Taxation of tribute to Vyatichi years. Ancient Slavic peoples. Vyatichi

Vyatichi is one of the most famous and well-studied ancient Russian tribes in the archaeological plan, which made a significant contribution to the formation of the ancient Russian people.

The first mention of the Vyatichi can be found already on the very first pages of Russian chronicles. The "Tale of Bygone Years" states that "... Vyatko is gray with his family according to Otse, from whom he was nicknamed Vyatichi ..."; in an annalistic article of 6367 (859), the Vyatichi are mentioned in connection with the payment of tribute to the Khazars - “... and Kozare imahut [tribute] to the Polyanekh, and to the Severekh, and to the Vyatichi, to the imakh for white and veveritsi, and tacos from smoke."

Apparently, the Vyatichi were not included in the Old Russian state united by Prince Oleg (882), which is why they became the object of campaigns for the Grand Dukes Svyatoslav (in 964–966) and St. Vladimir (in 981). Despite the episodic tributary, the Land of the Vyatichi was not actually subordinate to the first Russian princes, later its various parts were part of the Smolensk, Chernigov, Ryazan and Rostov-Suzdal principalities.

Most often, the Vyatichi and their cities begin to appear on the pages of chronicles in the 12th century in connection with internecine wars. At the beginning - between Svyatoslav Olgovich, who was expelled from Novgorod-Seversky in 1146, and the Chernigov prince Vladimir Davydovich and the Suzdal prince Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgoruky, who acted in alliance against him. The second cycle of wars is already connected with the struggle of the princes Izyaslav Davydovich with Svyatoslav Olgovich, who became the prince of Chernigov. It was during this period that the Vyatichi lands were actively involved in the political life of the ancient Russian principalities. The first mentions of Vyatichi cities appear in the annals - Vorotynsk, Kozelsk, Kolomna, Moscow, Mtsensk, Serensk, Teshilov and others. The last chronicle mention of the Vyatichi dates back to 1197.

The burial mounds of the Upper Poochya attracted the attention of researchers as early as the 18th century, but the time had not yet come to study them. The first, first amateur, and then more and more scientific excavations carried out by A. D. Chertkov, S. D. Nechaev, A. A. Gatzuk, A. P. Bogdanov date back to 1830–1860. In the future, there was a steady accumulation of archaeological materials that originated from the territory of the settlement of ancient Russian tribes, including the Vyatichi. By the end of the XIX century. this allowed the outstanding Russian archaeologist A. A. Spitsyn to reach fundamental generalizations, reflected in his work “The Settlement of Old Russian Tribes According to Archaeological Data” (1899). Having systematized the material from numerous excavations, comparing it with information from written sources about the settlement of ancient Russian tribes, he came to the conclusion that the areas of distribution of certain sets of women's jewelry correspond to the territories of chronicle tribes. First of all, this turned out to be true for the temporal rings. Distribution zones different types temporal rings and a number of other things have become a criterion for distinguishing already on the archaeological material the territories occupied by certain tribes.

In the future, research on the archeology of the ancient Russian tribes, including the Vyatichi, deepened and expanded. In the 1930s the first monographic works devoted to individual ancient Russian tribes were published - "Barrows of the Vyatichi" by A. V. Artsikhovsky (1930), "Radimichi" by B. A. Rybakov (1932; in Belarusian). They summarized the vast archaeological material accumulated by that time. Soon a wide discussion began. So, for example, P. N. Tretyakov criticized these works, who, unlike A. A. Spitsyn, A. V. Artsikhovsky and B. A. Rybakov, saw in the indicated “communities” not tribes from the time of the Tale of Bygone Years , but "communities" corresponding to the political borders of the emerging principalities. Nevertheless, the general line of research of the ancient Russian tribes was continued - the works of B. A. Rybakov ("Glade and Northerners", 1947; "Ulichi", 1950), V. V. Sedov ("Krivichi", 1960) and a number of others.

In the book “Vyatichi Mounds”, A. V. Artsikhovsky summarized and systematized materials from excavations of burial mounds, developed a typology of clothing inventory, outlined the territory of the Vyatichi settlement based on these data, and also presented a general outline of the history of this tribe. As a result of archaeological research, it was possible to designate the territory of the settlement of the Vyatichi, including the entire basin of the upper reaches of the Oka River, Moskvorechye and Ryazan Poochye. Out of sight of A. V. Artsikhovsky remained such topics as the features of the funeral rite, economy and crafts, and the characteristics of the Vyatichi settlements. These questions were the focus of attention of the next generations of researchers. It is worth mentioning such works as “The Funeral Rite of the Vyatichi” by N. G. Nedoshivina (1974), “The Chronology of the “Vyatichi” Antiquities” by T. V. Ravdina (1975), “The Land of the Vyatichi” by T. N. Nikolskaya (1981), “Moscow land of the 9th-14th centuries. A. A. Yushko (1991); “Jewellery of the “Land of the Vyatichi” in the second half of the 11th–13th centuries” by I. E. Zaitseva and T. G. Saracheva (2011).

Currently, the most urgent problem of the archaeological study of the Upper Poochie is the question of the presence of monuments of the 9th–10th centuries, that is, those standing between the final stage of the Dyakovo culture and the monuments associated with the annalistic Vyatichi. Judging by the latest discoveries, this layer of antiquities is associated with the Romny culture. Another range of questions is related to the study of late medieval settlements and the historical topography of this time.

Issues of the history of the Land of the Vyatichi, including the problems of the formation of the medieval population of the Upper Oka basin and the nature of ethnogenetic processes throughout the entire 2nd millennium as a whole, required an integrated approach to sources, the use of not only archeological and written history data, but also the active involvement of data from other sciences - linguistics (V. N. Toporov, O. N. Trubachev, G. A. Khaburgaev, and others), physical anthropology (T. I. Alekseeva, S. G. Efimova).

The first anthropological studies of the ancient Russian population of the Oka basin belonged to the outstanding Russian anthropologist and zoologist of the 19th century. A.P. Bogdanov. His work "Materials for the Anthropology of the Kurgan Period in the Moscow Province" (1867) gave general information about the physical appearance of the population, which in historical and archaeological literature is associated with the Vyatichi tribe. In the first half of the XX century. V. V. Bunak and T. A. Trofimova turned to the study of the craniological features of the Vyatichi, who studied the groups of the ancient Russian population of the upper reaches of the Oka and its tributaries, the Dnieper and the Upper Volga region. The results of their research were published separately, and also included in the generalizing monograph by G. F. Debets "Paleoanthropology of the USSR" (1948). By the second half of the XX century. include the monumental studies of T. I. Alekseeva, devoted to the problems of the ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs according to anthropology. She noted that the Vyatichi were long-headed and had a narrow face and a rather wide, medium-protruding nose. Dividing the skulls of Old Russian time from excavations in the Oka basin into several groups, T. I. Alekseeva revealed differences between the population that lived along the river. Moscow and in the Moscow-Klyazma interfluve, on the one hand, and the eastern and western groups of Vyatichi, on the other. Populations located to the east, in the lower reaches of the river. Moscow and the Pakhra River were more narrow-faced, while the western ones, which occupied the Ugra River, were longer-headed.

Vyatichi is one of the tribal unions of the Eastern Slavs, which, according to official data, existed between the 8th and 13th centuries AD in the upper and middle reaches of the Oka. Now these are the territories of modern Tula, Orel, Ryazan, Kaluga, Moscow, Lipetsk and Smolensk regions.

Most sources agree that the name of the union came from the name of the founder of the tribe - Vyatko.

In the VIII-IX centuries, tribes led by the elder Vyatko came to the interfluve of the Volga and Oka and to the upper Don. The chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" writes on this occasion: "And Vyatko is gray with his family according to Otse, from whom they are called Vyatichi." A map of the settlement of the Vyatichi in the 11th century can be viewed on the map.

Vyatichi life

The territory where the Vyatichi once lived was covered with impenetrable forests in the 12th century. There is even this story:

In 1175, during a princely feud, two troops marching against each other (one from Moscow, the other from Vladimir) got lost in the thickets and missed each other without a fight.

So, among these dense forests, the Vyatichi settled. They settled near rivers. And there are at least a few reasons for this:

• the river is a source of food;
• trade waterway - one of the most reliable, at that time.

The Vyatichi, however, like other Slavic tribes, built small (usually 4 by 4 meters) semi-dugouts for housing (a dwelling dug in the ground, lined with wood from the inside and having a gable roof, which slightly rose above the ground and was covered with turf).

A little later, the Slavs began to build log houses (sometimes even two floors), which, in addition to their main function, also performed a protective function. Outbuildings (sheds, cellars, barns) and, of course, cattle pens were located in the yards of such houses. All the houses in the settlement were turned "facing the water".

Archaeological excavations in the land of the Vyatichi have opened numerous craft workshops of metallurgists, blacksmiths, metalworkers, jewelers, potters, stone cutters. Metallurgy was based on local raw materials - swamp and meadow ores, as everywhere in Russia. Iron was processed in forges, where special forges with a diameter of about 60 cm were used. Jewelery reached a high level among the Vyatichi people. The collection of casting molds found in our area is second only to Kiev: 19 foundry molds were found in one place called Serensk. Craftsmen made bracelets, rings, temporal rings, crosses, amulets, etc.

Rings found in the Vorotyn settlement on the Ressa River

The family nest of the Vyatichi in Russia was considered the city of Kozelsk.

Vyatichi conducted a brisk trade. Trade relations have been established with the Arab world, they walked along the Oka and the Volga, as well as along the Don and further along the Volga and the Caspian Sea. At the beginning of the 11th century, trade was established with Western Europe, from where handicrafts came.

Freedom-loving tribe of Vyatichi

Vyatichi settled in a fertile land, achieved certain success in the craft and agriculture, actively traded with their neighbors, and all this naturally contributed to population growth.

Until the 12th century, there is no mention of their city in the annals. This, of course, is not such a mystery - the Vyatichi lived very, very apart. But back to the 12th century.

1146-1147 years - another round in the history of civil strife. This time the dispute between themselves was conducted by two princely dynasties: Monomakhovichi and Svyatoslavichi. Naturally, the war did not pass the territory where the Vyatichi lived. And where there are princes and wars, there are chroniclers. So the names of ancient Slavic cities began to flicker in the annals

The Tale of Bygone Years tells us about an alleged military clash in 964 by Prince Svyatoslav with Vyatichi: "Vyatichi defeat Svyatoslav and pay tribute to him ...".

In fact, there was no war, just Svyatoslav was preparing an attack on the Khazars, secretly gathering an army from loyal tribes all winter, from where his frightening expression sounded in the spring: “I’m going to you!”. It was the Ryazan land that became the stronghold of Svyatoslav's victories, where he enlisted the support of the Magi, receiving from them the ancient Aryan knowledge and the highest initiation.

After the insidious murder of Svyatoslav at the Dnieper rapids, the Vyatichi did not recognize the power of the traitor Sveneld. The same chronicle speaks of the new conquest of Aryan Rus by Kiev, in 981, by Prince Vladimir: “Vyatichi win and put tribute on me from the plow, like his father imache ...”.

The annals also mention that a year later, Prince Vladimir had to pacify the Vyatichi for the second time: “Zaratisha Vyatichi and going to Volodymyr and I won the second ...”.

And here it seems that it was not just the indignation of the Vyatichi alone, but also of their relatives - the Severyans and the Radimichs. The defeat of the Radimichs in 984 is also mentioned in the annals: “Ide Volodymyr to the Radimichs. If he had a governor Volchiy Khvost and ambassador Volodymyr in front of him Volchiy Khvost, I will eat on the Pischan River, and defeat Radimich Volchiy Khvost. That and Russia are reproached by the Radimichs, saying: "The pishchantsy of the wolf's tail are running around." Bysha Radimich from the kind of Lyakhs, having come to this place and paying tribute to Russia ... ".

These clashes described in the annals were not any war of the Kiev prince with the Vyatichi, Radimich and Severtsy, but there are only border conflicts that happened between neighbors, especially since the Kyiv land was not "Rus" and even more so called. The concept of " Kievan Rus" was born in scientific circles much later, somewhere in the 18th century (thanks to "our German scientists" who made up the history of Russia).

Religion

The Vyatichi were pagans and for a long time retained the ancient faith. Among the Vyatichi, the main god was Stribog (“Old God”), who created the universe, the Earth, all gods, people, plant and animal world. It was he who gave people blacksmith tongs, taught them how to smelt copper and iron, and also established the first laws.

In addition, they worshiped Yarila, the god of the Sun, who travels across the sky in a wonderful chariot harnessed by four white, golden-maned horses with golden wings.

Every year on June 23, the holiday of Kupala, the god of earthly fruits, was celebrated, when the sun gives the greatest strength to plants and gathered medicinal herbs. The Vyatichi believed that on the night of Kupala, trees move from place to place and talk to each other with the noise of branches, and whoever has a fern with him can understand the language of each creation.

Lel, the god of love, who appeared in the world every spring, was especially revered among young people in order to unlock the bowels of the earth with his keys-flowers for the lush growth of grasses, bushes and trees, for the triumph of the all-conquering power of Love. The goddess Lada, the patroness of marriage and family, was sung by the Vyatichi people.

In addition, the Vyatichi worshiped the forces of nature. So, they believed in the goblin - the owner of the forest, a wild creature that was taller than any tall tree.

Archaeological evidence of the Vyatichi

On the Tula land, as well as in the neighboring regions - Oryol, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan - groups of mounds are known, and in some cases investigated - the remains of pagan cemeteries of the ancient Vyatichi. The mounds near the village of Zapadnaya and s. Dobrogo Suvorovsky district, near the village of Triznovo, Shchekino district.


During the excavations, the remains of cremations were found, sometimes several of different times. In some cases they are placed in an earthenware urn, in others they are stacked on a cleared area with an annular ditch. Burial chambers were found in a number of burial mounds - wooden log cabins with a plank floor and a covering of split limbs. The entrance to such a domina - a collective tomb - was laid with stones or boards, and therefore could be opened for subsequent burials. In other burial mounds, including those nearby, there are no such structures.

Establishing the features of the funeral rite, ceramics and things found during excavations, their comparison with other materials helps to at least to some extent compensate for the extreme scarcity of written information that has come down to us about the local population of that distant time, about the ancient history of our region. Archaeological materials confirm the information of the chronicle about the connections of the local Vyatichi, Slavic tribe with other kindred tribes and tribal unions, about the long-term preservation of old tribal traditions and customs in the life and culture of the local population.

Sanctuaries of the Vyatichi

Dedilovo village (formerly Dedilovskaya Sloboda) - the remains of the sacred city of the Vyatichi Dedoslavl on the Shivoron River (a tributary of the Upa), 30 km. southeast of Tula. [B.A. Rybakov, Kievan Rus and Russian principalities of the 12th-13th centuries, M., 1993]

Venevsky toponymic node - 10-15 km from Venev in the South-Eastern sector; settlements of Dedilovskie settlements, settlements of Terebush, settlements of Gorodenets.

How did the history of the Vyatichi tribe end?

The Vyatichi tribes for a long time resisted the invasion of the Kiev princes and, most importantly, the new religion that they carried. It is known about the uprising of Khodota with his son, which took place in 1066. Vladimir Monomakh goes to pacify them. His first two campaigns ended in nothing. The squad passed through the forests without meeting the enemy. Only during the third campaign Monomakh overtook and defeated the Khodota forest army, but his leader managed to escape.

Since the XII century, the territory of the Vyatichi became part of the Chernigov, Rostov-Suzdal and Ryazan principalities. Until the end of the 13th century, the Vyatichi retained many pagan rituals and traditions, in particular, they cremated the dead, erecting small mounds over the burial place. After Christianity took root among the Vyatichi, the rite of cremation gradually went out of use.

In the future, feeling the pressure of Kyiv, some freedom-loving families of the Vyatichi went further to the North, beyond the Urals, to Siberia. Nestor in his chronicle says the following: "Radimichi and Vyatichi, and Severo are the same customs of the imakh ...".

Vyatichi retained their tribal name longer than other Slavs. They lived without princes, the social structure was characterized by self-government and democracy. AT last time Vyatichi are mentioned in chronicles under such a tribal name in 1197.

The most extreme Slavic tribe in the east in the 9th century. are Vyatichi. As is known, a curious legend was preserved by the chronicler about the origin of the Vyatichi and their neighbors Radimichi, from which it is concluded that these tribes, separated from the Lyakh family, took their places much later than other Slavs and that the memory of their movement was preserved among the people as far back as the 11th century. to the East. Vyatichi occupied upstream Oki, and thus came into contact with the Mere and Mordovians, who, apparently, moved north without much struggle. There could hardly be serious reasons for a collision with aliens with a huge amount of empty lands and with the insignificance household at the Finns. In addition, the Finnish tribe itself, poorly gifted by nature, with a clear lack of energy, due to an unchanging historical law, had to retreat everywhere in front of a more developed breed. It is difficult to draw boundaries between the Meshchera and its new neighbors; approximately we can say that the villages of the Vyatichi in the first centuries of our history extended to the Lopasna River in the north and to the upper reaches of the Don in the east.

With few, but very bright colors, Nestor depicts the pagan life of some Slavic tribes. “And Radimichi, and Vyatichi, and the north have one custom for the name: I live in the forest, like any beast, eating everything is unclean, shame in them before the father and before the daughters-in-law; Brothers have never been in them, but the games between the villages. I look like games, dances, and all demonic games, and that wife’s sly, who is talking with her; the name of the same two and three wives. If someone dies, I will create a funeral feast over him, and according to this creation I will put a great and warm and on the dead man's hoard, I will burn it, and then I will collect the bones, I will put it in a small vessel and put it on a pillar on the tracks, which the Vyatichi are doing now. Judging by the first words, the mentioned tribes had neither agriculture nor household. But it is further seen that they lived in villages and had rather definite customs or rites regarding marriage and burial; and such a circumstance already presupposes a certain degree of religious development and points to the beginnings of social life. However, it is difficult to decide how Nestor's words actually applied to the Vyatichi people of the 9th century, because one can hardly equate them with the northerners who settled in their places much earlier and lived in the neighborhood of the Greek waterway. It is clear, at least, that the Vyatichi in those days were the wildest tribe among the Eastern Slavs: remote from the two main centers of Russian citizenship, they left tribal life later than others, so that Russian cities are mentioned among them no earlier than the 12th century.

The movement of the Radimichi and Vyatichi, apparently, stopped the settlement of the Slavic tribes in Russia: they cease to occupy the land in more or less dense masses and move the dwellings of the Finns further to the north and east. The latter could now calmly remain in their places; but already forever had to submit to the influence of their neighbors. Slowly and tautly the Finnish tribe is imbued with the Slavic element; but the more surely and deeper it takes root. The conductor of this irresistible influence in our country, as elsewhere, was the system of military or princely colonization, the beginning of which coincides with the beginning of Russian history. Slavic-Russian colonization goes partly from Novgorod to the east along the great Volga route and reaches the lower reaches of the Oka. It is known that the youth of Novgorod have long traveled along the rivers to distant countries with a dual purpose - robbery and trade. It was these campaigns that paved the way for Slavic influence in the Finnish northeast. With the movement of the Slavic element from Novgorod along the Volga, another movement from southwestern Russia along the Oka meets. According to the initial chronicle, in 964 Svyatoslav goes to the Oka and the Volga, comes to the Vyatichi people and asks them, as usual: “To whom are you giving tribute?” They answer: "We give the goats a shelyag from the ral." Then Svyatoslav turns to the goats and smashes their kingdom. The Vyatichi, however, do not agree to voluntarily pay tribute to him, as the chronicler's message under 966 shows: "Vyatichi defeat Svyatoslav, and pay tribute to them."

The dependence of the Radimichi and Vyatichi on the Russian princes probably ceased during Svyatoslav's stay in Bulgaria, and his son Vladimir, having strengthened himself on the Kiev table, had to enter into a new struggle with the warlike tribes. It was in 981 that Vladimir "Vyatichi win, and pay tribute from the plow, just like his father imache." But this business did not end: next year, again, the news: “Zaratishi Vyatichi, and Vladimir came to me, and won the second.” In 9888, he fights with the Radimichi, whom Wolf's Tail defeats. In this case, the chronicler once again recalls that the Radimichi (and, consequently, the Vyatichi) were from the Lyakhs: “when they come to that place, they pay tribute to Russia, they lead the wagon to this day,” he adds, generally showing them an obvious dislike. This reluctance is very understandable if we recall that among the Vyatichi, and probably partly among the Radimichi, in his time paganism still existed in full force.

With the subordination of the Vyatichi to the Kiev princes, the upper reaches of the Oka became part of the Russian possessions. The mouths of this river belonged to them even before, therefore, the middle course could no longer remain outside the boundaries of the nascent state, especially since the small native population was not able to offer significant resistance to the Russian princes. The chronicle does not even mention the conquest of Meshchera, which is itself implied during Vladimir's campaigns to the northeast. His successors in the 11th century calmly pass with their squads through the Meshchersky lands and wage internecine wars here, not paying attention to the poor inhabitants. Near the confluence of the Volga and Oka, the further movement of Russian domination had to stop for a while: an obstacle was the rather strong state of the Bulgarians at that time. In addition to hostile clashes, the Kama Bulgars were familiar to the Russian princes through relations of a different kind. They then served as active intermediaries in trade between Muslim Asia and Eastern Europe. Bulgarian merchants traveled with their goods up the Volga to the country of Ves; and through the Mordovian land, therefore, along the Oka, they went to southwestern Russia and went to Kyiv. The news of the Arab writers is confirmed by the story of our chronicler about the Mohammedan preachers at Vladimir and the trade agreement between the Russians and the Bulgarians during his reign. If the successful campaigns of St. prince on the Kama Bulgarians and did not crush this barrier to the spread of Russian influence down the Volga, but finally secured the entire Oka system to him. But the principles of civic consciousness did not soon penetrate into this wilderness; the first city is mentioned here after a whole century.

When Vladimir distributed cities to his sons, the Murom land went to Gleb. It is remarkable at the same time that he did not appoint anyone to the country of the Vyatichi and Radimichi. This circumstance is explained by the lack of cities at that time to the northeast from the Desna to the very lower reaches of the Oka. The northern half of this space, i.e. the Ryazan lands proper, was included in the Murom principality; and the southern steppe strip was connected with the Tmutrakan principality. After the Battle of Listven, Mstislav, the first specific prince of Tmutrakansky, united both parts in his hands.

Academician O.N. Trubachev

History caught Vyatichi in the position of the most extreme Slavic tribe in the east [ Ilovaisky D.I. History of the Ryazan principality. M., 1858, p. eight.]. Already our first famous chronicler Nestor in The Tale of Bygone Years(Monuments of literature of ancient Russia. XI - beginning of the XII century) characterizes them as extremely backward and wild people living like animals in the forest, eating everything unclean, speaking foul language, not ashamed of the parents and women of the family, and, of course, not Christians. Some of this negative picture probably corresponded to the then reality of the beginning of the XII century, and something turned out to be an outright exaggeration at that time, speaking in the language of the present - political propaganda [ Nikolskaya T.N. Land of the Vyatichi. To the history of the population of the basin of the Upper and Middle Oka in the 9th - 13th centuries. M., 1981, p. ten.].

The Monk Nestor was a Kiev glade , and the Vyatichi, who did not immediately submit to Kiev, deserved such an assessment in his eyes. We now, after the lapse of centuries, look at things differently, more calmly, much has outlived time, although - who knows, maybe not all. It is with the Vyatichi that a number of contradictions or paradoxes, known or less known, are associated. Already one of the first historians is ready, based on the testimony of Nestor, admit that they did not have agriculture, but immediately after this false statement on the basis of chronicle data mentions on the payment of tribute by the Vyatichi to Svyatoslav and Vladimir , that is, enough early time, "on a shelyag from a plow" concludes that the Vyatichi knew agriculture [Ilovaisky D.I. History of the Ryazan principality. M., 1858, pp. 9-12].

And this tendency judge Vyatichi in the spirit of paradoxes, which is curious, preserved by historians down to our time, prompting us to look at these Vyatichi as the most Russian of the tribes - this judgment, as we shall see below, is also quite paradoxical. Our most prominent historian, acad. M.N. Tikhomirov, in his book "Old Russian Cities" talking about "deaf land of the Vyatichi" in order to acknowledge a little further that "in the middle of the XII century, the country of the Vyatichi was not at all as deaf as it is usually imagined, but filled with towns."[Tikhomirov M.N. Ancient Russian cities. Ed. 2nd. M., 1956, p. 12, 32].

By the way, everything is in the same paradoxical spirit - about "towns" or Vyatichi cities , about which one can allegedly speak of "not earlier than the XII century", but in the same In the 12th century, the Vyatichi suddenly turned out to have an amazingly large number of cities [Ilovaisky D.I. History of the Ryazan principality. M., 1858, p. 9 and 50]. It seems that in addition to persistent biased judgments this discrepancy is also due to the lack of information, and we have reason to believe the latest historian-archaeologist, when he speaks of the flourishing of urban culture on the middle Oka, where the Vyatichi region also extended already from the 11th century . [Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 255.]. Is it possible to continue talking about backwardness the Vyatichi, who held lands along the Oka, through which the most important eastern trade route ran from an early time, forerunner of the notorious the way "from the Varangians to the Greeks" ? [Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 255.]

And, finally, it was by no means “backwardness” that attracted the Kiev princes in the Vyatichi, in particular such a victorious conqueror as Svyatoslav; the seriousness of his plans for conquest illustrates a miniature from the Radzivilov Chronicle under the year 964: Prince Svyatoslav receives the defeated Vyatichi, sitting on the throne.[Rybakov B.A. Kievan Rus and Russian principalities of the 12th - 13th centuries. M., 1982, p. 102].

It is also useful to bear in mind that which, probably, attracted attention in early centuries Russian history - tribal identity of the Vyatichi which they preserved "longer than other East Slavic tribes" [Tretyakov P.N. East Slavic tribes. M., 1953, p. 241; Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 254].

Further more. It is known that Russian tribes - aliens in the main land of its habitat, in East European, otherwise - Russian, plain. What is remarkable about Vyatichi is that they are, as it were, pure aliens. The arrival of the Vyatichi to the Russian Plain took place, if not quite before the eyes of written history, then nevertheless in the memory of the tribes already settled around, and it is usually reported that where did the Vyatichi come from with the Radimichi , according to the wording of the initial Russian chronicle - "from the Poles." And it really has "seed of truth" [Lyapushkin I.I. Slavs of Eastern Europe on the eve of the formation of the Old Russian state in the VIII - the first half of the IX century.) L., 1968, p. thirteen.]. In contrast to the ancient discourses, tendentious in their very essence, about backwardness and "savagery “The information about the place of the exodus of the Vyatichi did not promise any self-interest or political reason. For us, these are priceless crumbs of ancient knowledge, although we are not going to use them with straightforwardness. Shakhmatova, since the great scientist associated supposedly Polish features in the language of the Eastern Slavs with the Vyatichi [ Shakhmatov A.A. Feature article ancient period history of the Russian language // Encyclopedia of Slavic Philology. Pg., 1915 (Issue 11.1), p. XIX].

But about the language - later, as agreed, although in general the "Polish" reputation of the Vyatichi is also one of the old traditions, or paradoxes of science, because, as one of our first historians writes: "Vyatichi - Sarmatians, possessed by the Slavs along the Oka ... «[ Tatishchev V.N. Russian history. T. I. M.-L., 1962, p. 248]. At the same time, you just need to keep in mind that old Polish scholarship willingly identified the Poles with the Sarmatians, although it is known that the Sarmatians are ancient Iranians! It is clear that we are talking about very old events and their participants, where does this excusable mythology come from.

Too early Vyatichi were mentioned in our writing, them participation in the campaign of Prince Oleg in Byzantium is listed under the year 907 [Ryazan encyclopedia. Ryazan, 1995, p. 126 ff., 674]. I.e over a thousand years ago , but this, of course, is not the limit, not terminus post quem, because archeology confidently judges the earlier appearance of the Vyatichi on the Russian Plain.

It is appropriate to briefly about the tribal name Vyatichi , since the boundary linguistic discipline of onomastics habitually appears among historical arguments. In general, it is obvious that Vyatichi - from the west, but neither in the Slavic West nor in the South is there such an ethnonym, and despite the fact that the recurrence of ethnonyms is a well-known phenomenon among the Slavs, it is enough to name the glades of Kiev and Polish glades. Before us is another plus one paradox associated with the Vyatichi.

The Chronicle also suggests the right way here: Vyatichi are nicknamed after a certain leader (leader), referred to as Vyatko[Fasmer M. Etymological dictionary Russian language in 4 volumes. Translation from German and additions by O.N. Trubachev. Ed. 3rd, T. I. St. Petersburg, 1996, p. 376]. Name Vyatko is a diminutive form of a personal name Vyacheslav, prasl. *vętjeslavъ , cf. Czech Vaclav , that is, exclusively West Slavic name . So, although not quite usual, the western source of the ethnonym Vyatichi turned out to be documented, among them - the form V(a)ntit , the name of the people and region in eastern sources 10th century [Rybakov B.A. Kievan Rus and Russian principalities of the 12th - 13th centuries. M., 1982, p. 215, 259.], which makes it possible to judge the form in which the name of the Vyatichi appeared until the 10th century inclusive, when it was subjected to a common fall of the nasals among the Eastern Slavs). It makes no sense to etymologically associate *vętitje - Vyatichi - with the Venedi-Veneti, much less with the Ants, both of them are alien alloethnonyms for the Slavs, despite the popularity of such experiments. Before us is a case where ancient tribe initially at all no tribal name was content with the designations "we", "our", "ours" , up to the moment of personal union with a daredevil named Vyatko who led them …

In general, on the very eve of our written history of Poochie , which became the main region Vyatichi, took "different streams of Slavic colonization", which both complicates our problem and makes it attractive for knowledge. [ Mongait A. L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 66] V.V. Sedov speaks directly about the multi-act Slavic development of the East European Plain [ Sedov V.V. Ancient Russian people. Historical and archaeological research. M., 1999, p. 7].

It is possible to outline this multi-activity in advance, at least for our region Vyatichi : Middle Dnieper Slavs, Vyatichi Slavs from your more distant southwest and Don Slavs, found themselves there, on the Upper Don, in turn, as a result of some kind of resettlement. It is believed that the Slavic population appeared in the Oka basin, especially in its upper reaches, in the VIII - IX centuries .[Nikolskaya T.N. Land of the Vyatichi. To the history of the population of the basin of the Upper and Middle Oka in the 9th - 13th centuries. M., 1981, p. 12; Sedov V.V. East Slavs in the VI - XIII centuries. M., 1982, p. 148] The Slavic population, having met here the tribes of the Baltic affiliation, may golyad (dr.-Russian .), which name characterized the local Balts also as "Ukrainian", "outlying" (lit. galindai, Galinda: galas - "end" ). However, the places were quite deserted, there was enough for everyone, even though archeology tends to push back, make ancient the arrival of the Slavs, the first groups on the upper Oka - already in the IV - V centuries. (!), and in Ryazan (middle) Poochie - in the VI - VII centuries. [Sedov V.V. Ancient Russian people. Historical and archaeological research. M., 1999, p. 58, 251].

Obviously, those contacts with the Balts gave the new Slavs the name of the rivers - Oka , along with its emphasis in the spirit of the Fortunatov-de Saussure law (transfer from a short, circumflex vowel root to an acute longitude of the ending). Wed Latvian. aka - "well", lit. akas - "polynya", akis - "eye"; "not overgrown water in the swamp", "small bog" [Fasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language in 4 volumes. translation by O.N. Trubachev. Ed. 3rd, Vol. III. SPb., 1996, p. 127]. Judging by the semantics of the Baltic prototype, this name could be given the upper reaches, the source of the Oka, and by no means the middle or lower reaches of this great river.

Apparently in the upper reaches of the Oka, the beginning of the later region of the Vyatichi was laid, for the core of the Vyatichi is called the Upper Oka group of Slavs, archaeologically attributed to the VIII - X centuries. Sedov V.V. Ancient Russian people. Historical and archaeological research. M., 1999, p. 81].

However, and Upper Don (Borshevsky) Slavs of the VIII - X centuries. , migrated en masse to the middle Oka in the 10th century, too classed as Vyatichi [Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 81, 85, 124]. The multi-act nature of the arrival of the Slavs known to us is exacerbated by widespread infiltration from the Danube region in the VIII - IX centuries, moreover, the realities and routes are very reminiscent of what it is known about the Vyatichi, where we are talking about the prototypes of seven-bladed - Vyatichi - pendants that came here from the Danube through Mazowsze. [Sedov V.V. Ancient Russian people. Historical and archaeological research. M., 1999, p. 145, 149, 183, 188, 195.]

Approaching us gradually from the depths of centuries, the Vyatichi acquire features that bring them closer to both modern settlement and the population of European Russia. So, in some chronicles Vyatichi are already identified with the Ryazans [Kuzmin A.G. Ryazan Chronicle. Information about Ryazan and Murom until the middle of the 16th century. M., 1965, p. 56]. The areas also match. “The entire Ryazan “regional” territory known to us was Vyatichi in terms of the composition of the Slavic population” [Nasonov A.N."Russian land" and the formation of the territory of the ancient Russian state. Historical and geographical research. M.. 1951, p. 213].

With some amendments and additions: the Kursk-Oryol lands also belong to the Vyatichi region [Kotkov S.I. Dialects of the Oryol region (phonetics and morphology). Dis. … doc. philol. n. T. I - II. M., 1951, p. 12.]. With regard to the continuity of settlement, it is important to keep in mind the popularity views of the past , the essence of which was that the steppe side, which approached the Ryazan side from the south, and in general the wide expanses of the South and Southeast, were completely depopulated and emptied in the course of certain events that shook these places before and more often than the more protected forest side. But the absoluteness of these views has long raised doubts and was gradually refuted by the history of the language and onomastics of this periphery, which preserved surprisingly ancient formations.

However, the deprivation of fate still did not bypass the land of the Vyatichi, if we touch on the issue of continuing the Cyril and Methodius traditions of Slavic writing. We are waiting for a unanimously negative answer: “The Ryazan chronicles have not reached us” [Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. nine.]; " Nothing has survived from the writing of the vast Ryazan and Chernigov lands «[ Filin F.P. Origin of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages. Historical and dialectological essay. L., 1972, p. 89.]; Ryazan chronicles existed (but did not reach) [ Darkevich V.P. Journey to Ancient Ryazan. Notes of an archaeologist. Ryazan, 1993, p. 136]. However, this should not be surprising if you think about it the tragic role of an outpost, which was destined to play the Vyatka land.

In a relationship preservation of writing all other ancient Russian lands are richer and more prosperous - Kyiv, Galician, Pskov-Novgorod, Rostov-Suzdal and others. Therefore, the surviving information about lower literacy, which - against the background of the aforementioned impoverishment - suddenly discovers the Ryazan, Vyatichi land from the most ancient time, but about it - a little lower when it comes to culture.

The nature of the Vyatichi dwellings additionally distinguishes them as the original southerners - they settled in dugouts and semi-dugouts, like the Danubian Slavs, like the “Slavins” of Jordan and finally, how, apparently, more Proto-Slavs. They say that this sign should not be exaggerated, it is due to the geographical habitat; However, it is important to note the presence among the Vyatichi on the Upper and Middle Oka semi-dugouts, and to the north, including Krivichi, - ground log buildings (houses), adding that the border between the more northern hut and the more southern hut lay somewhere here, along river Pre. [Tretyakov P.N. East Slavic tribes. Second edition, revised and expanded. M., 1953, p. 197, 198; Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 127; Lyapushkin I.I. Slavs of Eastern Europe on the eve of the formation of the Old Russian state (VIII - first half of the IX century) L., 1968, p. 120].

In this situation, we are left with to judge the culture of life and the spirit of the Vyatichi according to those traces and remains that the fossil gives, archaeological culture, the Vyatichi farmers are obviously not rich. Yet, thanks to the work of our archaeologists, we learn a surprising amount here. And here we are in for, perhaps, one of the most paradoxical surprises: Vyatichi women wore unusually elegant seven-lobed temporal rings, which are consistently characteristic of the Vyatichi region[Sedov V.V. Eastern Slavs in the VI - XIII centuries. M., 1982, p. 143]. They are also looking for analogues in the East, but we are more impressed - in the general ensemble of known data - by Western prototypes, briefly mentioned above as well.

More ancient Vyatka women had lamellar bent-end bracelets of the Western European type. [Nikolskaya T.N. Land of the Vyatichi. To the history of the population of the basin of the Upper and Middle Oka in the 9th - 13th centuries. M., 1981, p. 100, 113]. An enviable following of fashion, especially when you consider that we are talking about the "deaf land"!

talking about Vyatichi, then - about Ryazan women, it is impossible not to recall the habit that is still alive wearing poneva, especially since, as noted, “The range of the blue checkered ponyova coincides with the distribution area of ​​the Vyatichi seven-lobed temporal rings…«[ Osipova E.P. Names of clothes in Ryazan dialects. Dis. cand. philol. n. M., 1999, p. 72.]. You can further remember about the specificity of the poneva - a kind of skirt for the Great Russian South, a sundress - for the Great Russian North , but let's say right away, running a little ahead, that the named opposition turns out to be historically inappropriate, since "Northern Great Russian" sundress came also from the south and in general it is later borrowing from Persian and late form (cf. -f-! ) and originally did not mean women's clothing ... It remains only poneva / ponka with its reduced dialect level, but bright, still proto-linguistic antiquity (Pra-Slavic *pon'a), no less than that of Ukrainian. plakhta (pra-Slav *rlakhta, plat), designation of archaic straight cut, in fact - a piece of fabric which is etymologically confirmed. Wed curious analogy[ Tretyakov P.N. East Slavic tribes. Edition 2. M., 1953, p. 197]: “Ethnographic data show that in Danube Bulgaria has a special type of women's national costume, almost never found in other parts of the peninsula, finding its closest analogies in the Ukrainian national dress, which belongs to "plakhta", or the clothes of the Great Russians of Kursk and Oryol regions, where "poneva" and special kind apron«.

It is natural that all life on the ocean Completely changed when I got there. Christianity. It is also true that Christianity emerged as an urban culture [Ilovaisky D.I. History of the Ryazan principality. M., 1858, p. 32] X Christianity on the Oka appeared somewhat later than the rest of Russia, yet Christianization was greatly facilitated by the presence a significant number of ancient Ryazan cities known from the 11th to the 13th centuries: chronicles are mentioned during this time as Ryazan cities (and villages) Kolomna, Rostislavl, Sturgeon, Borisov-Glebov, Solotcha, Olgov, Opakov, Kazar, Pereyaslavl, Ryazan, Dobry Sot, Belgorod, Novy Olgov, Isady, Voino, Pronsk, Dubok, Voronezh, and according to the Nikon chronicle, Ryazan cities also include Kadom, Teshilov, Koltesk, Mtsensk, Yelets, Tula. And this, of course, is not all, cities are mentioned in other sources Izheslavets, Verderev, Ozhsk. [Ryazan encyclopedia. Ryazan, 1995, p. 98, 126, 183, 388]. Of course, even in antiquity, obviously, there were very often villages rather than cities in the full sense of the word. In addition, some of them withered and turned into villages, like a village with glorious name Vyshgorod, on the Oka like, in the end, the same Ryazan (Old), the former capital of the principality. Some of these city-villages were literally forgotten by history, never coming into the field of view of the chronicler.

This is what the experts say about two cities of Vyatichi wearing ancient name Przemysl - on the Oka in the Kaluga region, and on the river Mocha in the Moscow region. [Nikolskaya T.N. Land of the Vyatichi. To the history of the population of the basin of the Upper and Middle Oka in the 9th - 13th centuries. M., 1981, p. 157 ff.]. The nomenclature itself in this case leads us back to ancient Russian-Polish borderland, where the city of Przemysl is still known, it is also in Polish Przemysl, now within Poland, thus returning us to the "Vyatichi route", as we understand it.

The transfer of city names in the Ryazan land associated with migration is known from the relatively close south, from the middle Dnieper, Kiev region, the land of the glades . Here we are dealing with the repetition of entire toponymic hydronymic ensembles, take at least this repetition within the city Pereyaslavl Ryazansky (present-day Ryazan) - Pereyaslavl - Trubezh - Lybid - Danube / Dunaets, which is invariably mentioned by all who wrote about these places [ Smolitskaya T.P. Hydronymy of the Oka basin (list of rivers and lakes). M., 1976, passim; Tikhomirov M.N. Ancient Russian cities. Ed. 2nd. M., 1956, p. 434]. True, not everything is simple and unambiguous with these names, in any case, those of them that bear the stamp of more distant connections and arrival / transfer from the farther South and / Dunaets, pointing through the Polish territory and local milestones like Dunajec, tributary of the upper Vistula to the great river in Central Europe, and Vyshgorod, also detecting, in addition to Kiev, Dnieper, - the Danube prototype. Relatively Danai, Lybid see "Etymological dictionary ...", another Western association - Vislitsa in the middle Poochie.

The southern, southeastern territories of the Vyatichi still remain a huge problem, the maximum expansion of which fell on the pre-written, “dark” ages, which are mainly concerned with the reconstruction in the work of Shakhmatov and several other scientists, covered by the concept "Priazovskaya" or , which for some reason the whole subsequent generations hastened to archive. The point is not only that from the 11th century, the “torn path” was cut from the Oka along the Don to Tauris [Ilovaisky D.I. History of the Ryazan principality. M., 1858, p. 123]. The fact is that the space of the Russian language and the tribe was really different , and Tmutarakan as a distant southern outpost objectively testifies to this . Only on this path we are still, perhaps, able to catch up and understand a lot, including And instead of this, history is content only with reality wild field and studiously avoids reconstructing even the most obvious.

From antiquities much earlier than the 10th century , connected in the first place Vyatka, Ryazan Rus and Russian Tmutarakan on the Taman Peninsula, let's call here the Bosporus coins of the 3rd - 4th centuries. n. e. in archaeological excavations at the site of Old Ryazan moreover, perhaps, the identity of semantic tracing established between the ancient Russian name of the city Slavyansk-on-Kuban - Kopyl, apparently meaning not only "support", but also "sprout" , and recoverable Indo-Aryan (Sindo-Meotian) the name of approximately the same places - * utkanda, - "process" , very eloquent in my eyes. [ Trubachev O.N. Indoarica in the Northern Black Sea region. Reconstruction of language relics. Etymological dictionary. M., 1999, p. 286].
All of the above, including this bright, in my opinion, example " Indo-Aryan dawns on the Kuban farm" , was intended to show a fairly clear binding of another of Vyatka-Ryazan paradoxes as in the brilliant stage growth of the Russian lands in the South-East (“O Russian land, you are already behind the shelomzhnem!” - “... beyond the strait "," The Tale of Igor's Campaign"), and at the stage of subsequent bitter losses, calling " look for the city of Darkness «.

Russia remembered this connection between Ryazan and Tmutarakan [Ilovaisky D.I. History of the Ryazan principality. M., 1858, p. fourteen; Tatishchev V.N. Russian history. T. I. M.-L., 1962, p. 249] and, moreover, very clearly: "Tmutorokan ..., now the Rezan pravintsy" . Of course, with options: Tmutarakan - Chernihiv city. [Tikhomirov M.N. Ancient Russian cities. Ed. 2nd. M., 1956, p. 351]. Of course, we must not forget about participation in all this. Seversky land , although not with the same degree of sovereignty.

Returning to the history of culture, we observe, albeit the only, but curious a repetition of the Vyatichi-Ryazan paradox is the absence of writing in the presence of early grassroots and everyday literacy, again in Tmutarakan, where did this only ancient stationery come from? an inscription on a stone of the 11th century that Prince Gleb measured the sea "on the ice from Tmutorokan to Korchev" (Kerch) ... This epigraphic monument stirred up a whole discussion around itself about its authenticity, but it is worth listening to the opinion: “From the point of view of language, it (the inscription. - O.T.) is impeccable.”

Treasure in the Oka village with the ancient name Vyshgorod contained, along with iron agricultural implements, also wrote for a letter [Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 196]. These wrote , or styles, were used to apply a variety of, mostly household, inscriptions. Obviously, we have before us what is referred to as pre-manuscript production [ Rozhdestvenskaya T.V. Epigraphic monuments of Ancient Russia X – 15th century Dis. … doc. philol. n. SPb., 1994, p. nine]. But only such writing of the Ryazan land is the only one that has come down to us , signifying both literacy and urban culture [Tikhomirov M.N. Ancient Russian cities. Ed. 2nd. M., 1956, p. 85, 263], and - with all the scarcity - the state of the living local language, not being a work of translated literature.

Ryazan graffiti date back mainly to the 11th-13th centuries [Darkevich V.P. Journey to Ancient Ryazan. Notes of an archaeologist. Ryazan, 1993, p. 138]. Curious as evidence female literacy there are, and more ancient inscriptions, as on whorl - a weight mounted on a spindle to give it stability and uniformity of rotation, found by the Ryazan archaeologist V.I. Zubkov in 1958: PRYASLN PARASIN "Spinner Parasin" in the XI - the beginning of the XII century. [Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 156 – 157].

Of course, this implies, besides literacy owners , urban population, otherwise the inscription simply loses its meaning, also literacy of manufacturers, artisans. There is already some in the literature 11th-12th century literacy evidence in the inscription “There is a prince”, “Young” , even the phrases: " New wine Dobrilo sent to Prince Bohunka ", and a curious statement is made that this - pre-Mongolian - the literacy of the population of Ryazan exceeds the later literacy. [Medyntseva A.A. Epigraphic finds from Old Ryazan // Antiquities of the Slavs and Russia. Collection in honor of the 80th anniversary of B.A. Rybakov. M., 1988, p. 248, 255].

The inscriptions record the personal names of people: "Orina" – medallion, found in Staraya RyazanTikhomirov M.N. Ancient Russian cities. Ed. 2nd. M., 1956, p. 427., Makosimov , the inscription on the mold in Serensk, in the latter case possessive form "Maximov" (sc. lie. "lyachek"?) with a curious vowel end of the word to them. p. units h.m.r., usually observed in the Novgorod north-west. It remains to add that the same whorl, very a common subject for inscriptions, “there are in Ryazan region and up to the present" Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 296].

The city of Ryazan was first mentioned in 1096, a good half century before Moscow, mentioned, not founded. We will still be able to remember this half-century lead later, when we ask ourselves the question, by whom or on whose soil Moscow was founded. When it comes to the founding of the city of Ryazan, everyone willingly begins to recall the etymology of its name - historians, archaeologists, perhaps more willingly than others. So it is this time. Except for the frankly amateur convergence of the name Ryazan with dial. cassock - "boggy place" , which is elementary doesn't fit here primarily because Ryazan, both Old and new, Pereyaslavl Ryazan, in ancient times was laid on the right, mountainous bank of the Oka, popular and widely known interpretation from Mordovian Erzyan "Erzyan", "Erzya" - "Mordovian" [Nikonov V.A. Brief toponymic dictionary. M., 1966, p. 362], but it doubtful , generally invented ad hoc. [ Fasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language in four volumes. Translation from German and additions by O.N. Trubachev. Ed. 3rd, stereotypical. T. III. SPb., 1996, p. 537]

Start with clarification the original form of the name , and such - which is wonderful! - was a form masculine: to Rezan [Ilovaisky D.I. History of the Ryazan principality. M., 1858, p. 23]. Then everything lines up in a fairly logical row: Rezan – possessive adjective on -jb from l personal name Rezan, that is, "belonging to a person named Rezan." masculine ancient form the name of the city is understandable in terms of agreement with the city: the binomial Rezan (city) is "Rezanov city". O note the reality of a personal name Rezan, known since 1495 . [Tupikov N.M. Dictionary of Old Russian personal proper names.// Notes of the Department of Russian and Slavic Archeology imp. Russian Archaeological Society. T. VI. SPb., 1903, p. 402; Veselovsky S.B. Onomastics. Old Russian names, nicknames and surnames. M., 1974, p. 267: Rezanovs, Rezaniy, 16th century]

Here, by the way, surname Ryazanov (e> i out of stress in a yak environment, but a direct correlation with Ryazan is inaccurate). However, the forms on -е– were retained for quite a long time, cf. Rezna, 1496 .[Unbegaun B.O. Russian surnames. M., 1989, p. 113]. To the natural question, what is this initial personal name Rezan , the answer is generally clear: a short form of the passive participle, that is "cut" , so they could call or call baby, "carved from the womb of the mother «[ Fasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language in 4 volumes. Translation from German and additions by O.N. Trubachev. Ed. 3rd, Vol. III. SPb., 1996, p. 537]. Outwardly not prestigious, this name-nickname could sometimes be worn by outstanding people. Suppose there was some Vyatich leader Rezan , after which it was named * Rezan city. It allows us to do this no more, no less than an analogy with Constantinople, for our king, complete Caesar - from lat. caesar, derived from caedo - "to cut", "to chop", from where caesar literally - "a bastard", "carved from the mother's womb". Famous Gaius Julius Caesar was born just in such an operative way " caesarean section, glorified later his nickname. Our etymological abstraction can be useful also because it shows: the name of the city of Ryazan cannot hide any "land cut off". [Ryazan encyclopedia. Ryazan, 1995, p. 511].

It makes sense to complete the comparison two cities: Ryazan - Moscow because we seem to speaking of Moscow, we legally remain in the land of the Vyatichi.

In connection with the questions of interest to us, one cannot but pay attention to the presence of a wide wedge discovered by archaeologists Vyatichi XI - XIII centuries, capturing from the South all the "near Moscow region" and Moscow. [Voitenko A.F. Lexical atlas of the Moscow region. M., 1991, p. 61]. Vyatichi burial mounds are found around Moscow and within its boundaries, what was stated starting from Artsikhovsky [ Nasonov A.N."Russian land" and the formation of the territory of the ancient Russian state. Historical and geographical research. M., 1951, p. 186].

The densest area finds of Vyatka seven-lobed temporal rings are not in Poochie, but in the Moscow region. [Sedov V.V. Eastern Slavs in the VI - XIII centuries. M., 1982, p. 144 - 145]. Further, when V.V. Sedov believes that Moscow was founded and populated from Rostov and Suzdal , [Sedov V.V. Ancient Russian people. Historical and archaeological research. M., 1999, p. 238 - 239] He, apparently, underestimates the well-known, of course, and to him Lyash-Vyatichi toponymic identities , cf. Tula - Tul, Vshizh - Uściąz, Kolomna - Kolomyia [some Vyatich-Czech correspondences of the Moscow region and Poochie - chronicle name of the Vyatich tribal elder Hodopsh with its proven West Slavic associations. Hoduta* as part of a patronymic associate Hodoutinich in birch bark XII century].

The brightest and most complete is Lyashsko-Vyatichi identity Moskiew (in Polish Mazowsze) = Moscow, both members of which, on the Polish and Russian side, regularly ascend to the ancient Proto-Slavic basis on -and- long *mosky, genus. n. *moskаve , and at the same time, the etymology from the Slavs is obvious. * mosk - "wet", "raw "[Etymological Dictionary Slavic languages, vol. 20, M., 1994, p. 20; Trubachev O.N. Proto-Slavic lexical heritage and Old Russian vocabulary of the pre-literate period].

Thus, it seems that it is possible to sum up certain results in a long discussion about the origin of the name of our capital, more precisely, of course, historically originally - names of the Moscow river, and rapprochement with suomi-fin. Masku or with the Baltic material (“Baltic of the Moscow region”) are still inferior in terms of probability, depth of reconstruction and all the cultural background mentioned above to the identity of Moskiew = Moscow, other Russian Moscow, wines p. units h.[ Fasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language in 4 volumes. Translation from German and additions by O.N. Trubachev. Ed. 3rd, Vol. II. SPb., 1996, p. 660].

How can one not recall the old man Tatishchev and all his insight: “ But I more rightly mean to be the name of the Moscow River - Sarmatian - swamp, because there are a lot of swamps at the top of it ... " [Tatishchev V.N. Russian history. T. I. M.-L., 1962, p. 314] After all, everything is true and fair, and moreover - not only “at the top”, remember at least the famous “ Moskvoretskaya puddle ", and frequent Moscow floods in the old days, and, in the end, the mere fact that Moscow and the entire Moscow region stands on clay soils ... That's all for now about Moscow, we only add, remembering that once written about Ryazan which of the two Vyatka capitals , in the most muddy place was Moscow .

Vyatichi, Slavic tribe , who lived in the east of the Slavic lands from the 8th to the 13th centuries AD. Their role in the formation of the Russian state is difficult to deny, since the number of this tribe was very large. By the standards of those times, when the number of people on the planet was small, the Vyatichi were considered a whole nation, which stood out clearly against the background of such tribes as Dregovichi, Drevlyans, Polans or Ilmen Slavs. Archaeologists attribute the Vyatichi to a very large group Romano-Borschagov culture, which also includes all the above-mentioned tribes and small groups.

In the annals they were noted as excellent farmers, blacksmiths, hunters and warriors. This tribe long time remained practically impregnable for many invaders, because they acted under the control of a single prince, and not in scattered groups torn apart by civil strife. Some historians are inclined to believe that Vyatichi possessed all the signs of the original state - there was a code of laws, their own regular army, symbols and culture. were included in the pantheon of the gods of this tribe. Therefore, the Vyatichi can be considered one of the key peoples who formed.

Etymology of the word "Vyatichi"

The most plausible version of the origin of the name of this tribe is considered to be the one that refers to the name of the first prince, known as Vyatko. There are also other versions. So, according to the Indo-European version Slavs Vyatichi got their name from the same root word vent, which meant in those days "wet". This is attributed to the fact that they inhabited wetlands. Also, some historians believe that the Vandals or Vendels, in some way, are akin in name to this tribe. Since the data was collected from various documents written in ancient languages, they vary greatly.

Land of the Vyatichi

The Arabic name of the lands inhabited by this tribe is also very interesting. The Arabs called them a separate country, and even with a separate name Vantit. In order to understand what lands were inhabited by these ancient peoples, it is easier to describe their possessions within the boundaries of modern regions. Partly they were in the Moscow region, a small part of the land also lay in the modern Smolensk region. To the west, the lands of the Vyatichi extended to Voronezh and Lipetsk. Almost completely, these Slavs settled in the Oryol, Tula, Ryazan and Kaluga regions. There are still disputes between historians about the presence of the Vyatichi in the territory of the modern Lipetsk region. In general, their lands are briefly described as being part of the Oka basin.

Vyatichi princes

At the moment when it was formed, and Rurik ascended the throne in Kyiv, Vyatichi were not part of this state. The fact that the first prince of the Vyatichi was Vyatko is known not so much from historical documents as from legends. When they became part of the Old Russian state, they took power from Kyiv, but soon found themselves practically cut off from the rest of the Slavs by the Khazars, to whom they paid tribute. Therefore, there is very little information about the local princes of this tribe. They did not mint their own coins, they also did not have their own seals, officially confirmed by the Supreme prince of Kiev. In fact, they needed it only for a military alliance, but in general they had all the signs of statehood.

Assimilation of the Slavic tribe Vyatichi

It is believed that Vyatichi, as Slavic tribe, finally began to lose their main features under the influence of the Khazars. In fact, they had nothing to lose, so they went to northern lands where the nomads did not want to go to war. The Khazars considered it prestigious to marry a Slavic woman, so over time the gene pool of this tribe was mixed. It is difficult to trace the situation among the Vyatichi during the Great Migration of Nations, but it is impossible to say that this did not affect them in any way. Vyatichi just disappeared for centuries. According to archaeological research, due to living in damp lands, a third of the Vyatichi population did not live up to 10 years, and visiting people from other tribes quickly occupied the vacant places. The way to the north dissolved the Vyatichi in the Balts and Finno-Ugric peoples.