern Italy conveyed their two self-names to historical times: the Tyrrhenians and the most ancient, the Etruscans (the root “rus” is present).

Historical science explains the self-name of peoples, especially nomads, but the name of the leader; settled peoples - by area; sometimes the self-name of an ethnic group arose due to some cultural traditions that this ethnic group adhered to. For example, the ancient Hittites and Hattians, having come to the territory of Asia Minor from the more severe northern regions, built their dwellings in the old fashioned way: where there was timber, they were cut, and where there was not enough of it, they were entirely adobe. Both in the first and in the second case, avoiding the mud brick technology adopted by the nearest neighbors - the inhabitants of Syria and Akkad. For this they received the nickname “Khatniki” or “Hatti”, “Hittai”. Self-names of tribes also arose for other reasons. A serious factor was belief in some god, whose name, in the end, became the self-name of the whole people; or prolonged isolation, when people began to believe that only they exist on earth. Take, for example, the self-name of the American Eskimos: when translated into European languages, it sounds like “real people”. The northeastern Chukchi also call themselves approximately the same.

And now let's return to the now incomprehensible, almost mystical word "Russ". Why did the Slavic tribes of Eastern and Western Europe, despite their self-names (Polyany, Drevlyane, Radimichi, Krivichi, Vyatichi or Croats, Serbs, Obodrites, etc.), believed that they all live on Russian soil, and that they all , ultimately, Russes? Russ is the main and sacred self-name associated with the memory of some ancestor or with the forces of the Cosmos itself. What does the self-name "Russ" mean, and what meaning does it carry, many researchers and scientists tried to unravel. Describing the beauty and breadth of the Russian land, the author of The Tale of Bygone Years, the chronicler Nestor, refuses to give an intelligible explanation for the self-name "Russian Land" and the word "Russy". In all likelihood, the meaning of the word was lost long before his time. The unknown author of The Tale of Igor's Campaign also did not know the meaning of the word "Russ". In addition, the Russian land in his era has significantly narrowed: with bitterness and pain, he tells in the “Word ...” that the Russian land is behind, and the wild steppe, the Polovtsian land, is ahead. And in subsequent times, until the reign of Ivan the Fourth, the steppes of the Don, Kuban, Volga were called in Russia the Wild Field. And, probably, only a few - basically, the descendants of Russian Vedic priests, who were passed on knowledge from generation to generation, knew that the expanses of forests and fields lying to the Yaika-Ural River and further to the east were once also Russian land, where in from time immemorial lived tribes of eastern sketes of nomads, lake russes of fishermen and plowmen.

Normanists, adherents of the Western historical concept, even in the time of Lomonosov tried to prove that the self-name “Russ” comes from a Scandinavian root, because the tribes of the ancient Vikings also called themselves “Russ”. M. Lomonosov himself fundamentally disagreed with this theory, who rightly believed that the name of a densely populated country rich in cities, which the Vikings themselves called “Gardarika”, that is, the country of cities, could not come from the rural semi-wild population of Scandinavia. Gardarika at the time of the Vikings consisted of hundreds of towns and cities, while in the entire Scandinavian peninsula then there were only seven settlements, not all of which looked like cities. It turns out that there once lived a Country of cities without a name, without a self-name, there lived and there was a people who inhabited it from time immemorial, and suddenly the Vikings came and gave the name to the people - Russ, and from that time the country began to be called Rus. wildly? Certainly!
Understanding the inconsistency of the conclusion of the Normanists, many generations of not only Russians, but also advanced European researchers tried to find the root of the self-name “Russ”. However, the solution of this problem turned out to be very difficult. The deeper the scientists dug, the more mysterious the problem became.

Varangians?

According to the most popular theory today, the word "Russian" has Scandinavian roots. This assumption is based on the Tale of Bygone Years. Here is what Nestor wrote about the birth of a state called Rus:

“They expelled the Varangians across the sea, and did not give them tribute, and began to rule themselves, and there was no truth among them, and clan stood against clan, and they had strife, and began to fight with each other. And they said to themselves: "Let's look for a prince who would rule over us and judge by right." And they went across the sea to the Varangians, to Russia. Those Varangians were called Rus, as others are called Swedes, and others are Normans and Angles, and still others are Gotlanders, and so are these. The Russians said Chud, Slovenes, Krivichi and all: “Our land is great and plentiful, but there is no order in it. Come reign and rule over us." And three brothers were elected with their clans, and they took all of Russia with them, and they came, and the eldest, Rurik, sat in Novgorod, and the other, Sineus, on Beloozero, and the third, Truvor, in Izborsk. And from those Varangians the Russian land was nicknamed.
From this we can conclude that the Russians are the name of the people borrowed from the Scandinavians, who called for the rule of representatives of the Rus tribe.

But what does this word “Rus” mean anyway? Since ancient times and until now, the Finns call their Swedish neighbors Ruotsi, which means "rowers, sailors" (from the Old Norse verb "sail, row"). It is possible that the Vikings-Varangians, who came to Russia from Scandinavia, took their name from the same source.

Blonde hair?

Another version of the foreign origin of the word "Russian" is Iranian. Its author - a scientist, thinker and public figure Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky - believed that the roots of this word go back to the Iranian "ruhs" (or "rohs"), which means "light, bright, white."

Which is very likely, because the Proto-Slavs for a very long time coexisted with the Iranian tribes (Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans) in the south of modern Russia - in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov and the Black Sea. Dark-haired and swarthy Iranians could well call their neighbors by the main distinguishing feature - blond hair, eyes and skin.

Red faces?

Also on outward sign we might have been nicknamed the Byzantines. The Arab traveler of the 9th-10th centuries, Al-Masudi, in his notes mentions a tribe that the Byzantines call "Rusiya", which means "red, red."

His colleague Ibn Fadlan, who personally saw these "Rusiya", notes their unprecedented redness. What exactly is meant: a blush, sunburned skin, or even red noses is still unclear.

Fields, villages?

They also searched for roots in Latin. In particular, in the words rus (“village, village, field, arable land”) and rusticus (“village, rural, peasant”). And why, in fact, not? The meaning is consistent with the way of life of the then Russians.

True, the second word has several more meanings: “simple, unpretentious, artless, awkward, rude, clumsy”, which is not very encouraging.

Toponymy?

There were theories about the original Russian origin of the "Russians". So the Austrian baron, and at the same time the writer and historian, Sigismund von Herberstein, who lived in the XV-XVI centuries, believed that Russia got its name from one very ancient city near Veliky Novgorod - Russ. The historian Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev, who found the source of the Russian state in Staraya Rusa, adhered to the same version.

River?

But the matter did not stop at Staraya Rusa. Let's go dig further. The Slovak linguist and ethnographer Pavel Šafarik discovered that in the Proto-Slavic language the river was called the word *rusa. From here, the riverbed (depression in the soil along which the river flows) and the mermaid (a fabulous inhabitant of the river) were born in our language.

There are actually two "river" versions. According to the second, the Russians got their name from the name of the right tributary of the Dnieper, located south of Kyiv - Ros.

The Bears?

Well, what is a Russian without vodka, balalaika and a bear! The most desperate researchers find the origins of the word "Russian" in the Western European root urs ("bear"). The permutation of the letters is explained by the same reasons that turned the Greek μάρμαρος into "marble".

Another option: Russians - bearish people?
According to most scientists, the answer to this question, of course, was, and not only in Russia, but also in the West. The trouble is that the written sources that could shed light on this matter were irretrievably lost during the period of the general Christianization of Europe. A number of scientists, mainly from Belarus, believe that the word "Russ" was once called the bear, which was especially revered in Russia. Bear - knowing honey - the second allegorical name of the sacred beast, which remained in use, and the ancient "russ" was forgotten. Now there is only "the people of bears" - Russian. The name of the river Russa allegedly came from the ancient sacred word “bear”. According to some scientists, many bears lived on its banks in those ancient times. Such an answer, of course, is simple and even logical, given that the word "russ" once denoted the beast that we know as a bear. But, unfortunately, here we meet only with a hypothesis. We do not have direct evidence that “russ” and “bear” are the names of the same animal. There is another thing: in both Russian and German, the bear is called the word “Ber”. In German, this name is still alive, but in Russian it is preserved in the word “lair”, i.e., “beer’s lair”. Therefore, the word "russ" could not mean a bear. The bear was called in Russian, and in German, and in Iranian languages ​​\u200b\u200b"berom", and this does not require any special evidence. This means that the theory “Russ is a bear” and “Russian people are a bear people” is utopian.

Russians - people from the tribe of the leopard?

There is another theory of the origin of the word "Russ". It was put forward by the famous Russian researcher Vladimir Shcherbakov. He believes that the word "Russ" comes from the word "race", i.e. leopard. In his opinion, the Russians are the descendants of the hypothetical people of the “sons of the leopard”, who lived in the 7th-8th millennium BC. e. on the territory of modern Front and Asia Minor. This people, according to V. Shcherbakov, once created a powerful Hatto-Luvian state that competed with Babylonia and Egypt. Later, the Hatto-Luvians created the state of Artsava on the territory of Asia Minor, where the cult of the Rassa-leopard was most clearly expressed. According to Shcherbakov, part of the Hattians at the end of the 1st millennium BC. moved from Asia Minor to Europe and created a powerful Getic state on the territory of Thrace, which was subsequently destroyed by Trajan. But for several centuries of war with Rome, part of the Goths settled in the north and settled in the Carpathians; another large tribal association of the Goths moved to the East and settled in the forest-steppes of the East European Plain. Here, in the new homeland, the word Russ-leopard began to be called a lynx, and the people themselves allegedly called themselves Russ.

V. Shcherbakov considers the Hattians, the Luvian Hattians, the Hittites, the Goths, and hence the Russians, to be the descendants of the Eastern Atlanteans. According to not only Shcherbakov, but also a number of other scientists, the war of the Atlanteans with the so-called Proto-Athenians in the Mediterranean was a war of the metropolis with the union of its own colonies. According to Plato, the colonies won this war, and according to Shcherbakov, East Atlantis. According to the researcher, after this victory, the eastern Atlanteans settled in the vast expanses of Europe, Asia and North Africa. This, in his opinion, happened around 8-7 thousand BC. Later, the Semites came to these lands from the Arabian Peninsula and forced the first settlers to the north. So the descendants of the once powerful people ended up in Asia Minor, and from Asia Minor they moved to Thrace.

The theory put forward by V. Shcherbakov is quite real and does not contradict either archaeological excavations or anthropological studies. Indeed, in the territory of the Near East and Asia Minor in 8 thousand BC. e. the ancient original culture of farmers and pastoralists flourished. And the boundaries of this culture are quite extensive. Ancient farmers lived in fortified cities (Chatal Huyuk), owned all the major crafts, bred domestic animals, except for the horse, and, in all likelihood, revered either the leopard or some kind of now extinct cat. One can agree with Shcherbakov that these people called their totem "rass". But V. Shcherbakov is wrong in that this word gave the name to the people of the “Russes” and, moreover, to the vast territory of Eurasia, inhabited since antiquity, albeit by related, but still different tribes and even peoples.

This researcher, developing his theory of the origin of the Russian people, ignored the culture of the ancient Aryans. If he had compared Sanskrit (the language of the Proto-Indians - Aryans) and the Old Russian language, he would undoubtedly have come to the conclusion that, in fact, these are varieties of the same language, and in this language the word “Rusa” means the concept of “bright, clear, radiant ". The Russian word “Russ” is more archaic and, as many scientists believe, is rooted in pre-Aryan vocabulary. Until now, a certain hair color in Russia is called blond, it is by no means dark or black. Therefore, Shcherbakovsky “race” could be called that by the color of the coat. Actually, almost all wild cats in Europe and Asia, including the leopard and the lynx, have just this color. In Sanskrit - the same quality: light, radiant. But here lies some discrepancy: the fact is that in Russia the word “bright” also denoted the quality of the soul. "Light" - meant radiating a special spiritual light, carrying a higher, divine meaning. It is not for nothing that the ancient Russians called their princes Your Grace. From here, another meaning of the Sanskrit word “rusa” becomes clear - radiant ...

Here's what the blogger says av_seliverstov on this score:

First of all, versions of some foreign-language (foreign-tribal) origin are hardly serious.

In general, all sorts of “Varangian theories” do not stand up to criticism, in any case, those varieties where the role of the Varangians, etc. exaggerated up to the name of the Russian state.

The purely geographical theory looks stupid. In general, the ancients did not know such an approach and never confused toponyms with ethnonyms, territories and states with peoples.

The omission of written sources of that time about the origin of the word “Rus” also looks strange, whose authors simply could not have known this, since they lived just in the era of its occurrence. This is either evidence that the word was clear to everyone, or, on the contrary, a desire not to emphasize something, or even just hide it.

Most likely, we are talking about a Slavic word, which disappeared precisely due to its use exclusively as an ethnonym. Since this book is devoted to Latin, we will give the following version, which we will prove with the help of Latin.

The version is like this.

The word "Rus" in Russian is semantically and lexically close to the words plant, sprout, grove, etc.

Let's analyze a little and try to prove it. In Latin, the word planta (plant) is semantically close to planum (field, plain). The Latin word planum is already an ancient European lexical analogue of the Russian word field. The most interesting thing is that in Latin there are such words as rus (field, village, countryside) and most importantly: rusticus (field). What prevents us from concluding that this common European word was clearly present in the Slavic language? Of course in a different form, but with the same or similar meaning. For example: rustic, rustic, rustic, rustic, rustic, rustic.

So, we have more or less figured out the origins. Now it remains to understand why the British, French, Germans and other nationalities in the Russian language are denoted by nouns, and the Russians themselves by an adjective.

Some explain this by saying that Russians are a very special people, unlike anyone else, and deserve a “special” name. But here it is worth remembering that a similar situation has developed in other languages: in European, for example, almost all nationalities are expressed by adjectives (German, français).

Others argue that Russians are not a nationality, since initially many different tribes lived on the territory of Russia (Polyans, Drevlyans, Chuds, Mordvins, Komi, etc.), which united under this common name. It may well be. Just do not forget such a simple fact that in Russian adjectives have the ability to turn into nouns: scientist, ice cream, canteen, etc.

sources
http://russian7.ru/post/pochemu-russkie-zovutsya-russkimi/
http://av-seliverstov.livejournal.com/142010.html
http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/1758119/post58721261/
http://livehistory.ru/forum.html?func=view&catid=15&id=182
https://answer.mail.ru/question/39974262

Here, for example, is such a version of how it looked, here's another one. Here are the famous

We live in the 21st century! Amazing date: two thousand years. Is it a lot or a little? If we consider given term from the point of view of the development of life on Earth, it seems to be quite small. Compare at least with the era of dinosaurs: for 150 million years they reigned supreme on our planet, but from the point of view of human development (approximately 30-40 thousand years), these two thousand years brought colossal social and economic changes.

The period of formation of the Russian state and the events preceding it are among the least studied pages of our history. Written sources telling about those times are not numerous. The main information was given by the Byzantine chroniclers, who described the events somewhat contradictory.

You need to know your roots. This postulate does not need to be proven. It is enough to note that without the past there is no future, there is no development, both for an individual and for the whole society. The early history and culture of the ancient Slavs is no less enigmatic and mysterious than the history of Atlantis. That is why I was attracted by the topic "Origin of the Russian people." I wanted to study this side of our multifaceted history, delve into the topic and turn to the origins of our distant past.

History of the ancient Slavs

In order to "search for our roots" we go on a journey into the past 2000 years ago. Here we have to get acquainted with the historical past of the Slavs-progenitors against the background of the general historical situation that has developed in the territory of South-Eastern Europe, where our historical ancestral home was located in the chosen time period.

So where and when did ancient Russia originate? There are still no exact and unambiguous answers to these questions. There are various approaches to the allocation of the time frame of the ancient Russian civilization. Some researchers begin with the appearance of the ancient Russian state in the 9th century, others - with the baptism of Russia in 988, others - with the first state formations among the Eastern Slavs in the 6th century. According to O. Platonov: Russian civilization is one of the most ancient spiritual civilizations in the world, the basic values ​​that were formed long before the adoption of Christianity.

Primary sources of data on the Russian Land

The most significant historical monument containing information about the history of the Russian people is the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years", compiled around 1113 by the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Nestor. The main task of the essay is formulated by the author in the first lines of the chronicle: "this is the story of bygone years, where did the Russian land come from, who in Kyiv began before the princes, and where did the Russian land come from." Thus, for the first time the concept of "Russian land" appeared in written sources of the XII century.

But the chronicler Nestor in his literary work traces the history of Kievan Rus to the 6th century AD. And it was in the middle of the 6th century that the Syrian author mentions “the people of ROS (RUS)”, who lived somewhere northwest of the Azov Amazons, that is, on the Middle Dnieper. Therefore, the historian B. A. Rybakov concludes that the concept of "Russian land" arose in the 6th century AD. Evidence of the earlier existence of the Russian land is beyond the available written evidence.

Ancient civilizations on the territory of Kievan Rus

According to the Bible, the Slavic race goes back to Japheth. Japheth (aka Arius) is one of the sons of Noah, whose descendants went to the North and West, the other two sons of Noah left: Shem - to the East, Ham - to the South.

The grandson of Japheth, the Scythian, in the 14th century BC, having separated from his people, moved from the Caucasus to the Western Bank of the Don. His descendants were called Scythians, they then became the founders of the Slavic people. Initially, the Scythians were nomads, but later the bulk of them switched to a settled way of life and formed the "Scythian kingdom", which occupied vast territories from the mouth of the Danube to the middle reaches of the Yellow River (Iran, North India, China). What made the Scythians leave their native places?:

▪ tightness, which led to civil strife,

▪ climate impact: drying up of the Dead Sea, desertification of the green Sahara due to climate warming.

Sarmatians originated from the marriages of Scythian youths with the Amazons. The Sarmatians lived up to the taiga and tundra of the Arctic, the more northern regions were uninhabited due to the cold.

From the VI-IV centuries. BC, from this era, called the Scythian, a period of one and a half thousand years begins, culminating in the creation of the state of Kievan Rus. One and the same region - the forest-steppe Middle Dnieper - is part of the ancestral home of the Slavs, it also became the core of Kievan Rus. In the Middle Ages, this region was called the "Russian Land".

"Scythian" culture is described by Herodotus. Herodotus outlined a huge square of 700x700 km in Eastern Europe. The southern side of the "Scythian square" was the Black Sea coast from the mouth of the Danube to the Kerch Strait. The western side went approximately to the middle reaches of the Pripyat, and the eastern side approximately to Oskol. The northern side of the Scythian square, the least known to the traveler, was lost in the forest zone, somewhere north of the Seim and the lower reaches of the Pripyat.

The culture of the Scythian type was spread over a significant part of the square, but the Scythians proper occupied only one fifth of the square. This conditional square was inhabited by eight different peoples. One of these peoples, related to the Scythians, were settled tribes of farmers who called themselves skolots. For more than 1000 years, they settled in the forest-steppe zone of the Middle Dnieper and slowly merged with the Scythians.

The Sarmatians lived in the northern regions of our continent for six centuries. The Sarmatians were a very warlike people and repeatedly carried out invasions of the Scythians and Skolots. In the 4th century BC, after frequent Sarmatian invasions, the Scythian culture fell into decay and our ancestors were forced to move to the forests, deeper into the more northern regions in the area of ​​Lake Ilmen. This part of the Scythians-Skolts was called the Eastern Slavs. In different areas, the East Slavic tribes were called differently, which is known to us from the oldest Russian chronicle: Krivichi, Vyatichi, Radimichi, Dregovichi and others (14 in total). Part of the Scythians-skolots moved to the south-west, populating the swampy lands of Thrace, part of the skolots remained in place.

Gradually, over the centuries, during the invasions, a merger of peoples took place - the Scythians-Skolts and Sarmatians. The descendants of the Scythians-Skolots and Sarmatians began to be called Alans. The Alans were described in the annals as tall, handsome, with blond hair, a fierce gaze that inspires fear, they were light and active in the use of weapons.

After the merger of peoples and the weakening of the Sarmatian invasions, the trade routes of the ancient Slavs are restored, the trade in bread with the Roman Empire develops, which leads to property inequality among the Slavs, which contributed to the development of society.

Later, in the I-II centuries AD, in literary sources, Greek and Roman scientists (Tacitus and Pliny) describe the descendants of the Alans as numerous tribes of Wends - the ancestors of modern Slavic peoples. The name Veneda comes from the Celtic vindos, which means "white". As for the later self-name "Slavs", its exact meaning is not known.

The name "Venedi" was preserved in the language of the Germanic peoples until the 16th century, and in the Finnish language Russia is still called Veneia. At first, only Western Slavs were called that way. Their eastern counterparts were called Ants. Then the Slavs began to call all the tribes speaking Slavic languages. By the name of the Wends, the Baltic Sea was then called the Venedian Gulf of the Northern Ocean. According to archaeologists, the Wends were the original inhabitants of Europe, the descendants of the tribes that lived here in the Stone and Bronze Ages, and the name "Slavs" spread only in the 6th century AD (Procopius of Caesarea and Jordanes).

The Slavs waged a constant struggle with the nomads who lived in the Black Sea steppes and often plundered the Slavic lands. The most dangerous enemy was the nomadic Khazars, who created in the 7th-8th centuries AD a large strong state in the lower reaches of the Volga and Don rivers - the Khazar Khaganate.

During this period, the Eastern Slavs began to be called Russ or Ross, as is believed, from the name of one of the tribes - Russ, who lived on the border with Khazaria. This is how the names "Russia" and "Russians" came about.

Features of the life of the ancient Slavs

Interesting is the information of Byzantine authors that the Slavs in the 6th-7th centuries did not yet have a state. They lived in independent tribes. War chiefs were at the head of these numerous tribes. We know the names of leaders who lived more than a thousand years ago: Mezhimir, Dobrita, Pirogost, Khvilibud and others. The Byzantines wrote that the Slavs were very brave, skilled in military affairs and well armed; they are freedom-loving, do not recognize slavery and submission.

Important information about the history of the ancient Slavs is reported by the Tale of Bygone Years. The ancient Slavs were engaged in agriculture, crafts, hunting, fishing, collecting honey and wax from wild bees. The land was the property of the community, which distributed it among the community members. The main issues were decided by the people's assembly - veche.

At the beginning of the first millennium of our era, large movements of tribes and peoples took place throughout Europe, due to social, political and natural factors. It was a slow, centuries-old movement of agricultural communities and individual families who were looking for new convenient places for settlement and areas rich in animals and fish. The settlers cut down forests for their fields. A few centuries later, the indigenous population mixed with the newcomers, learned their language and culture.

As a result of the unification of the XIV East Slavic tribes, the Old Russian nationality gradually developed, which had a certain common territory, language, culture and was the cradle of three fraternal peoples (Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian). Slavic culture laid the foundation for the entire European civilization. Until now, on the high banks of rivers and lakes, the remains of ancient Slavic settlements have been preserved, which are now being studied by archaeologists. The Old Russian nationality, which developed in the 10th century, existed for 5 centuries, before the changing historical situation in Europe led to the disintegration of this nationality into 3 parts: Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.

Scythians, Slavs and Russians have one anthropological type - tall, slender and strong physique, bright eyes, fair hair, soft, white, almost hairless skin.

At a time when wars not only between different tribes, but also between neighboring communities were a constant phenomenon, people often settled in hard-to-reach places, surrounded by high slopes, deep ravines or water. They erected earthen ramparts around their settlements, dug deep ditches and surrounded their dwellings with a wooden fence. The remains of such small fortresses are called settlements. Dwellings were built in the form of dugouts, inside there were adobe or stone ovens. Relatives usually lived in each village, who often ran their household as a community. The agricultural economy of that time was very little like the modern one. People worked hard to earn their living. To prepare the land for sowing, it was first necessary to cut down a plot in the forest.

Each family or group of relatives made everything they needed for themselves. Iron was smelted from local ores in small clay furnaces - domnitsa - or pits. The blacksmith forged from it knives, axes, openers, arrowheads and spears, swords. Women sculpted pottery, wove canvases and sewed clothes. Wooden utensils and utensils, as well as items made from birch bark and bast were in great use. They bought only what could not be obtained or made locally. Salt has long been the most common commodity - after all, its deposits were not found everywhere. They also traded in copper and precious metals, from which jewelry was made. For all this, they paid with valuable goods that played the role of money: the skins of fur-bearing animals, honey, wax, grain, and cattle.

Near the ancient Slavic settlements, one can often find round or elongated earthen mounds - barrows. During excavations, they find the remains of burnt human bones and utensils burned in the fire. The ancient Slavs burned the dead on a funeral pyre, the remains were buried in burial mounds.

Soon, great changes took place in the life of the Slavs. With the development of metallurgy and other crafts, the tools of labor improved significantly. The farmer now had a plow or plow with an iron share. His work became more productive. There were rich and poor among the community members. The ancient community disintegrated, it was replaced by a small peasant economy. Trade developed. The country was cut through by trade routes, going mainly along the rivers. At the end of the 1st millennium, trade and craft cities began to appear: Kyiv, Chernigov, Smolensk, Polotsk, Novgorod, Ladoga and many others.

The process of formation of Kievan Rus

Foreigners called Russia a country of cities, consisting of 14 East Slavic tribes:

1. Ilmen Slovenes, the center of which was Novgorod the Great, which stood on the banks of the Volkhov River, which flowed from Lake Ilmen and on whose lands there were many other cities, which is why the Scandinavians neighboring them called the possessions of Slovenes "gardarika", that is, "the land of cities."

2. Krivichi, who lived in the interfluve of the Dnieper, Volga and Western Dvina, around On the lands of the Krivichi, Moscow subsequently arose.

3. Polochans settled on the Polot River, at its confluence with the Western Dvina.

4. Dregovichi lived on the banks of the Pripyat River, getting their name from the words "dregva" and "dryagovina", meaning "swamp".

5. Radimichi, who lived in the interfluve of the Dnieper and Sozha, were called by the name of their first prince Radim, or Radimir.

6. The Vyatichi were the easternmost ancient Russian tribe, having received their name, like the Radimichi, on behalf of their progenitor, Prince Vyatko, which was an abbreviated name Vyacheslav.

7. The northerners occupied the rivers of the Desna, the Seimas and the Courts and in ancient times were the northernmost East Slavic tribe.

8. The meadows that inhabited the lands around Kyiv, Vyshgorod, Rodnya, Pereyaslavl were called so from the word "field".

9. Russia is the name of one, far from the largest East Slavic tribe, which, because of its name, became the most famous both in the history of mankind and in historical science, because in disputes over its origin, scientists and publicists broke many copies and spilled rivers of ink . Many eminent scientists - lexicographers, etymologists and historians - derive this name from the name of the Normans, almost universally accepted in the 9th-10th centuries - Russ. During their conquests, which took place for 300 years (from the 8th to the 11th centuries) and swept across Europe from England to Sicily and from Lisbon to Kyiv, the Normans sometimes left their name behind the conquered lands. For example, the territory conquered by the Normans in the north of the Frankish kingdom was called Normandy. Opponents of this point of view believe that the name of the tribe comes from the hydronym - the river Ros, from which later the whole country began to be called Russia. And in the XI-XII centuries, Rus began to be called the lands of Rus, glades, northerners and Radimichi, some territories inhabited by streets and Vyatichi. Supporters of this point of view consider Russia no longer as a tribal or ethnic union, but as a political state formation.

10. Tivertsy occupied spaces along the banks of the Dniester, from its middle course to the mouth of the Danube and the shores of the Black Sea.

11. The streets were the southern neighbors of the Tivertsy, occupying lands in the Lower Dnieper, on the banks of the Bug and the Black Sea coast.

12. The Drevlyans lived along the Teterev, Uzh, Uborot and Sviga rivers, in Polissya and on the right bank of the Dnieper. Their main city was Iskorosten on the river Uzh.

13. The Croats who lived around the city of Przemysl on the San River called themselves White Croats, in contrast to the tribe of the same name that lived in the Balkans.

14. The Volynians were a tribal association formed on the territory where the Duleb tribe had previously lived. Volynians settled on both banks of the Western Bug and in the upper reaches of the Pripyat. Their main city was Cherven. The tribal association, which arose in the habitat of the dulebs, included, in addition to the Volhynians, and the Buzhans, who were located on the banks of the Southern Bug. There is an opinion that the Volhynians and Buzhans were one tribe, and their independent names came about only due to different habitats.

As for the lands and peoples bordering on the Eastern Slavs, this picture looked like this: Finno-Ugric tribes lived in the north (Cheremis, Chud Zavolochskaya, whole, Korela, Chud), Balto-Slavic tribes lived in the north-west (Kors, Zemigola , Zhmud, Yatvingians and Prussians), in the west - Poles and Hungarians, in the southwest - Volokhi (ancestors of Romanians and Moldovans), in the east - Burtases, Mordovians related to them and Bulgarians of the Volga-Kama. Outside these lands lay "terra incognita" - an unknown land, which the Eastern Slavs learned about only after their knowledge of the world greatly expanded with the advent of a new religion in Russia - Christianity, and at the same time writing, which was the third sign of civilization .

For many centuries, the tribes of the Slavs fought among themselves. The most warlike tribe was the tribe of the Drevlyans. The name of the Drevlyans is last found in the annals under 1136, when their land was donated by the Kyiv prince. Yaropolk of the Church of the Tithes.

During the reign of Oleg in 882, the unification of the East Slavic unions of tribes began. At this time, the land of the glades (one of the tribes of the Eastern Slavs) became the core of the Old Russian statehood, which subsequently united other Eastern Slavic regions around itself. The last time the name of the glades was mentioned in the annals was in 994, after which they were replaced by the ethnonym "Rus". First, the Kyiv and Novgorod lands were united, then others were subordinated. Thus, in Ancient Russia from individual tribal principalities in the 9th century, a powerful Russian state arose with a center in Kyiv - Kievan Rus.

Being one of the largest states medieval Europe, Kievan Rus stretched from north to south from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the shores of the Black Sea, from west to east - from the Baltic and the Carpathians to the Volga. Thus, Russia historically was a contact zone between Scandinavia and Byzantium, Western Europe and the Arab East.

Features of ancient Slavic buildings

Not a single architectural monument of the pre-Christian era has come down to us: something was destroyed by time, and the main part - by people. Christians zealously destroyed everything that reminded of paganism. The architectural structures of Ancient Russia were wooden. This was explained, firstly, by building traditions, and secondly, by the fact that this material was the cheapest and was conveniently delivered to the right place along numerous waterways. Only large city cathedrals were built of stone. But from the beginning of the 12th century, stone began to be used more and more often, its own masonry traditions appeared, which distinguish each city.

According to archaeological data, until the first half of the 1st millennium AD, the ancestors of the Slavs almost did not build fortifications. Most of the villages were more than adequately protected by impenetrable forests and swamps. As historians write, the ancient tribes chose a suitable sunny slope near the shore of a river or lake - and built without much fear of external enemies.

In ancient times, the ancestors of the Slavs lived in tribal "nests", that is, small settlements, each of which was inhabited by one clan - a large family of several generations. Initially, all members of the clan - according to scientists, 50-60 people, headed by an elder - lived in one large house, which simultaneously served as a barn, warehouse, workshop, and utility room. It is clear that its area was large - about 500 square meters. However, life did not stand still: by the beginning of our era, the importance of the individual family within the clan had increased significantly, individual families began to build their own housing, so that it gradually lost the function of the main dwelling, remaining a “communal house” for meetings and joint work, and residential houses and outbuildings were located around.

The ancient pagan Slavs considered their home as a fortress protecting them from hostile spirits. To protect the house from evil spirits, a carved or scorched ornament was applied on the pediment of the house with elements meaning the rising sun, the sun at its zenith and the setting sun. It was a kind of cosmological system (macrocosmos), suggesting the continuous movement of the sun across the sky, which was opposed to otherworldly forces and reliably protected the house from their penetration. The windows were protected by platbands with the appropriate ornament. Various protective signs were placed in the courtyard - idols, broken pots with magical powers were put on fence stakes, lucky stones with a natural hole were hung (“chicken god”)

Since ancient times, wood and clay have been the main building materials for Russian architects, the main thing is that both of them were in abundance. Clay bricks, according to historians, have been widespread in Russia since the middle of the 9th century, and wood has been used as the main building material since time immemorial. It was wooden architecture that became the basis of a special style of Russian architecture, which combines the beauty and functionality of buildings.

The ax remained the main, and often the only, tool of the builder for many centuries. The fact is that the saw breaks the wood fibers during operation, leaving them open to water. The ax, crushing the fibers, seals the ends of the logs, as it were. Not without reason, they still say: "cut down the hut." Therefore, saws were used exclusively in carpentry.

If we turn to the history of Russian wooden architecture, then the largest and unique reserve of folk art is the Russian North. The unsurpassed beauty of the architectural ensemble is located near the village of Kizhi and is a unique historical territory that has no equal in the European North of Russia. Together with architectural monuments that have been preserved unchanged from the moment of construction or taken from other areas and recreated on the territory of the reserve, the Kizhi museum collection illustrates the main aspects of the traditional culture of the indigenous peoples of Karelia: Karelians, Veps, Russians.

Traces of the ancient Slavs in the modern world

The Russian people are an ethnic group with deep millennial roots, living on the same territory and having a close connection with their native land - the land of their ancestors, which, literally and figuratively, was plowed up by their hardworking hands.

The ancient Slavs were confident in the existence of powerful gods and spirits, and in order to win them over, they made sacrifices to them, dedicated songs and holidays, tried to foresee their will and not violate the prohibitions. And even when paganism in Russia was replaced by Christianity, traces of the plots of ancient Slavic mythology were preserved in the form of epics, fairy tales, riddles, patterns on traditional folk embroideries, wood carvings and many other manifestations of folk art. Many of the images generated by ancient Slavic paganism still exist, and we are so used to them that we do not even notice their unusualness.

Let us ask ourselves why it is impossible to shake hands across the threshold? Why do they break a plate at a wedding? And why, moving into new house, let the cat in first? All these customs are just from there, from our ancient Slavic pagan times. There, in this mysterious and interesting world, our worldview is rooted. And in order to better understand where we come from, to find out how the Slavs imagined their world, we will try to find traces of the ancient Slavs in the modern world.

lore

In Slavic legends, there are many magical characters - sometimes terrible and formidable, sometimes mysterious and incomprehensible, sometimes kind and ready to help. They seem to modern people a bizarre fiction, but in the old days in Russia they firmly believed that Baba Yaga’s hut was in the middle of the forest, the Serpent abducting beauties lives in the harsh stone mountains, they believed that a girl could marry a bear, and a horse could speak in a human voice .

So, there are many fairy tales about the Serpent Gorynych, who kidnaps beautiful girls and with whom heroes and heroes fight - from the epic Dobrynya Nikitich to Ivanushka the Fool. But this is also an echo of an ancient pagan myth that has survived to this day. The myth of the struggle of the thunder god Perun with his eternal enemy - the monstrous Serpent. At present, the idea has become widespread, according to which the duel of Perun with the Serpent is a Slavic version of the myth about the struggle of the heavenly horseman-hero with a serpentine enemy. The image of a spear-bearing horseman, at whose feet a snake wriggles, we can see, for example, on the modern coat of arms of Moscow and on some coins.

Behind the fence of the courtyard of an ancient Slav, a forest began. Leshy was the owner of the forest. Goblin literally means "forest". Among the ancient Slavs, Baba Yaga is powerful goddess, mistress of the forest and beasts and the realm of the dead. Her hut on chicken legs was considered a gate to the underworld, a guard outpost on the border between the world of people and the world of the dead.

The ancient Slavs believed that a brownie lived in every house. In the old days, he was affectionately called “grandfather” or “master”. The Slavs considered the mermen to be the owners of rivers and lakes. The merman was represented as a shaggy bearded old man, pot-bellied or hunchbacked. He is all overgrown with hair, covered with mud or fish scales, bulging cloudy eyes, like those of a fish, protruding ears, a nose without nostrils, thin long legs, and duck membranes between the fingers. Sometimes he pretended ordinary person and appeared in the village or in the city. By what sign could you know that it was a water one? Water constantly drips from the left side of his clothes.

In addition to the characters of higher mythology (gods and goddesses), the Slavs also inhabited their world with less significant creatures: mermaids (spirits of nature, originally living everywhere: in forests, meadows, valleys, and not just in water), banniks and other spirits, the memory of which has come down to our times.

Names

In ancient times, any Slav could name his ancestors several centuries ago and tell in detail about each of them, including the cousin of the second cousin of the brother-in-law of his great-great-grandfather. Getting acquainted and naming themselves, they always added: the son of such and such, the grandson and great-grandson of such and such. So our names, patronymics and surnames appeared.

As soon as we open the chronicle of times, we will see the names Vladimir, Yaroslav, Kazimir. But they are very common in Russia.

The names of the Slavs can tell us a lot about the nature and peculiarities of the thinking of the people: each name expresses a special attitude to the everyday life of a particular phenomenon, for example, the same glory: Vladislav, Mstislav, Miroslav, Rostislav, Yaroslav; Vsevlad (Vsevolod), Vlastimir (Vladimir), Kazimir.

Who else, besides the Slavs and Greeks, has the names of Faith, Hope, Love, testifying, together with other names, that the Slavs spoke deeply about all phases of human life, about all the bends of the soul and heart; that they were hospitable and peace-loving, but brave and courageous, loved glory and boasting, honored spiritual virtues, were devoted to faith, but at the same time they were also power-hungry. The names of the Slavs were inextricably linked with the personality, one might say, they were a kind of guardian angel of a person.

But it is worth noting that all these names were given to people "as a reward" for certain merits and, if possible, reflected the most striking qualities of the owner's character.

Holidays and customs

Holidays were an integral part of everyday life in the ancient community. They were dedicated to many natural phenomena and gods, in order to appease the gods, to achieve their patronage. What holidays of the ancient Slavs do you know?

The holiday of Kolyada, Ivan Kupala, Shrovetide were deeply revered by the people. At these festivities, the Slavs worshiped stone and wooden idols - the figures of the gods. These idols were placed in the center of a round platform with a raised middle or, conversely, with a funnel-shaped depression in the center. The site was surrounded by one or two ditches and low ramparts. Sometimes inside the shaft was fenced with a palisade. An altar was placed next to the idol. The places where idols were worshiped were called "temples" (from the Old Slavonic "drop" - an image, an idol.), And those where sacrifices were made ("requisitions") - "retreats".

The ancient Slavs had ritual dances performed at a certain time. One of these dances has survived to this day. This dance is a round dance. The dancers form a circle - a symbol of the Sun, and repeat its path through the sky. Thus, a magical rite of worship to the Sun is performed.

The Slavs also had their own original writing system, the so-called nodular writing. Her signs were not written down, but transmitted using knots tied on threads, which were wrapped in balls of books. The memory of the ancient knot writing remained in the language and folklore. We are still tying “memory knots”, talking about the “thread of the story”, “the intricacies of the plot”.

Food

Having eaten in some house, a person could count on the protection and help of the owner, but he himself no longer dared to harm him. Thus, bread and salt is nothing more than a peace treaty between hosts and guests. Bread itself was also not just food: to this day, the saying “bread is the head of everything” has not been forgotten, and children from childhood are taught to respect bread. We usually cite one reason for this: hard human labor is contained in bread. But few people remember the deep mythological roots that our views on bread have. The reverent attitude of the pagan Slavs to the earth is known. In particular, to the grain field. Bread was for the Slavs a sacred gift of the Gods. It was forbidden to hit the table with a fist: the table is God's palm!

In addition, grain requires heat treatment. And in order to cook the simplest porridge, you need to ensure the union of Fire, Water and Grain - a product of the Earth. All these three essences were deities for the Slavs, they worshiped all three. Sweet, honey-boiled porridge seasoned with berries was the oldest pagan ritual food: it carried a powerful idea of ​​fertility, victory over Death, the eternal return of Life. Is it any wonder that pagan porridge fit perfectly into pagan rituals and still lives under the name of kutya, which is treated at the wake? Is that instead of honey they now put sugar, instead of wild berries - raisins, and instead of whole wheat.

Another ancient food from time immemorial among the Slavs were pancakes. Linguistics scientists believe that the pronunciation of the word “pancake” is distorted: it was once pronounced “mlyn” and comes from the same root as “grind”, “small”, thus denoting food from ground grain. Perhaps, initially, flour or finely crushed grain was brewed with boiling water and eaten with spoons, then one day they spilled it on hot stones of the hearth and found that the new food was very tasty. In pancakes, as in porridge-kutya, the same sacred essences are contained, and among other things, a ruddy, round pancake is somewhat similar to the Sun, “dying and resurrecting” every winter. That is why pancakes are still baked on Maslenitsa, when the resurrection of the Sun, Life, and Spring is celebrated.

clothing

Clothing also played an important role in everyday life: the well-known proverb that people meet by clothes came to us from time immemorial. A thousand years ago, it was enough for our ancestors to look at the clothes of a stranger once in order to understand what locality he is from, what kind of tribe he belongs to, what his social status and “civil status” are - whether he is an adult or not, whether he was married, and so on. .

Children's clothing of the ancient Slavs was the same for girls and boys and consisted of one long, to the heel, linen shirt. The name "shirt" comes from the root "rub" - "piece, cut, piece of fabric" - and is related to the word "hack", which once also had the meaning of "cut". One must think that the history of the Slavic shirt really began in the mists of time with a simple piece of fabric, folded in half, provided with a hole for the head and fastened with a belt. The men's shirt of the ancient Slavs was about knee-length. She was always girdled. Women's shirts were usually cut to the floor (hence the "hem" comes from). They were also necessarily girded, while the lower edge most often turned out to be in the middle of the calf.

According to the ancient Slavs, it was necessary, one way or another, to secure all the necessary holes that were in ready-made clothes: collars, hem, sleeves. The embroidery, which contained all kinds of sacred images and magical symbols, served as a talisman here. The same role was played by woven belts - amulets, and many other accessories.

And here is another word for clothes - "trousers". In ancient times, it was pronounced differently - "ports". It is related to the verb "smack", that is, in Old Russian "cut". And the ancient meaning - "trousers" - has been preserved for us in the word "tailor".

At first glance, pants seem to be an integral, simply necessary part of a man's suit. However, this was not always the case. Researchers believe that this type of clothing appeared in connection with the need to ride a horse. Slavic trousers were made not too wide: on the surviving images they outline the leg. They were cut from straight panels, and a gusset was inserted between the legs - for the convenience of walking: if we neglect this detail, we would have to mince, not walk.

What were these shoes? Mostly leather, or woven from tree bark. Wooden, so common in Western Europe, the ancient Slavs did not know. At all times, our ancestors willingly put on shoes in bast shoes - “bast boots” - and, despite the name, they were often woven not only from bast, but also from birch bark and even from leather straps. The methods of weaving bast shoes - for example, in a straight cage or in an oblique, from the heel or from the toe - were different for each tribe and up to the beginning of our century varied by region. The cheapness, availability, lightness and hygiene of such shoes does not require proof. Another thing, as practice shows, bast shoes had a very short service life. In winter, they were worn in ten days, after a thaw - in four, in summer, in a bad time, - in three. Going on a long journey, they took with them more than one pair of spare bast shoes. “To go on the road - to weave five bast shoes” - the proverb said.

A "hat" was a male headdress. It can be assumed that the ancient Slavs wore a wide variety of fur, leather, felted, wicker hats. And they did not forget to take them off not only at the sight of the prince, but simply when meeting with an older, respected person - for example, with their own parents.

Little girls wore simple cloth ribbons on their foreheads. Growing up, they received "beauty" - a girl's crown. This bandage was embroidered as elegantly as possible, sometimes, with prosperity, even with gold. Another typical Slavic variety of “beauty” was a rim made of a thin (about 1 mm) metal ribbon. The width of the ribbon was usually 0.5-2.5 cm. Such rims were made of silver, less often of bronze, at the ends they arranged hooks or eyes for a lace that was tied at the back of the head. Blacksmiths decorated the rims with ornaments and gave them different shapes, including those with an extension on the forehead, like the Byzantine diadems. The headdress of a married woman certainly covered her hair completely. This custom was associated with belief in the magical power of hair. In the cold season, women of all ages covered their heads with a warm scarf.

In addition to cloth, dressed furs were a favorite and popular material for making warm clothes among the Slavs. There were many furs: fur-bearing animals were found in abundance in the forests, so, for example, bear fur, “bear”, was considered cheap and not suitable for clothes of a noble person. Russian furs enjoyed well-deserved fame both in Western Europe and in the East. In addition, the Slavs from time immemorial bred sheep, so that a warm sheepskin "casing" was available (unlike the modern "sheepskin coat") to everyone. They were sewn, as a rule, with fur inside. Ordinary people wore "naked" casings, that is, sewn with the skin outward. The rich covered them with elegant cloth on top, sometimes even Byzantine brocade - gold-woven silk.

AT modern life the raincoat has long since become an ordinary light coat for cool weather, often waterproof. A cloak in the form of a wide cloth behind the shoulders immediately suggests a "romantic" Middle Ages. Meanwhile, for our distant ancestors, it was the most familiar, everyday clothing. Indeed, a solid, thick raincoat was very good in bad weather, and if necessary served as a blanket or even a tent. The warrior, winding it around his hand, could use it as a kind of shield. Cloaks of various cuts, from different materials, were worn on weekdays and holidays by absolutely everyone: women and men, noble and humble, old and young. And the word “cloak” is originally Slavic, linguists bring it closer to “shawl”, “linen” and the adjective “flat”.

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Since the mastery of historical knowledge is the most important condition for a deep understanding of life and the prospects for its development, the purpose of my research is to study the historical roots of our ancestors.

The survey showed that only 45% of schoolchildren know about family ties between Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. And only 40% of the students correctly identified the anthropological type of the Slavs shown in the photographs, confirming the data of the ancient chroniclers that the Slavs (Russians and related peoples) are fair-haired, their hair is straight or wavy, their eyes are often blue, light, almost hairless skin, wide shoulders, manly look.

Almost all the guys (90%) know who Baba Yaga, the Serpent Gorynych, Leshy are, which indicates that since childhood we have been touching the traditions of our ancestors, getting acquainted with their customs and way of life.

What was the name of the clothes our ancestors wore? The majority (90%) of the children gave the correct answer, and here's why: the fairy tales that we read contain descriptions of the clothes of our ancestors, they are depicted in the drawings. Reading the tale about Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka, we see a shirt, pants, and a sundress.

But not all the guys know why in Russia in the old days they built wooden huts, and not stone castles, felt yurts, straw huts. I think that after my report it became clear to them that in the territory where our ancestors lived, there were dense forests and spacious plains, the tree was the most available material, which warmed, hid from the weather.

How many centuries does it take for a people to be born, formed and then dispersed throughout the wide world? Of course, not one, not two, or three, especially since we all know very well that the closer to its origins a human society, the more viscous, slower, unhurried its life, the longer all the processes within the emerging and emerging ethnic groups, tribes last. Let's not guess how many more millennia we need to delve into the past in order to find our ancestors not yet scattered over the primeval land. The main thing is that we know that the Slavs are an ancient nation and the roots of their culture go into the deep spaces of centuries.

Slavic culture was the basis for the entire European civilization. Our people now need to rely on their distant past - bright and worthy. This is the past of the people, which has no limits of antiquity, every Russian person can be proud of this past, he should know it, draw strength from it.