Vyatichi lands on a modern map. Vyatichi and other Slavic tribes that were the most warlike

Vyatichi, Slavic people. The Vyatichi tribe was partly located in the territories now occupied by Tula, Kaluga, Oryol and southern part Moscow regions.

Vyatichi lived independently political life until the end of the century, at times they paid tribute to the Russian princes. Defending their political independence, the Vyatichi also defended their pagan religion. Living in dense forests, the Vyatichi kept their customs, customs and law for a long time. They did not submit to their conquerors - the Christian princes, retained their rulers and princes, and for a long time continued to stagnate in paganism. The Monk Nestor the Chronicler, describing the customs of the Vyatichi, calls them beasts living in the forests, consuming all kinds of food indiscriminately, shameless, insolent, filthy, ignorant of the law of God: in front of the daughters-in-law, the brothers did not go to them, but the games between the villages: I went to the games, to the dances and to all the demonic games, and that wife’s sly with her, who conferred with her, the name of the same two and three wives. , the creator of the funeral feast (commemoration) over them, and according to this creation, the masonry is great, and they will lay the masonry of the dead man, burn it and collect the bones for this, I will put it in a small vessel, and put it on a pillar on the tracks; hedgehogs are doing Vyatichi now "

“From the words of the chronicler,” writes Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov), “it does not strictly follow that the Vyatichi, even in his time, remained perfect pagans, and until then the gospel was not proclaimed to them: because, having accepted the holy faith, many of them, in rudeness, they could preserve their ancient superstitions, as other newly converted Christians often did.Equally, the expression of St. Simon, Bishop of Vladimir, that the Monk Kuksha "baptize Vyatichi" already in the XII century, does not mean that Kuksha baptized then all Vyatichi No, we can justly repeat the words of Presbyter Hilarion that in Russia, even under St. Vladimir, "the apostolic trumpet and the thunder of the Gospel sounded all the cities, and all our land at one time began to glorify Christ with the Father and Holy Spirit."

But still, in some places, the adoption of the Christian faith by the Vyatichi occurred at a later time. So, for example: "In the very center of the land of the Vyatichi - the city of Mtsensk (Oryol province), paganism was in a stubborn struggle with Christianity, and one modern legend that relates the adoption Christian religion the inhabitants of this city only at the beginning of the century, tells about this event in this way: in the year, during the reign of Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, the son of Donskoy, the Mtsenyans did not yet recognize the true God, which is why they were sent that year, from him and Metropolitan Photius, priests , with many troops, to bring the inhabitants to the true faith. The Mtsenyans were horrified and began to fight, but were soon stricken with blindness. The messengers began to persuade them to accept baptism; convinced by this, some of the mtsenyans: Khodan, Yushinka and Zakey were baptized and, having regained their sight, found the Cross of the Lord, carved from stone, and a carved image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, in the form of a warrior holding an ark in his hand; then, amazed by the miracle, all the inhabitants of the city hurried to accept holy baptism" .

This can also be confirmed by a letter from His Grace Gabriel, Bishop of Orlovsky and Sevsky, about a cache found in the city of Mtsensk, based on an ancient manuscript that talks about this event. This letter, which could replace the act, was addressed to the late Svinin, the publisher of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine, where it was printed. The well-known lover of antiquities I.F. Afremov, who himself read this in the Mtsensk Cathedral, confirms the same ancient legend.

Comparing all these facts, one cannot help but come to the conclusion that the enlightenment of the Vyatichi Christian faith in their area did not develop suddenly, but gradually and, moreover, very slowly and not everywhere, since stubborn pagans remained in Mtsensk even before the century; but the beginning of this event must still be attributed to the beginning of the XII century. Of course, Christianity in the country of the Vyatichi, wild and forest, weak at the beginning of its existence, grew stronger and stronger; especially when the Chernigov princes, avoiding Tatar persecution, moved from Chernigov to reign in their local estates - the lands of the Vyatichi and, among other things, to Novosil (in the end

VYATICHI

At the beginning of the seventh century, six tribal associations moved east from the Danube, referred to in the Tale of Bygone Years as the “Slavic clan”. According to the same chronicle, two other tribes, Vyatichi and Radimichi, came to the territory of Russia not from the Danube, but from more northern territories, probably from the Vistula basin. In the PVL, they are directly opposed to the “genus of the Slavs” and referred to the “genus of the Poles”. In later times Poles were called Poles in Russia. However, at the time of interest to us, the Polish people had not yet formed, and to the north of the Danube Slavs, according to Jordan and Procopius of Caesarea, the Wends lived. Both chroniclers of the sixth century unanimously assert that the Wends, Danubian Slavs and Antes came from the same root and spoke the same language. (Read the articles "Danubian Slavs", "Veneda" and "Anty" posted on this site.)

At the very beginning of the seventh century, a war broke out between the Avars-Avarins, who subjugated the tribes of the Danube and the Ants, who dominated the Dnieper and upper reaches of the Don, in which the Ants were defeated. The Antian state collapsed, and the Avar Khaganate expanded its borders to the Don itself. Most likely, the appearance in the Dnieper region of both the “Slavic clans” and the Radimichi with the Vyatichi was connected precisely with the war against the Antes. Actually, the ethnonym "Vyatichi" is an ancient form of the ethnonym "Veneti", and therefore one should not be surprised at their active participation in the war unleashed by their relatives Avarins and Lagobards. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the Vyatichi were not a tribe, but a union of Venedian tribes in their composition and by the time of their settlement on new lands had stable political structures. It should be noted here that the Radimichi and Vyatichi, during their settlement, practically did not affect the lands of the Krivichi, who, apparently, were not part of the Antian Union, but they took over the territory that was previously inhabited by the Gelons, known from Herodotus, or Goldescythians. At the same time, most of the golyadi, as the later chroniclers call them, entered the tribal union of the Vyatichi and were subsequently assimilated by the winners. Therefore, there is no reason to call the Vyatichi the first Slavic settlers in the places where they eventually settled. (Read the article "Golyad" posted on this site). Likewise, the “Slavic clans” did not come out of nowhere. To be extremely frank, in this case we are dealing with the occupation or conquest of foreign lands as a result of hostilities. The justification for this unfortunate event can be the fact that the Slavs (in the current sense of the word) were the occupiers as well as the victims, but by no means in the time when only people from the Danube region were called Slavs-Slavs. Confirmation that the Wends and Slavs are not exactly the same thing is the PVL, which very harshly characterizes the Vyatichi and Radimichi, and at the same time the Savromat northerners:

“And the Radimichi, Vyatichi and Northerners had a common custom: they lived in the forest, like all animals, ate everything unclean and shamed with their fathers and daughters-in-law, and they did not have marriages, but games were arranged between villages, and converged on these games, to dances and all sorts of demonic songs, and here they kidnapped their wives in agreement with them; and they had two and three wives. And if someone died, they arranged a funeral feast for him, and then they made a large deck, and laid the dead man on this deck, and burned it, and then, having collected the bones, they put them in a small vessel and placed them on poles along the roads, as they still do now. Vyatichi. The same custom was followed by the Krivichi and other pagans, who did not know the law of God, but established the law for themselves.

From this passage, a global conclusion was made about the backwardness of the Vyatichi compared to the civilized Slavs. At the same time, two circumstances of significant importance were overlooked: firstly, the author of the PVL was a resident of Kiev, and secondly, not just an adherent of the Christian faith, but a monk. He could not describe the customs of the pagan Slavs in any other way. And in assessing certain unions of tribes, which can be safely called states, he proceeded not from the level of development of the economy and the political system, but precisely from the commitment of their population to the Christian religion. Vyatichi in this respect surpassed all their neighbors. For a very long time and stubbornly they defended their independence both from the Kiev princes and from the Christian missionaries who accompanied them. In this stubbornness, they surpassed even their relatives, the Baltic Wends, who resisted the German crusaders until the 12th century. The last stronghold of the Vyatichi pagan resistance, the city of Mtsensk, fell in the 15th century. Here is what the website of the Tula diocese reports about this event:

“But still, in some places, the adoption of the Christian faith by the Vyatichi occurred at a later time. So, for example: in the very center of the Vyatichi land - the city of Mtsensk (Oryol province), paganism was in a stubborn struggle with Christianity, and one modern legend, which dates the adoption of the Christian religion by the inhabitants of this city only to the beginning of the 15th century, tells about this event in this way : in 1415, during the reign of Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, the son of Donskoy, the Mtsenyans did not yet recognize the true God, which is why they were sent that year, from him and Metropolitan Photius, priests, with many troops, to bring the inhabitants to the true faith. The Mtsenyans were horrified and began to fight, but were soon stricken with blindness. The messengers began to persuade them to accept baptism; convinced by this, some of the mtsenyans: Khodan, Yushinka and Zakey were baptized and, having regained their sight, found the Cross of the Lord, carved from stone, and a carved image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, in the form of a warrior holding an ark in his hand; then, amazed by the miracle, all the inhabitants of the city hurried to receive holy baptism.
Confirmation of what has been said can also serve as a letter from Bishop Gabriel of Orlovsky and Sevsky about a cache found in the city of Mtsensk, based on an ancient manuscript that talks about this event. This letter, which could replace the act, was addressed to the late Svinin, the publisher of the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, where it was published. The same is confirmed by the well-known lover of antiquities in our region, I.F. Afremov, who himself read this ancient legend in the Mtsensk Cathedral.

By the way, even the historian Klyuchevsky expressed bewilderment about the history of Russia and in particular the Vladimir-Suzdal land, which began somehow suddenly, almost with Andrei Bogolyubsky, and its past is covered in darkness. Meanwhile, the population of the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality exceeded the population of the Principality of Kiev by 25 times. Ukraine. Naturally, this deplorable fact from the point of view of an Orthodox Christian was very inconvenient for the anointed of God, first in Muscovy, and then in Russian Empire, therefore they destroyed all documents related to pagan Great Russia, replacing them with the Kiev PVL and carefully cleaned Novgorod annals. Ultimately, this led to the fact that the Russian people, as it were, hung in the air without a solid support. And he seemed to come from nowhere, and therefore, in the opinion of our “well-wishers”, there will be no big trouble if he goes nowhere. The statement that “manuscripts do not burn” seems to me controversial (how they burn!), but it turned out to be much more difficult to destroy the traces of the activities of our ancestors than to silence their thoughts and faith. Gradually, through the efforts of many honest historians and archaeologists, the image of not even a country, but an entire civilization, which still failed to be buried under a layer of lies, distortions and omissions, emerges from oblivion.

In fairness, it should be noted that Nestor still did not lie, describing the customs of the Vyatichi, he simply pulled them out of the context of the then Slavic faith and morality, which differed from Christian. Most Slavic tribes really had the custom of polygamy, and even where formally there was monogamy, it was supplemented by the institution of concubines. Vladimir the Baptist had several hundred concubines, in addition to six legal wives. By the way, the wives themselves were not too embarrassed by this “licentiousness” of their husbands - the concubines greatly facilitated their work around the house. In addition, the number of concubines testified to the husband’s social status and his luck in the war, and one of them, and not the “lawful” wife, was more often laid on the funeral pyre (according to contemporaries, the willing concubines were called on a voluntary basis and in anticipation of death indulged in fun and entertainment, and by no means sorrow).
As for the very concept of "chastity", in ancient times it differed significantly from the views modern morality, and it is not very correct to judge the customs of one era from the point of view of another. For example, the Arab geographer of the XI century. al-Bekri wrote:

“Slavic women, having once married, remain marital fidelity. But if a girl loves someone, she goes to him to satisfy her passion. And if a man, having married, finds his bride chaste, he says to her; if there was anything good in you, you would be loved by men and choose someone to take your virginity. Then he drives her away and refuses her.”

Each girl had the right to spend the night with several applicants, and only then did the parties agree on marriage. This was by no means considered dishonorable - on the contrary, the whole village knew about the dates, and only the bride's parents had to pretend to be ignorant. But young people checked their sexual and psychological compatibility in advance and could choose the best partner for the rest of their lives.
Western sources mention that at the beginning of our era, the Wends had group marriages - any woman, having come into the family, was considered the wife of her older brother, but lived with all the brothers. By the way, from the point of view of ancient morality, it is quite understandable, since human life was not conceived without procreation. And if for some reason the husband turned out to be incapable of performing this task or died without having time to complete it, then who was left to make sure that the family line was not interrupted? Again, it was taken into account that someone should take care of feeding the widows, protecting them and providing them with everything necessary. And about sexual satisfaction too - here our ancestors turned out to be above sanctimonious complexes, because they followed the requirements of nature itself. Therefore, among many peoples, the wives of the deceased passed to his brother, and among the steppes, including the Scythians, Sarmatians, Polovtsy, the son even inherited his father's wives, except for his own mother.

In the west, the lands of the Vyatichi bordered on the lands of the northerners, Radimichi and Krivichi. The western border of the Vyatichi settlement first went along the watershed of the Oka and the Desna. In the basins of the Zhizdra and Ugra rivers, a border strip 10-30 kilometers wide stood out, where the Vyatichi lived together with the Krivichi. This strip passed along the upper reaches of the Zhizdra and along the tributaries of the Ugra - Bolva, Ressi and Snopoti. Further, the Vyatichi border rose north to the upper reaches of the Moskva River, and then turned east towards the upper reaches of the Klyazma. The right bank of the Moskva River belonged entirely to the Vyatichi. The Vyatichi also entered the left bank of the Moskva River, 10-15 kilometers to the north, and also settled along its tributaries. For example, the Vyatichi settlement was on the Yauza River. Approximately near the confluence of the Ucha River into the Klyazma, the Vyatichi border turned to the southeast and went first along the left bank of the Moscow River, and then the Oka.
The Vyatichi villages were mainly located along the banks of rivers and lakes. This was explained by the fact that the waterway at that time was the best, and often the only means of communication. In addition, fish were found in the rivers, a very significant addition to the daily diet.
As accurately established by archaeologists, the dwellings in the settlements were wooden, log cabins, since there was plenty of material for buildings in the forest region. The houses had underground storage for food supplies in winter time. The inner walls divided the dwelling into 2-3 parts. A necessary accessory of the dwelling was a stove. Food was prepared daily in it, and in the cold seasons it heated the room. Outbuildings were located next to the dwelling: log barns and sheds and pens for livestock fenced with poles. Cellars and pits for storing grain and vegetables were built nearby. Forges were in every large village of Vyatichi. For the development of blacksmithing, there were the most favorable conditions: in the Meshchera swamps there was iron ore (bog iron) everywhere, and the surrounding forests served as an inexhaustible source of charcoal. As a result, iron products among the Vyatichi were ubiquitous. Knives, axes, cylindrical locks, twist drills, bucket handles, tweezers, scissors, stirrups, bits, spurs, horseshoes, combs - this is not a complete list of their tools and household items.
As in others Slavic lands, the main branch of the economy of the inhabitants of the Vyatichi settlements was agriculture. Iron coulters, plowshares, sickles, scythes, as well as millstones - all these agricultural tools are constantly found during excavations of villages and settlements. Arable agriculture here was so developed that it allowed to receive high yields every year. The most widespread grain crops were rye, wheat and millet. The yields were so high that the resulting grain was enough not only to meet their own needs, but also for export to the Novgorod land.
In the floodplains of numerous rivers, large cattle, sheeps. Pigs, chickens, geese, ducks were also bred. The horse has long been used not only in military affairs, but also as a draft force in agricultural work.
The abundance of rivers and lakes contributed to the widespread development of fishing. In the surrounding forests, there was a lot of any kind of game. Elk occupied the first place in the fishery, they also hunted wild boars, deer, forest and lake birds - black grouse, partridges, geese, ducks. They got the fur of bears, wolves, foxes, martens, beavers, sables, squirrels. Furs were harvested in in large numbers for sale: they were very much appreciated in the markets of Byzantium and the Arab East. Living in the forest region, the Vyatichi, of course, were engaged in beekeeping. Skillful fishermen received a lot of honey and wax, which were also sent for exchange and sale.

For a long time in the annals there are no names of Vyatichi cities; it looks like they didn't exist at all. But in the middle of the XII century, events take place, in connection with which the names of Vyatichi cities flashed on the pages of the annals. Starting from 1146-1147 and in subsequent decades, the internecine war of two princely dynasties - the Monomashichs and the Svyatoslavichs - flared up with renewed vigor. Since they also covered the territory of the Vyatichi, on the pages of the annals appeared the names of the cities of the Land of the Vyatichi, one way or another connected with the events of this feudal war: Blove (1146), Bryn (1228), Voronezh (1155), Dedoslavl (1146), Devyagorsk (1147). ), Domagoshch (1147), Kozelsk (1146), Karachev (1146), Kolteks (1146), Kromy (1147), Kolomna (1177), Lobynsk (1146), Lopasna (1176), Moscow (1147), Mosalsk (1231) ), Mtsensk (1146), Nerinsk (1147), Novosil (1155), Pronsk (1186), Serensk (1147), Svirelsk (1176), Spash (1147), Teshilov (1147), Trubech (1186), Yaryshev (1149 ). According to the chronicles, it follows that in the middle and second half of the 12th century there were 27 cities in the Land of the Vyatichi.
Although these big cities begin to be mentioned for the first time in the middle of the XII century, this does not mean that they did not exist before. Cities do not arise overnight: centuries pass from their inception to formation.
Ibrahim ibn Yakub preserved a curious description of the construction of cities:

“The Slavs build most of their cities in this way: they go to meadows abounding in water and thickets, and outline a round or quadrangular space there, depending on the size and shape that they want to give to the city. Then they dig a ditch around and dump the excavated earth into a rampart, reinforcing it with boards and piles, like trenches, until the rampart reaches the desired height. Then the gates are measured in it, from which side they want, and you can approach the gates along a wooden bridge.

A shaft reinforced with “boards and piles” is a common Slavic cities a wall of wooden log cabins filled with earth, clay or stones inside. The streets were often equipped with wooden pavements.
True, most of these cities really were only fortified settlements and consisted of 30-40 houses, but there were also much larger cities.
The level of development of many crafts in the Land of the Vyatichi was very high for its time. This is confirmed by the results of excavations. rural settlements and cities: craft workshops of metallurgists, blacksmiths, locksmiths, jewelers, potters, stone cutters were found in them.

Having such a highly developed production of a wide variety of products, the Vyatichi were engaged in a brisk trade with their neighbors already in the 8th century. Mostly grain was exported to the Novgorod land. But the main direction of trade is the path "from the Slavs to the Arabs." Vyatichi merchants went down the Oka to the Volga and sailed to the capital of the Volga Bulgaria, the city of Bulgar. Merchants from Muslim countries also arrived here along the Caspian and Volga. The city of Bulgar was the largest trade center of that time. And the link between the Arab East and Central Europe was the Land of the Vyatichi.
Archaeologists fully confirm this. Academician B.A. Rybakov writes:

"Treasures in the land of the Vyatichi make up almost half of all treasures in the Slavic lands."

A striking conclusion follows from this: the land of the Vyatichi in terms of trade was equal not only to Russian, but also to the Slavic lands combined. According to this indicator, the Vyatichi Land is several times superior to any state in Western Europe. An irrefutable fact: it was economically the most developed among the Slavic and Western European countries.

Initially, the Vyatichi Land was part of the Khazar Khaganate, which was a federal formation of principalities whose population belonged to different ethnic groups. This union ( Khazar Khaganate) arose as a counter to Arab aggression and disintegrated as a result civil war when part of the Khazar elite converted to Judaism. Most likely, after the collapse of Khazaria, the Vyatichi were part of the Russian Khaganate, along with the Savromats, and therefore they met the Varangians unfriendly Prophetic Oleg who eventually established themselves in Kyiv. However, in 907, the Vyatichi participated in Oleg's campaign against Tsargrad as allies. In the same capacity, they joined the army of Svyatoslav and together with him took part in the victorious campaign against the Khazars. In 965 Khazaria fell, and already in the next year 966 Svyatoslav attacked his recent allies. The war seemed to have been won, but as soon as the squads of Svyatoslav left their land, the Vyatichi got out of control of Kyiv.
In 981, Svyatoslav's son Vladimir fought against the Vyatichi, but his success was as short-lived as that of his father. And after the campaigns of Vladimir, the Vyatichi continue to remain an independent state. They live in their forest region apart from other Russian principalities. Their military power is such that the Kiev princes are afraid not only to fight with them, but even to drive through their lands. And Kievan Rus was far from weak state. By the 11th century, Suzdal and Murom had already become part of the unified Russian state. And the princes from Kyiv travel to these lands in a rather strange way: Kyiv-Smolensk-Volga-Mur. The explanation is very simple: such a detour is done in order not to pass through the lands of the Vyatichi.
Vladimir Monomakh, in his Teaching, reports on his campaign against the Vyatichi prince Khodota and his son. Consequently, in the Land of the Vyatichi there is not only a prince-ruler, but a dynasty has already taken shape. The Persian author Ibn-Ruste told the following about the complex social organization of the Vyatichi:

“Their head, whom they call the head of heads, is called by them “svet-malik”. And he is higher than Supanej, and Supanej is his viceroy.”

The gradual entry of the Vyatichi lands into other principalities begins only at the end of the 11th century. In 1096, Oleg Svyatoslavich, expelled from Chernigov by Vladimir Monomakh, occupied Ryazan. From his brother Yaroslav, the dynasty of Ryazan princes begins, who ruled in this city for more than 400 years. We see that a small piece of the eastern land of the Vyatichi is part of the Ryazan principality in the form of one of its volosts. But the main lands of the Vyatichi still remain independent. Most likely, the principality of the Vyatichi fell with the advent of the Tatar-Mongol horde. Around the same time, their departure from the faith of their ancestors and the transition to Christianity began. This was required by the then political situation. A new community arose - the Russian people - and the Vyatichi became its integral part.

Then the Vyatichi border runs along the Ugra and Oka valleys up to the confluence of Moscow with the Oka, bypassing the Protva and Nara basins. Further, the boundary of the settlement of the Vyatichi follows northwest along the right tributaries to the upper reaches of the Moskva River (where Krivichi monuments are also found), and then turns east towards the upper reaches of the Klyazma. At the confluence of the Ucha with the Klyazma, the border turns southeast and goes first along the left bank of the Moscow, and then the Oka. The extreme eastern border of the distribution of seven-lobed temporal rings is Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky.

Further, the border of the distribution of the Vyatichi goes to the upper reaches of the Oka, including the Proni basin. The upper reaches of the Oka are entirely occupied by the Vyatichi. Separate archaeological sites of the Vyatichi were also found on the upper Don, in the territory of the modern Lipetsk region.

Chronicle references

In addition to The Tale of Bygone Years, the Vyatichi are mentioned (as V-n-n-tit) and in an earlier source - a letter from the Khazar Khagan Joseph to the dignitary of the Caliph of Cordoba Hasdai ibn Shaprut (960s), which reflects the ethno-political situation of the late VIII - mid-IX centuries.

In one of the Arabic sources, the ancient author Gardizi wrote about those places: And on the extreme limits of the Slavic there is a madina called Vantit (Vait, Vabnit)". Arabic word " madina"could mean the city, and the territory subject to him, and the entire district. The ancient source "Hudud al-Alam" says that some of the inhabitants of the first city in the east (the country of the Slavs) are similar to the Rus. The story is about those times when there were no Russ here yet, and this land was ruled by its princes, who called themselves " sweet-malik". From here there was a road to Khazaria, to the Volga Bulgaria, and only later, in the XI century, the campaigns of Vladimir Monomakh took place.

The Vanthit theme also found its place in the texts of the Scandinavian chronicler and saga collector Snorri Sturluson.

Origin

According to archaeological observations, the settlement of the Vyatichi took place from the territory of the Dnieper left bank or even from the upper reaches of the Dniester (where the dulebs lived).

Most researchers believe that the substratum of the Vyatichi was the local Baltic population. The predecessors of the Slavic population in the basin of the upper Oka were representatives of the Moshchin culture that had developed by the 3rd-4th centuries. Such features of culture as house-building, rituals, ceramic material and decorations, in particular things inlaid with colored enamels, make it possible to attribute its bearers to the Baltic-speaking population. Archaeologist Nikolskaya T. N., who devoted most of her life archaeological research territory of the Upper Oka basin, in her monograph “Culture of the tribes of the Upper Oka basin in the 1st millennium AD” also concluded that the Upper Oka culture is close to the culture of the ancient Balts, and not the Finno-Ugric population. .

History

Vyatichi settled in the Oka basin in the period -VIII centuries. According to the Tale of Bygone Years, in the middle of the 10th century, the Vyatichi paid tribute to Khazaria in a shelyag (presumably a silver coin) from a plow. Like other Slavs, the administration was carried out by the veche and the princes. Finds of numerous coin hoards testify to the participation of communities in international trade.

The lands of the Vyatichi became part of the Chernigov, Rostov-Suzdal and Ryazan principalities. The last time the Vyatichi are mentioned in chronicles under their tribal name was in 1197. Archaeologically, the legacy of the Vyatichi in the culture of the Russian population can be traced back to the 17th century.

Archeology

In the upper reaches of the Oka, before the Ugra flows into it, the process of assimilation proceeded most intensively and ended by the -12th centuries.

The advance of the Vyatichi to the northeast along the valleys of the Oka, and then Moscow, occurs from the -X centuries. This is evidenced by the discoveries of several villages with stucco ceramics in the Serpukhov, Kashirsky and Odintsovo districts of the Moscow region. It should be noted that while Slavic colonization does not occur in the Nara and Protva basins. This period is characterized by a high density of Slavic mounds with seven-lobed temporal rings typical of the Vyatichi. Largest number such burials were found in the Moscow basin.

Settlements

The dwellings of the Vyatichi were dugouts (4 meters by 4 meters), lined with wood from the inside; log walls with a gable roof rose above the ground. The settlements were located at great distances from each other and, as a rule, along the banks of rivers. Many villages were surrounded by deep moats. The earth dug out of the ditch was dumped by the Vyatichi into a rampart, reinforced with boards and piles, and then rammed until the wall reached the desired height. An entrance with a strong gate was made in the wall. A wooden bridge was thrown across the moat in front of the entrance. Archaeologists call the remains of fortified settlements settlements, and unfortified ones - settlements.

Vyatichi settlements are known in the Glazunov district of the Orel region (Taginskoe settlement), Maloyaroslavets district of the Kaluga region, on the territory of the Kremlin in Moscow, in Ryazan (Old Ryazan).

Later, the Vyatichi began to build log houses, which were both housing and a protective structure. A log house was taller than a semi-dugout, often built on two floors. Its walls and windows were decorated with carvings, which made a strong aesthetic impression.

economy

Vyatichi were engaged in hunting (they paid tribute to the Khazars with furs), collecting honey, mushrooms and wild berries. They were also engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture, later plowed (millet, barley, wheat, rye), cattle breeding (pigs, cows, goats, sheep). At all times, the Vyatichi were excellent tillers and skilled warriors. In the economy, the Vyatichi used iron axes, plows, and sickles, which indicates a developed blacksmithing.

Beliefs

The Vyatichi remained pagans for a long time. In the XII century, they killed the Christian missionary Kuksha Pechersky (presumably on August 27, 1115). A late legend reports the adoption of Christianity in some places only at the beginning of the 15th century:

in 1415, during the reign of Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, the son of Donskoy, the Mtsenyans did not yet recognize the true God, which is why they were sent that year from him and Metropolitan Photius, priests, with many troops, to bring the inhabitants to the true faith. The Mtsenyans were horrified and began to fight, but were soon stricken with blindness. The messengers began to persuade them to accept baptism; convinced by this, some of the mtsenyans: Khodan, Yushinka and Zakey were baptized and, having regained their sight, found the Cross of the Lord, carved from stone, and a carved image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, in the form of a warrior holding an ark in his hand; then, amazed by the miracle, all the inhabitants of the city hurried to receive holy baptism.

Burials (mounds)

The Vyatichi performed a feast over the dead, and then cremated, erecting small mounds over the burial place. This is confirmed by archaeological excavations in the Moscow basin. Seven-lobed temporal rings are considered a distinctive feature of the female burials of the Vyatichi. The Baltic influence on the Vyatichi (through the local tribes of the Moshchin culture) is also indicated by characteristic decorations - neck hryvnias, which are not among the common decorations in the East Slavic world of the 10th-12th centuries. Only among two tribes - the Radimichi and the Vyatichi - did they become relatively widespread.

Among the Vyatichi decorations there are neck torcs, unknown in other ancient Russian lands, but having complete analogies in Letto-Lithuanian materials. In the 12th century, the mounds of this region already had a characteristic Vyatichi appearance, the burials were oriented with their heads to the west, in contrast to the Baltic ones, for which the orientation to the east is typical. Also, Slavic burials differ from the Baltic ones in the group arrangement of mounds (up to several dozen).

Anthropological appearance

Anthropologically, the Vyatichi from the Moscow region were close to the northerners: they had a long skull, a narrow, orthognathic, well-profile in the horizontal plane face and a rather wide, medium-protruding nose with a high nose bridge. V. V. Bunak (1932) noted the elements of similarity between the Vyatichi and Severyans and the Sardinians as representatives of the Mediterranean type, and attributed them to the Pontic anthropological type. T. A. Trofimova (1942) singled out among the Vyatichi Caucasoid dolichocephalic and Subural types, which has analogies in the Finno-Ugric population of the Volga and Ural regions. G. F. Debets believed that it would be more correct to speak only of a small Subural admixture.

A third of the Vyatichi died in childhood. Life expectancy for men rarely exceeded 40 years, for women it is much lower.

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Notes

2. (Russian). NTV. Retrieved July 3, 2008. .
6. Gagin I. A.(Russian). Retrieved July 3, 2008. .
7. Sedov V.V. Volintsevo culture. Slavs in the South-East of the Russian Plain // . - M .: Scientific and productive charitable society "Archeology Fund", 1995. - 416 p. - ISBN 5-87059-021-3.
8. Wed other Russian more"more". Words ascend to the same root Vyacheslav"great fame" Vyatka"big [river]."
9. Khaburgaev G. A. The ethnonymy of The Tale of Bygone Years in connection with the tasks of reconstructing the East Slavic glottogenesis. M .: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1979. S. 197.
10. Nikolaev S. L.
11. (Russian). Retrieved July 3, 2008. .
12. Cm.: Kokovtsov P.K. E. S. Galkina identifies V-n-n-tit not with the Vyatichi, but with the Turkic tribal union of the Unnogundurs (Onogurs): Galkina E. S.
15. Sedov V.V.
17. Krasnoshchekova S. D., Krasnitsky L. N. Local history notes. Archeology of the Oryol region. Eagle. Spring Waters. 2006
18. "Kozar for a schlyag from the ral we give"
20. B. A. Rybakov noted the similarity of the name Kordno with someone Khordab- the city of the Slavs, mentioned by Arab and Persian authors
26. Nikolskaya T. N. Land of the Vyatichi. On the history of the population of the basin of the upper and middle Oka in the 9th-13th centuries. Moscow. The science. 1981.)
27. Artsikhovsky A. V. Vyatichi barrows. 1930.
28. tulaeparhia.ru/home/istoriya-tulskoj-eparxii.html
29. Sedov V.V. Slavs of the Upper Dnieper and Dvina. M., 1970. S. 138, 140.
30. In earlier lists of the annals, instead of steal"funeral pyre" is the word clade"deck, coffin".
31. Cit. on: Mansikka V.J. Religion of the Eastern Slavs. Moscow: IMLI im. A. M. Gorky RAN, 2005. P. 94.
32. Alekseeva T. I. Ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs according to anthropology data. M., 1973.

Literature

• Nikolskaya T. N. The culture of the tribes of the Upper Oka basin in the 1st millennium AD. / Rev. ed. M. A. Tikhanova; . - M .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1959. - 152 p. - (Materials and research on the archeology of the USSR. No. 72). - 1500 copies.(in trans.)
• Nikolskaya T. N. Land of the Vyatichi: On the history of the population of the basin of the upper and middle Oka in the 9th-13th centuries. / Rev. ed. d.h.s. V. V. Sedov; . - M .: Nauka, 1981. - 296 p. - 3000 copies.(in trans.)
• Grigoriev A.V. Slavic population of the watershed of the Oka and Don at the end of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. e. / Editorial board: V. P. Gritsenko, A. M. Vorontsov, A. N. Naumov (responsible editors); Reviewers: A. V. Kashkin, T. A. Pushkina; State. military-historical and natural museum-reserve "Kulikovo field". - Tula: Reproniks, 2005. - 208 p. - 500 copies. - ISBN 5-85377-073-X.(reg.)

Links

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Tipping events stories chronicle tribes Kiev rulers before the collapse of the Old Russian states (1132) Significant wars and battles Principal principalities in the XII-XIII centuries Society Crafts and economy culture Literature Architecture

East Slavic tribes West Slavic tribes South Slavic tribes Bulgarian tribes Greco-Macedonian tribes Dalmatian tribes An excerpt characterizing Vyatichi Princess Mary was not in Moscow and out of danger, as Prince Andrei thought. After the return of Alpatych from Smolensk, the old prince, as it were, suddenly came to his senses from a dream. He ordered to gather militia from the villages, arm them and wrote a letter to the commander-in-chief, in which he informed him of his intention to remain in the Bald Mountains to the last extreme, to defend himself, leaving it at his discretion to take or not to take measures to protect the Bald Mountains, in which he would be taken one of the oldest Russian generals was captured or killed, and announced to his family that he was staying in Lysy Gory. But, remaining himself in the Bald Mountains, the prince ordered the dispatch of the princess and Desal with the little prince to Bogucharovo and from there to Moscow. Princess Marya, frightened by her father's feverish, sleepless activity, which replaced his former omission, could not make up her mind to leave him alone, and for the first time in her life allowed herself to disobey him. She refused to go, and a terrible thunderstorm of the prince's anger fell upon her. He reminded her of everything in which he had been unfair to her. Trying to accuse her, he told her that she had tormented him, that she had quarreled with him, that she had nasty suspicions against him, that she had made it her life's task to poison his life, and drove her out of his office, telling her that if she he won't leave, he doesn't care. He said that he did not want to know about her existence, but he warned her in advance that she should not dare to catch his eye. The fact that, contrary to Princess Mary's fears, he did not order her to be taken away by force, but only did not order her to show herself, pleased Princess Mary. She knew that this proved that in the very secret of his soul he was glad that she stayed at home and did not leave. The next day after Nikolushka's departure, the old prince put on his full uniform in the morning and got ready to go to the commander-in-chief. The wheelchair has already been served. Princess Marya saw how he, in uniform and all the orders, left the house and went into the garden to review the armed peasants and the yard. Princess Mary saw at the window, listening to his voice, which was heard from the garden. Suddenly, several people ran out of the alley with frightened faces. Princess Mary ran out onto the porch, onto the flower path and into the alley. A large crowd of militiamen and courtyards was advancing towards her, and in the middle of this crowd several people were dragging a little old man in a uniform and medals by the arms. Princess Mary ran up to him and, in the play of small circles of falling light, through the shadow of the linden alley, could not give herself an account of what a change had taken place in his face. One thing that she saw was that the former stern and resolute expression of his face was replaced by an expression of timidity and submissiveness. When he saw his daughter, he moved his helpless lips and wheezed. It was impossible to understand what he wanted. They picked him up, carried him into the office and laid him on the sofa, which he had been so afraid of lately. The doctor brought in bled the same night and announced that the prince had a stroke on the right side. It became more and more dangerous to stay in the Bald Mountains, and the next day after the prince's blow, they were taken to Bogucharovo. The doctor went with them. When they arrived in Bogucharovo, Desalle and the little prince had already left for Moscow. Still in the same position, no worse and no better, paralyzed, the old prince lay for three weeks in Bogucharovo in a new house built by Prince Andrei. The old prince was unconscious; he lay like a mutilated corpse. He kept mumbling something, twitching his eyebrows and lips, and it was impossible to know whether he understood or not what surrounded him. One thing could be known for sure - this is that he suffered and felt the need to express something more. But what it was, no one could understand; was it some whim of a sick and half-mad man, did it relate to the general course of affairs, or did it relate to family circumstances? The doctor said that the anxiety he expressed meant nothing, that it had physical causes; but Princess Marya thought (and the fact that her presence always increased his anxiety confirmed her assumption), she thought that he wanted to tell her something. He obviously suffered both physically and mentally. There was no hope for a cure. It was impossible to take him. And what would happen if he died dearly? “Would it not be better if it were the end, the end at all! Princess Mary sometimes thought. She watched him day and night, almost without sleep, and, terrible to say, she often watched him, not with the hope of finding signs of relief, but watched, often wishing to find signs of the approach of the end. Strange as it was, the princess was aware of this feeling in herself, but it was in her. And what was even more terrible for Princess Marya was that since the time of her father’s illness (even almost earlier, wasn’t it then, when she, expecting something, stayed with him), all those who had fallen asleep in her woke up in her, forgotten personal desires and hopes. What had not occurred to her for years - thoughts about a free life without the eternal fear of her father, even thoughts about the possibility of love and family happiness, like the temptations of the devil, were constantly rushing through her imagination. No matter how she pushed herself away from herself, questions constantly came to her mind about how she would arrange her life now, after that. These were the temptations of the devil, and Princess Marya knew this. She knew that the only weapon against him was prayer, and she tried to pray. She became in the position of prayer, looked at the images, read the words of the prayer, but could not pray. She felt that now she was embraced by another world - worldly, difficult and free activity, completely opposite to the moral world in which she had been imprisoned before and in which prayer was the best consolation. She could not pray and could not cry, and worldly care seized her. Staying in Vogucharovo became dangerous. From all sides they could hear about the approaching French, and in one village, fifteen miles from Bogucharov, the estate was plundered by French marauders. The doctor insisted that the prince should be taken further; the leader sent an official to Princess Mary, persuading her to leave as soon as possible. The police officer, having arrived in Bogucharovo, insisted on the same thing, saying that the French were forty miles away, that French proclamations were circulating in the villages, and that if the princess did not leave with her father before the fifteenth, then he would not be responsible for anything. The princess on the fifteenth decided to go. The worries of preparations, giving orders, for which everyone turned to her, occupied her all day. She spent the night from the fourteenth to the fifteenth, as usual, without undressing, in the room next to the one in which the prince lay. Several times, waking up, she heard his groaning, muttering, the creaking of the bed, and the steps of Tikhon and the doctor turning him over. Several times she listened at the door, and it seemed to her that today he muttered louder than usual and tossed and turned more often. She could not sleep and several times approached the door, listening, wanting to enter and not daring to do so. Although he did not speak, Princess Marya saw, knew how unpleasant any expression of fear for him was to him. She noticed how dissatisfied he turned away from her gaze, sometimes involuntarily and stubbornly directed at him. She knew that her arrival at night, at an unusual time, would annoy him. But she had never been so sorry, she had never been so afraid of losing him. She recalled her whole life with him, and in every word and deed of him she found an expression of his love for her. Occasionally, between these memories, the temptations of the devil burst into her imagination, thoughts about what would happen after his death and how her new, free life would be arranged. But with disgust she drove away these thoughts. By morning it was quiet, and she fell asleep. She woke up late. The sincerity that comes with awakening clearly showed her what occupied her most in her father's illness. She woke up, listened to what was behind the door, and, hearing his groaning, told herself with a sigh that everything was the same. - But what to be? What did I want? I want him dead! she cried out in disgust at herself. She dressed, washed, read prayers and went out onto the porch. Horseless carriages were brought up to the porch, in which things were being packed. The morning was warm and grey. Princess Marya stopped on the porch, never ceasingly horrified by her spiritual abomination and trying to put her thoughts in order before entering him. The Doctor stepped down the stairs and approached her. "He's better today," said the doctor. - I was looking for you. You can understand something from what he says, the head is fresher. Let's go. He is calling you... Princess Mary's heart beat so violently at this news that she turned pale and leaned against the door so as not to fall. To see him, to talk to him, to fall under his gaze now, when Princess Mary's whole soul was overwhelmed by these terrible criminal temptations, was excruciatingly joyful and terrible. “Come on,” the doctor said. Princess Marya went in to her father and went up to the bed. He lay high on his back, with his small, bony arms covered with lilac knotted veins, on the blanket, with his left eye fixed straight and his right eye squinting, with motionless eyebrows and lips. He was all so thin, small and miserable. His face seemed to have shriveled or melted, shrunken features. Princess Mary came up and kissed his hand. Left hand She squeezed her hand so that it was clear that he had been waiting for her for a long time. He tugged at her hand, and his eyebrows and lips moved angrily. She looked at him fearfully, trying to guess what he wanted from her. When she shifted her position and shifted so that her left eye could see her face, he calmed down, not taking his eyes off her for a few seconds. Then his lips and tongue moved, sounds were heard, and he began to speak, timidly and imploringly looking at her, apparently afraid that she would not understand him. Princess Mary, straining all her powers of attention, looked at him. The comic labor with which he rolled his tongue forced Princess Marya to lower her eyes and with difficulty suppress the sobs rising in her throat. He said something, repeating his words several times. Princess Mary could not understand them; but she tried to guess what he was saying, and repeated inquiringly the elephants he had said. “Gaga – fights… fights…” he repeated several times. It was impossible to understand these words. The doctor thought that he had guessed right, and, repeating his words, asked: is the princess afraid? He shook his head negatively and repeated the same thing again... “My soul, my soul hurts,” Princess Mary guessed and said. He moaned affirmatively, took her hand and began to press it to various places on his chest, as if looking for a real place for her. - All thoughts! about you… thoughts,” he then spoke much better and more clearly than before, now that he was sure that he was understood. Princess Mary pressed her head against his hand, trying to hide her sobs and tears. He ran his hand through her hair. “I called you all night…” he said. “If I knew…” she said through her tears. - I was afraid to enter. He shook her hand. - Didn't you sleep? “No, I didn’t sleep,” said Princess Mary, shaking her head negatively. Involuntarily obeying her father, she now, just as he spoke, tried to speak more in signs and, as it were, also with difficulty rolling her tongue. - Darling ... - or - my friend ... - Princess Marya could not make out; but, probably, from the expression of his look, a tender, caressing word was said, which he never said. - Why didn't you come? “And I wished, wished for his death! thought Princess Mary. He paused. - Thank you ... daughter, friend ... for everything, for everything ... sorry ... thank you ... sorry ... thank you! .. - And tears flowed from his eyes. “Call Andryusha,” he suddenly said, and something childishly timid and distrustful expressed itself in his face at this request. It was as if he himself knew that his demand was meaningless. So, at least, it seemed to Princess Mary. “I received a letter from him,” answered Princess Mary. He looked at her with surprise and timidity. - Where is he? - He is in the army, mon pere, in Smolensk. He was silent for a long time, closing his eyes; then in the affirmative, as if in answer to his doubts and in confirmation that he now understood and remembered everything, nodded his head and opened his eyes. “Yes,” he said clearly and quietly. - Russia is dead! Ruined! And he sobbed again, and tears flowed from his eyes. Princess Mary could no longer restrain herself and wept too, looking at his face. He closed his eyes again. His sobs stopped. He made a sign with his hand to his eyes; and Tikhon, understanding him, wiped away his tears. Then he opened his eyes and said something that no one could understand for a long time and, finally, he understood and conveyed only Tikhon. Princess Mary was looking for the meaning of his words in the mood in which he spoke a minute before. Now she thought that he was talking about Russia, then about Prince Andrei, then about her, about her grandson, then about his death. And because of this, she could not guess his words. “Put on your white dress, I love it,” he said. Understanding these words, Princess Marya sobbed even louder, and the doctor, taking her by the arm, led her out of the room to the terrace, persuading her to calm down and make preparations for her departure. After Princess Mary left the prince, he again spoke about his son, about the war, about the sovereign, twitched his eyebrows angrily, began to raise a hoarse voice, and with him came the second and last blow. Princess Mary stopped on the terrace. The day cleared up, it was sunny and hot. She could understand nothing, think of nothing, and feel nothing, except her passionate love for her father, a love which, it seemed to her, she had not known until that moment. She ran out into the garden and, sobbing, ran down to the pond along the young linden paths planted by Prince Andrei. “Yes… I… I… I.” I wished for his death. Yes, I wanted it to end soon... I wanted to calm down... But what will happen to me? Why do I need peace of mind when he is gone, ”Princess Marya muttered aloud, walking quickly through the garden and pressing her hands on her chest, from which sobs frantically burst out. Walking around the circle in the garden, which led her back to the house, she saw m lle Bourienne (who had remained in Bogucharovo and did not want to leave) coming towards her and unknown man. It was the leader of the county, who himself came to the princess in order to present to her the need for an early departure. Princess Mary listened and did not understand him; she led him into the house, offered him breakfast, and sat down with him. Then, apologizing to the leader, she went to the door of the old prince. The doctor, with an alarmed face, came out to her and said that it was impossible. - Go, princess, go, go! Princess Marya went back into the garden and under the hill by the pond, in a place where no one could see, sat down on the grass. She did not know how long she had been there. Someone's running female steps along the path made her wake up. She got up and saw that Dunyasha, her maid, who had obviously been running after her, suddenly, as if frightened by the sight of her young lady, stopped. “Please, princess ... prince ...” Dunyasha said in a broken voice. “Now, I’m going, I’m going,” the princess began hastily, not giving Dunyasha time to finish what she had to say, and, trying not to see Dunyasha, she ran to the house. “Princess, the will of God is being done, you must be ready for anything,” said the leader, meeting her at the front door. - Leave me. It is not true! she yelled angrily at him. The doctor wanted to stop her. She pushed him away and ran to the door. “And why are these people with frightened faces stopping me? I don't need anyone! And what are they doing here? She opened the door, and the bright daylight in that previously dim room terrified her. There were women and a nurse in the room. They all moved away from the bed, making way for her. He lay still on the bed; but the stern look of his calm face stopped Princess Marya on the threshold of the room. "No, he's not dead, it can't be! - Princess Mary said to herself, went up to him and, overcoming the horror that seized her, pressed her lips to his cheek. But she immediately pulled away from him. Instantly, all the strength of tenderness for him, which she felt in herself, disappeared and was replaced by a feeling of horror for what was before her. “No, he is no more! He is not there, but there is right there, in the same place where he was, something alien and hostile, some kind of terrible, terrifying and repulsive secret ... - And, covering her face with her hands, Princess Marya fell into the hands of the doctor, who supported her. In the presence of Tikhon and the doctor, the women washed what he was, tied a handkerchief around his head so that his open mouth would not stiffen, and tied his diverging legs with another handkerchief. Then they put on a uniform with medals and laid a small shriveled body on the table. God knows who and when took care of this, but everything became as if by itself. By nightfall, candles burned around the coffin, there was a cover on the coffin, juniper was strewn on the floor, a printed prayer was placed under the dead, shrunken head, and a deacon sat in the corner, reading a psalter. As horses shied away, crowded and snorted over a dead horse, so in the living room around the coffin crowded people of strangers and their own - the leader, and the headman, and the women, and all with fixed, frightened eyes, crossed themselves and bowed, and kissed the cold and stiff hand of the old prince. Bogucharovo was always, before Prince Andrei settled in it, a private estate, and the men of Bogucharov had a completely different character from those of Lysogorsk. They differed from them in speech, clothing, and customs. They were called steppes. The old prince praised them for their endurance in their work when they came to help clean up the Bald Mountains or dig ponds and ditches, but did not like them for their savagery. The last stay in Bogucharovo of Prince Andrei, with his innovations - hospitals, schools and easier dues - did not soften their morals, but, on the contrary, strengthened in them those character traits that the old prince called savagery. Some kind of obscure talk always went between them, now about listing them all as Cossacks, now about new faith, into which they will be turned, then about some royal lists, then about the oath to Pavel Petrovich in 1797 (about which they said that then the will was still coming out, but the gentlemen were taken away), then about Peter Feodorovich, who had to reign in seven years, under which everything it will be free and it will be so simple that nothing will happen. Rumors about the war in Bonaparte and his invasion combined for them with the same vague ideas about the Antichrist, the end of the world and pure will. In the vicinity of Bogucharov there were more and more large villages, state-owned and quitrent landlords. There were very few landowners living in this area; there were also very few serfs and literates, and in the life of the peasants of this area were more noticeable and stronger than in others, those mysterious jets of Russian folk life, the causes and significance of which are inexplicable to contemporaries. One of these phenomena was the movement between the peasants of this area to move to some kind of warm rivers, which manifested itself about twenty years ago. Hundreds of peasants, including Bogucharov's, suddenly began to sell their livestock and leave with their families somewhere to the southeast. Like birds flying somewhere beyond the seas, these people with their wives and children strove to go there, to the southeast, where none of them had been. They went up in caravans, bathed one by one, ran, and rode, and went there, to the warm rivers. Many were punished, exiled to Siberia, many died of cold and starvation on the way, many returned on their own, and the movement died down by itself just as it had begun without an obvious reason. But the underwater streams did not stop flowing in this people and gathered for some new force, which had to manifest itself in the same strange, unexpected way, and at the same time simply, naturally and strongly. Now, in 1812, for a person who lived close to the people, it was noticeable that these underwater jets produced a strong work and were close to manifestation. Alpatych, having arrived in Bogucharovo some time before the death of the old prince, noticed that there was unrest among the people and that, contrary to what was happening in the Bald Mountains on a sixty-verst radius, where all the peasants left (leaving the Cossacks to ruin their villages), in the steppe zone , in Bogucharovskaya, the peasants, as was heard, had relations with the French, received some papers that went between them, and remained in their places. He knew through the servants devoted to him that the muzhik Karp, who had recently traveled with a state-owned cart, had big influence to the world, returned with the news that the Cossacks were devastating the villages from which the inhabitants came out, but that the French did not touch them. He knew that another peasant had even brought yesterday from the village of Visloukhovo, where the French were stationed, a paper from the French general, in which the inhabitants were declared that no harm would be done to them and that everything that was taken from them would be paid for if they stayed. As proof of this, the peasant brought from Visloukhov one hundred rubles in banknotes (he did not know that they were fake), given to him in advance for hay.

The Vyatichi tribes occupy a significant place in the history of ancient Russia, although most readers associate their name with the city of Vyatka. Oddly enough, they are partly right about this. We can trace the paths of the Vyatichi ancestors from here from central Russia and the Upper Volga. But for this we need to look at several millennia.

VENEDS AND VANDALS

During the existence of the glacier in the central part of Russia, the taiga belt never existed, and mixed forests began almost immediately from the ice edge. Here the Aryan tribes lived, the basis of their life activity was hunting and gathering. As the glacier retreated from the east, the taiga moved in, and the belt of mixed forests began to move into central Europe. The Aryan tribes of hunters and gatherers moved west along with them, and their place, as the coniferous forests advanced, was occupied by the Finno-Ugric peoples - hunters and fishermen. Both those and others were fair-haired and light-eyed, and those and others lived in small tribal communities scattered in the area. But even with a similar lifestyle and external data, these two peoples did not interpenetrate. The main difference was the language. The inhabitants of mixed forests were explained in ancient Sanskrit, which allows them to be attributed to the Aryan tribes that once lived in the zone of polar meadows.
Back to top new era the area of ​​​​settlement of Aryan hunters in size was not inferior to the territory of the Roman Empire. Their neighbors called them differently, the Greeks called them Enets (the Greek language did not know the letter “v”), the Romans called them Veneti, the Finno-Ugric people called them Venya or Veni (in today's Finnish language - Russia, Russians). Historians and researchers use various options the names of these tribes: Veneti (Vineti), Venedi (Vineti), Wends, Vents and Vands.
In history ancient world before the 1st millennium BC almost nothing is known about them. The forest area was of no interest to either pastoralists or tillers, just as the Venets did not need fields and meadows. Changes occurred when the Celts appeared in Europe. The Celts, who came from Asia Minor, were pastoralists and farmers, they also spoke Sanskrit, which undoubtedly contributed to mutual assimilation with the Veneti. This is especially noticeable in the Lusatian culture, where on the vessels there are ornaments, drawings and plots similar to the ancient Hittites. This was also noticed in the Pomeranian culture (7th-2nd centuries BC), where “facial urns” became widespread - funerary urns with images of human face. Such urns were previously known only in Troy.
The Celtic god Lug became the main European deity for a long time, and his most ardent worshipers were called Lugii. In the future, the name of the god was included in the name of the area Lusatia (eastern Germany and northern Bohemia). The prevalence of the cult can be judged by toponyms scattered throughout Western Europe: the cities of Lugano in Switzerland, Lyon (formerly Luglunum) in France, Lugo in northern Spain.
Western Veneti were romanized in northern Italy - the region of Venice, as well as in northern France. They were assimilated by the Germanic tribes in the center of Europe - Vienna (formerly Vindabon). The modern Bavarian city of Augsburg, in Roman times, was called Augusta Vindelicorum, that is, "the city of Augustus, in the country of the Wends (Vineds) living according to the Lik." There is no information about any statehood of the Venedian tribes themselves.
In the east, the Veneds merged with the Slavic tribes of the Skolots, becoming Sclavins and Slovenes (the Slovenian historian Matej Bor deduces the ethnonym from the name of his people - "slo-ven-t-ci"). An illustrative example of the inability of the Venets to an independent state structure is the appearance in the center of Europe of Hungarians who speak the Finno-Ugric language similar to the Mansi language. In the 9th century, the Venets living in Panonia were conquered by the Ugrians who came here from the Northern Urals and adopted their language and customs. Byzantine chroniclers, without further ado, called this people the Hungarians (Veneti + Ugrians).
The last mention of the Venets as an independent people we meet in the XIII century in Latvia. The stone castle of the sword-bearers Wenden was built in 1207, not far from the castle of the Wends that already existed there. In the same place, in the region of Cesis, an ancient settlement was discovered, which since the 9th century was inhabited by Vendians. In Latvia, there are many geographical names with the stem vent or vind - toponyms: Ventspils (Vindava), Ventava village. On the river Venta, where the Wends lived, the village of Piltene was mentioned in 1230 as Venetis. According to Estonian local historians, many Vendians lived near Derpt (Tartu). There is an assumption that the Wends also settled on the Volkhov near Novgorod, and the small island of Vindin south of Novaya Ladoga quite likely got its name from the Wends who lived there.
The Wends, who lived in the neighborhood of Lusatia in Poland, learned agriculture and cattle breeding from their western tribesmen. They also adopted the god, whom they called more gently - Luko. It was the god of oak groves, who, they believed, gave the Wends an excellent weapon - a bow, taught them how to work wood, and warmed them with their warmth. At that time, this was quite enough. But at the end of the 1st millennium BC. From Scandinavia, Germanic tribes began to penetrate the territory of Poland. They were large and strong fair-haired people armed with spears, clubs and swords, distinguished by great organization. Tacitus left a classic description of the appearance of the Germans: "Hard Blue eyes, blond hair, tall bodies ... grow up with such a physique and such a camp that lead us to astonishment. It is unlikely that at that time someone could resist them in close combat, but ...
Veneti gave a rebuff to the aliens. Most of all, the Germans were surprised that their mighty fighters fell dead from an arrow shot from behind a tree by some young man. There was a temporary reconciliation. As a sign of respect, the aliens even introduced the Venedian god into their pantheon, and Loki (Luko) joined the well-known trinity of Thor, Odin and Baldur. The tactics of the Germanic tribes changed and, being outnumbered, they behaved comparatively friendly for some time. For several centuries they settled the Danish Islands and free areas along the coast of the Baltic Sea without any conflict. Such tactics led in some areas to the mutual assimilation of Germans and Wends. Until now, scientists argue about the ethnicity of the Rugians and Vandals.

Everything changed in the III-IV centuries, when the cold snap peaked in the Baltic region. It was then that the more Germanized Vandas (Vandilii) moved towards the borders of the Roman Empire, and the Eastern Vandas (Vanti) moved to the southeast. Soon they appeared in the territories of Lithuania and Belarus, and by the end of the 4th century they ended up in the Dnieper region. The Ants were quite organized and, if you can apply this word to those times, civilized. This can be judged by the calendar of the 4th c. n. e. with an exact definition of the timing of prayers found in the Middle Dnieper. On the jug for sacred water, the days of the all-European period for the appearance of the first sprouts and until the end of the harvest are indicated: the first sprouts - May 2 (“Boris Khlebnik”); semik or Yarilin day - June 4; "Ivan Kupala - June 24; the beginning of preparations for Perun's Day - July 12; Perun's day (Ilyin's day) - July 20; the end of the harvest - August 7 ("Saviour"). The accuracy of the calendar intended for praying for rain is amazing, the calendar of the ancient Antes is confirmed by the agrotechnical manual late XIX in. for Kiev region.
About these times in the middle Dnieper we can find only a legend about Kyi, Shchek and Khoriv. It is quite real, but not in terms of the consanguinity of these legendary personalities, but in the union of three tribes united in an attempt to create the first Slavic state. These were the Antes (the Greek chroniclers again excluded the letter “v”), the Sclavins and the Croats (Khorses). The Ants have already settled quite densely on the middle Dnieper. The Sklavins lived in the black earth regions of Russia and the steppe Ukraine. The Slavic Khors (as they were called after the worship of the god Khors) came here from the North Caucasus, the Kuban and Don steppes, fleeing from the Huns.
Croats - descendants of the Cimmerians - large, fair-haired, courageous warriors. Their ancient ancestral home can be judged from the chronography of Orosius (the end of the 9th century), which mentions the ancient “khorota”, to the north of which, the “land of Magda” (Meotia, the land of the Amazons) was located, and even to the north - “sermends” (Sarmatians ). In the III century, the Croats suffered a sensitive defeat from Germanarich, and a little later, under the onslaught of the Huns, most of them left with the Ostrogoths to the west. This is mentioned in his chronicle by the priest-Duklyanina (XII century), which reports the arrival in Europe in the first centuries of the “Goth-Slavs” from the “northern country”.
The settlers from the south were at that time the most combat-ready, but the smallest in the created triumvirate. Cut off from their land, the Croats settled south of Kyiv in the region of Pereyaslavl, where their main outpost was a settlement on the island of Khortitsa. These were the ancestors of the Zaporozhye Cossacks.
When choosing an archon (the chief leader of the commonwealth), an ant was elected, whose name or nickname Kyi meant a staff, a rod, a club. There is another no less real version that the Persian word ki, introduced by the Croats, meaning ruler or prince, was adopted to designate this elective position. Pseudo-Mauritius writes about the election of the first archons in his work “Strategikon”: “These tribes, Slavs and Antes, are not ruled by one person, but since ancient times they live in the rule of the people, and therefore they consider happiness and unhappiness in life to be a common thing. And in all other respects, both of these barbarian tribes have the same life and laws.
According to the calculations of Academician B.A. Rybakov, the first Kiy reigned at the turn of the 5th-6th centuries and met with the Byzantine emperor Anastasius (491-518). At the same time, at the end of the 5th century, Kyiv was founded on the steep bank of the Dnieper. Perhaps, initially it was not the main city, but was only a trading center. Sambotas - this was the name of this city in Constantinople, it means a trading pier or, in a more accurate translation from the Germanic languages, a collection of boats (sam - collection, botas - boats). This is another indirect evidence that the Antes (vanty) were partially Germanized. Goods were really brought here along the Dnieper, Desna and their tributaries. Over the next century, a number of Slavic tribes on the right bank of the Dnieper and Transnistria and living north of the Krivichi joined the three main allies. Sambotas began to have political and religious significance, becoming the main city or city of the prince - Kiev. Here questions of war and peace were discussed, prayers were made and sacrifices were made to the gods. Judging by the sanctuary found by archaeologists, there were four of them. It could be Rod or Svarog (Sklavins), Khors (Croats), Stribog, aka Luko (Antes) and Perkunas (Krivichi).
The union of tribes had a purely military basis. Joint defense of frontiers, and joint predatory campaigns. After the first campaign to the borders of Byzantium, part of the Slavin warriors, led by Czech, did not return. They chose not to share the booty and stay on the lands that they liked. At that time, it was an ordinary phenomenon when the conditions of intertribal agreements were fulfilled only during the life of the leader who accepted them, and even were forgotten as circumstances dictated. According to one of the legends, Ant Khilbudiy participating in this campaign, who opposed such a decision, was captured, but nevertheless managed to return to Kyiv.
After that, hostile relations began between the Antes and the Western Slavs, which Byzantium was not slow to take advantage of. In 545-546. Justinian's embassy arrives in Kyiv. These were the first diplomatic relations, as a result of which a trade and military alliance was concluded. Within half a century, all trade relations with Byzantium were restored. Through the former Greek colonies, mainly through Olbia, caravans with grain went there. Fabrics, weapons and luxury items were brought from there. During excavations in Kyiv, not only Byzantine coins from the times of Anastasius I and Justinian I were found, but also various decorations produced in Constantinople.
At the same time, Justinian I instructed the leader of the Ants, Khilbudiy, to restore the defensive line in the Danube and Transnistria, and later appointed him the chief strategist, and in fact the governor of Thrace. Ants were supposed to protect the borders Byzantine Empire not only from the steppe nomads from the east, but also from the Slavs from the north. The very name of this real historical person (a tombstone was found near Constantinople) could well be pronounced Kiy-budiy, which can be easily translated as a builder prince. In Thrace on the Danube, Khilbudius immediately began to restore the defensive line of the time of the Roman emperor Trojan and build his new capital, Kievets.
At the same time, intensive construction of serpent ramparts was carried out near Kiev. For the wild hordes of nomads, it was an insurmountable defensive structure, and perhaps that is why the Avars did not turn towards Kyiv, but went to the west. Their stream swept away all the tribes and peoples who lived in steppe zone. The Avars adopted the tactics of the Huns. They forced the conquered peoples to join their army or simply killed all the men, and sent the women and children to the Asian slave markets. So two centuries earlier, Croats, Alans, Bulgarians ended up in Europe, and now again part of these peoples was carried away to the west. The heterogeneity of the Avars is confirmed by anthropologists - 80% of the studied skulls are of Caucasian origin, although they themselves considered the descendants of the Huns (from the Var tribe).
The renewed defense line in the area of ​​the city of Tirras could not withstand the onslaught of the Avars, Kievets was destroyed. The steppe people managed to move deep into Europe and the Avar Khaganate existed for almost two centuries, in the territories of Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and southern Germany (Bavaria).
The Antes continued to maintain relations with Byzantium, some sources report that a meeting took place between the leader of the Antes Kiy (confirmation of the second version that Kiy means prince) with the emperor. The answer was not long in coming, and in the same year the Avar Khagan sent his commander Apsikha with an order to completely exterminate the tribe of Ants. Theophylact Simocatta reports that this happened around the end of the reign of Emperor Mauritius (582-602). But the Antes were too numerous to be completely destroyed as a result of just one attack. Most likely, the military-political elite was destroyed, the territory of settlement was devastated and plundered, and many people were killed.

After such a defeat, left without a tribal elite, the guys along the Desna and the Seim began to move east. An analysis of the Vyatichi antiquities found during excavations shows that they are closest to the material archaeological evidence of the upper Dniester. And the names of these rivers themselves speak of their western roots: the Desna is the right hand or sleeve, if you go up the Dnieper, and the Seim is a common river. The Vanty settled in the upper reaches of the Oka, on the lands of the disappeared "Moshchinskaya culture" with Baltic roots. Historians suggest that a pestilence probably passed here, which is why relatively free lands appeared. The Finno-Ugric tribes Merya, Meshchera, Murom, could not provide any resistance to the Vyatichi, and were gradually pushed back to the northeast.
Whether the settlers had a leader, Vyatko, remains unclear. According to one version, the word Vyatichi did not come from the name of their leader, but from their distorted self-name - Ventichi or Vantichi. Most likely, this was the name of the Novgorodians, who approximately similarly called the Karelians - Onezhichi, Pskov and Smolensk - Krivichi. A confirmation of this version can be considered the message of the Arab author of the 9th century al Gardizi, he writes about the Vyatichi: “And on the extreme limits of the Slavic lies the land called Vantit.”
Vyatichi settled in the territory of the present Kaluga region. Their capital was the city of Gordno, which, due to the mistake of the scribe Vladimir Monomakh, turned into Kordno. Proudly stood at the intersection of two ancient trade routes: along the Ugra - from the Baltic states and along the upper Oka - to Kiev. The Vyatichi were actively involved in trade with their neighbors and carried their furs to Bulgar, where the Khazars bought them. After the Vyatichi helped the Novgorodians in the campaign against the Crimea (790-800), the Khazars conquered them and imposed tribute. The tribute was cruel, on the hat ( gold coin) from the ral (plow) and Vyatichi stopped paying it. To get away from her, they used the already proven tactics used by them in the past - they skillfully hid their homes in the forest, and therefore tribute was collected only from those they could find. Perhaps at first this was not done intentionally, because the Vyatichi-plowmen changed their settlements after about 5 years as the soil was depleted. The top of the Vyatichi was in a difficult position, she had to get out. In Gordno, the Khazar messengers were received with honor, they were assured that no one refused to pay, but there was no one to collect from. Perhaps the Khazars tried to do it themselves, but realizing that their raids were not effective (more expenses), they fell behind the Vyatichi. Another reason for the loss of interest in the Vyatichi is also possible, the Khazars were interested in the furs of martens and sables, and here for two or three decades of intensive hunting there were almost none left. And the quality of furs middle lane clearly inferior to the north. The Vyatichi people obviously liked such a good deal, and since that time they were very fond of hiding their valuables and showing off.
The relationship between the Vyatichi and Kievan Rus is interesting. Oleg considered them as allies in the fight against Khazaria, but at that time he did not try to attach them to Kiev by force. Interestingly, in the annals, the Vyatichi were not mentioned as part of Oleg's army during the campaign against Tsargrad (907). As the further course of events showed, the Vyatichi did not like to get involved in all sorts of adventures, and sought to draw less attention to themselves. For example, they never built large and rich cities, which could serve as a bait for conquerors.
In a campaign against Khazaria in 964, Svyatoslav freed the Vyatichi from the Khazar tribute on the way there, and they helped him in moving the troops, supplying him with cut down boats, guides and even soldiers. But on the way back, Svyatoslav imposed a tribute on the Vyatichi, no less than the Khazar. The Vyatichi people did not like this very much, and, having paid at first, they soon refused to pay it. It is possible that the Vyatichi were aware of the events, and knew that Svyatoslav and his retinue had gone to Bulgaria. In approximately the same way, they decided to act with the son of Svyatoslav Vladimir, who conquered the Vyatichi in 981. Vladimir had to go there again a year later: “Vyatichi started up, and went to Vladimir, and won the second one.” What happened next, the chronicles are silent, but the Vyatichi received an unflattering description of the Kiev chronicler as a rude tribe, "like animals, eating everything is unclean."
In fact, archaeological excavations show that the Vyatichi were not so wild after all. They were engaged in cattle breeding and tillage, they had numerous craft workshops of blacksmiths, locksmiths, jewelers, potters, stone cutters. The Vyatichi had a high level of jewelry, and the collection of foundry molds found on their lands is second only to Kiev. Master jewelers made bracelets, rings, temporal rings, crosses, amulets. About 60 types of rings were produced by the Vyatichi, and the famous seven-lobed temporal pendants were worn only by Vyatichi women. Today, archaeologists accurately determine the boundaries of the Vyatichi settlement using these temporal rings.
After the campaigns of Vladimir, mention of the Vyatichi disappear from the pages of chronicles for almost a hundred years. If somewhere the chronicler monks casually mention them, then they blacken them without sparing colors. This was due to the fact that the Vyatichi blocked the direct road from Kyiv to Rostov and Murom, because of which the people of Kiev had to go around their lands through Smolensk. You can learn about this from epics. Ilya Muromets, having traveled from Murom to Kyiv by a direct road, proudly tells Vladimir about this:

And I drove straight along the road,
From the capital city of Murom,
from that village of Karacharova.

What the Kiev heroes say to the prince:

And the sun is gentle, Prince Vladimir,
In the eyes of the kid, he twists:
And where should he drive a straight road.

The action of another epic about the Nightingale the Robber also takes place on the land of the Vyatichi. The Baltic tribe Golyad, who lived in the Smolensk and Kaluga regions, constantly robbed the merchant carts. According to the epic, you can even specify the habitat of the Nightingale the Robber - "Bryn Forests". On the river Bryn, which flows into the tributary of the Oka Zhizdra, not far from the Vyatichi city of Kozelsk, today there is the village of Bryn. Captured in those places, the Nightingale the Robber is none other than the famous leader of the golyad Mogut, according to one of the chronicles, he was brought to a feast to Prince Vladimir in 1006.
Having received relative freedom, by the end of the 11th century, the Vyatichi significantly expanded their possessions, and turned their community into a kind of principality. It was a monarchical state located in the territories of the present Tula, Kaluga and Ryazan regions. It was soon joined by the Baltic tribes living on the territory of the Moscow region, and the Slavs living to the south (Kursk, Oryol and Lipetsk regions). This can be judged by the culture of the Vyatichi and their economy. For example, they borrowed a braid from the Balts. According to the finds of archaeologists, the length of the blades, it reached half a meter, and a width of 4-6 cm. This, despite all that, almost until the 17th century, a sickle was preferred throughout Russia, and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich even had to issue a decree on the mandatory transition in farms from sickles to a scythe "Lithuanian", - failure to comply with the decree was punished with severe punishment.
Another trend from Lithuania can be attributed to the first estates of the Vyatich feudal lords, very similar to Western castles. The fortified estates were small: in the middle there was a courtyard - a small area free from buildings, outbuildings, craft workshops, semi-dugouts of servants and cellars were located in a circle. An impressive house on a powerful stone foundation was heated by a stove very similar to a fireplace. As a rule, there was an underground passage from the estate to the nearest river. IN Tula region only in the Upa river basin such fortified estates were located near the villages of Gorodna, Taptykovo, Ketri, Staraya Krapivenka, Novoye Selo. They also met in the southern regions, for example, in the Oryol region, exactly the same estates were found on the Nepolodi River (Spassky settlement) and near the village of Titovo-Motyka.
The influence from the southern Slavic tribes can be attributed to the increase in the pantheon of gods and the expansion of religious rites. To the veneration of Stribog (the old god Luko), who created the world, was added the veneration of Yarila, the god of farmers and war. On June 23, when the sun gives the greatest strength to plants, the Vyatichi celebrated the holiday of Kupala, the god of earthly fruits. Vyatichi believed that on the night of Kupala, trees move from place to place and talk to each other with the noise of branches. Among young people, the spring Lel, the god of love, was especially revered, the Vyatichi people also sang the goddess Lada, the patroness of marriage and family. The Slavic gods gradually pushed back the Baltic beliefs in wonderful companions of life, goblin, water, brownie. The brownie seemed to be a little old man, overgrown with hair, grouchy, but kind and caring. In the view of the Vyatichi, Santa Claus was also a harmful and unsightly old man, who shook his gray beard and caused bitter frosts. Vyatichi Santa Claus frightened children. Both of these characters were undoubtedly similar to the gnomes or elves, whose cult flourished in the west even before Christ. e.
During the XI century, the lands of the Vyatichi continued to grow rich and built up. To date, archaeologists have found 1621 settlements, including about 30 settlements. The cities of the Vyatichi were small and had from 1 to 3 thousand people. Among them are the cities known to us today - Voronezh (first mentioned in 1155), Dedoslavl (1146), Kozelsk (1146), Kromy (1147), Kolomna (1177), Moscow (1147), Mtsensk (1146), Nerinsk ( 1147), Yelets (1147), Serensk (1147), Teshilov (1147), Trubech (1186). These include the current city of Ryazan (1095), at first called Pereyaslavl-Ryazan. Here in the floodplain of the Oka on the northern outskirts of former island there was a rich trading settlement of the Vyatichi.
The Vyatichi continued to be friends with the Novgorodians and sold them grain. Together with them they participated in trade with Khazaria. One of the main goods of the Vyatichi were squirrel and marten furs, beaver skins and honey. From there they brought fabrics, spices and sweets, and they melted the dirhams, making silver bracelets and other jewelry out of them.
Only in the second half of the 11th century, after two campaigns, Vladimir Monomakh reasserted his authority over the Vyatichi. In his “Instruction” to his sons, he wrote: “And I go to Vyatichi for two winters and I am his son Hodot.” The campaigns of Monomakh were directed against the Vyatich prince Khodota, whose capital Kordno archaeologists have not yet established. But interestingly, Monomakh does not report anything, neither about the results of these campaigns, nor about the taxation of Vyatichi tribute. And a year later, at the congress of princes in Lyubech, where the princely tables were divided, the land of the Vyatichi is not mentioned anywhere.
In 1096, Oleg Svyatoslavich, expelled from Chernigov by Monomakh, occupied Old Ryazan. From his brother Yaroslav, the dynasty of Ryazan princes begins and the Vyatichi find themselves in the ring of ancient Russian principalities. After the death of Monomakh, the Vyatka outskirts were already subordinated to Murom, Chernigov, Smolensk and Ryazan. The Vyatichi were finally annexed to Kievan Rus during the period of civil strife between the Olgovichi and Monomakhovichi, when the Slavic squads of Svyatoslav Olgovich and Yuri Dolgorukov passed through their lands more than once.
The chronicle mentions the Vyatichi for the last time - in 1197. For comparison, I will cite the last mentions of other tribes in them: the meadow in 944, the Drevlyans - in the 990th, the Krivichi - in the 1127th, the Radimichi - in the 1169th. The most freedom-loving tribe kept its name the longest.

WHAT WE LEFT FROM VYATICHI

Moscow was the last of the important trading settlements of the Vyatichi. Its creation can be attributed to the time of the capture of Old Ryazan by the Kiev princes (1096), after which the main trade artery of the Vyatichi Oka was blocked. It was then that a workaround was found - from the Moskva River by dragging to the Klyazma. To the north of Moscow, the village of Goretny Stan arose. Perhaps its name, like the tributary of the river Skhodnya (Vskhodnya) Goretovka, came from a heavy steep ascent, along which the Vyatichi had to drag ships.
But the central settlement in this area, almost a century older than Goretny Stan, was Moskov. This is confirmed by the Spassky mounds of the Vyatichi XI-XIII centuries. This is one of the latest barrow groups, the center of which was the Great Grave barrow (more than 7 m in height and about 20 m in diameter). During its excavations in 1883, the remains of an old warrior wrapped in birch bark with two horse bits and two pots at the head were found there. In neighboring mounds, Vyatichi women's jewelry was found: seven-lobed temporal pendants, carnelian red and white beads, etc.
From medieval sources it is known that during the time of Vladimir Monomakh (10-20 years of the XII century) on the site of the Kremlin there was a "village of the red boyar good Kuchka Stepan Ivanovich". In one of the annals of the second half of the 12th century, his name is also mentioned: “Moscow, river Kuchkovo”. Sretenka area and Chistye Prudy also until the 15th century it was called "Kuchkov field". Who was the boyar Kuchkov is unknown. Historian-researcher Igor Bystrov suggests that this was one of the last tribal leaders of the Vyatichi, who was executed by Yuri Dolgoruky, who came here. But, it should not be ruled out that it was a posadnik sent here to restore order, who did not cope with his task of blocking the trade routes of the Vyatichi people. After Yuri Dolgoruky puts things in order in this "bear corner" and a well-known invitation appears to Prince Svyatoslav Olgovich dating back to 1147: "Come to me, brother, to Moscow."
The main Russian name Ivan can also be attributed to the inheritance from the Vyatichi. It is quite logical to draw an analogy to the custom that existed during the period of tribal communities, when people called themselves by their clan-tribe. For example, among the Dulebs, the main name is Dulo, among the Russ-Alans - Ruslan. So the vantites, vants, vans could introduce themselves: I am a van. The fact that this name appears among the descendants of Rurik already in the 12th century among the children of Rostislav Vladimirovich and Izyaslav Yaroslavich suggests that this is a Slavic name, because canonical names among Russian princes began to dominate only a century later. In the course were Vladimirs, Yaroslavs, Svetopolki. For example, Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko, although he was named Vasily at baptism, never remembered him.
Indirect confirmation of the Slavic origin of this name can be the saying: “Stop playing Vanka” - which very well illustrates the Vyatichi’s shirking of tribute, as well as the well-known toy Vanka-vstanka, when Vanka, seemingly laid down and subjugated, suddenly gets up, as if nothing had happened. Quite logically, the well-known phraseological unit fits here - to play the fool. I think everyone knows the main character of our fairy tales, Ivanushka the Fool, in fact, only pretending to be him. But in critical situations, Ivan the Fool defeats all enemies with his mind and ingenuity.
Until the middle of the XII century, the Vyatichi retained a pagan religion. The people of Kiev tried more than once to convert their neighbors to the Orthodox faith, but the Vyatichi listened to the preachers and even agreed, but were not going to give up their gods. In 1141, the Vyatichi killed the monk Kuksha and his companion Pimen, who had come to the Vyatichi lands to spread the Christian faith. It was then that the name of the old god of the Vyatichi Luko was used to characterize not only the Vyatichi themselves, but also everything that was contrary to the Christian faith - crafty. The people of Kiev were not the first to notice this feature of the Vyatichi. Almost a thousand years earlier, the Germans overthrew the Vendian god Luko from their pantheon, accusing him of cunning and the ability to adapt, acting according to circumstances.
Indeed, the definition most suitable for Vyatichi is that he is on his own mind. They, clearly losing to their neighbors in organization and in military power, ingenuity has always been held in high esteem. This is very well illustrated by a fairy tale recorded in the 19th century by Afanasyev on Vyatichi land (Ryazan region). A little girl went with her friends into the forest and got lost there. Night fell, the girl climbed a tree, began to cry and called for her grandfather and grandmother. A bear approaches: - Let me take you to your grandfather and grandmother. - No, the girl answers, - you will eat me. Suitable wolf: - Let me take you to your grandparents. “No,” the girl replies. The fox comes up and also offers to take her home - the girl agrees. Grandfather and grandmother were delighted, praised the fox, fed and sipped. And she suddenly: - And you still owe me a chicken! Grandfather and grandmother, without hesitation, answer: - Yes, we will give you two, - and they put a chicken in one of the bags, and a dog in the other. Fox came into the forest, untied the bags, the dog drove her away, and then returned home with the hen.
This is where you think: if the girl was savvy, she climbed a tree and did not succumb to the proposals of the wolf and the bear, if the grandmother and grandfather were not born, then what can we say about adults. By the way, the expression is not a bastard, it is also quite suitable for the Vyatichi: although they wore bast shoes, it was quite difficult to fool them. Therefore, the people of Kiev did not like them, not knowing that, in essence, they were of the same kind-tribe.
The above-mentioned principle of the Vyatichi people will come to terms, is well illustrated by archaeologists who have found a huge number of treasures on the land of the Vyatichi people. Academician B.A. Rybakov writes: "Treasures in the land of the Vyatichi make up almost half of all treasures in the Slavic lands." So you think: is this not the habit of our people to save everything for a rainy day?
This can also be attributed to the habit of attributing their lands - fields and gardens away from their homes - maybe they won’t find it. I won’t say that it’s precisely because in Soviet times our dachas were at a sufficient distance from the places of residence, but some intuitive moments in the subconscious could take place.
And, finally, what our historical science simply ignores: the Vyatichi brought pig breeding to Russian soil. As you know, the Celts began to domesticate pigs. It began in the center of Europe about 4 thousand years ago. The sign of the Celts was a crest formed on the withers of a wild boar, symbolizing the fighting spirit. They also made their hair look like a boar's comb, lubricating their hair with boar's blood. An echo of that distant time is the familiar word koltun - meaning a ball of tangled hair. There is no doubt that this word and its concept were brought by the Vyatichi, because the female temporal rings with an inverted crest inside were called kolts.
Over time, the German tribes and Venets seized the initiative in breeding pigs. Pork is a favorite food of Poles, Belarusians and Ukrainians. All this way was done at the beginning of the ante. The Vyatichi were also engaged in pig breeding, and this is confirmed in the writings of Arab chroniclers who wrote that the Vyatichi graze pigs just like they feed sheep.

Reviews

I was pleased to read such a historical study on a literary site. The value of this work, first of all, is that it causes a desire to renew something in memory, to discuss, to clarify ... As I see it, the work of archaeologists was used to a large extent, hence some narrowness and one-sidedness of individual historical interpretations, messages. For example, where we are talking about the area of ​​​​settlement of certain tribes in specific historical periods or time frames. Often this happened in wider territorial boundaries ...

As for the Vyatichi, in the work, as in many other similar studies about this ethnic group, its somewhat simplified presentation prevails. Vyatichi, in terms of their socio-political organization, economic activity, and culture, were a rather highly organized tribe with extensive external ties, and by the 12th-13th centuries. many prosperous ancient Russian lands were already ahead in their development! Many researchers write about this - Kizilov, Sakharov and others.

The Vyatichi Slavs brought with them to the local population new forms of social organization with a higher agricultural and pastoral culture, with the widespread use of metal products. Their contacts with the Finno-Ugric and Baltic tribes - political, economic and cultural - lead to a close rapprochement of these peoples, to a large extent - assimilation (and not ousting them from the inhabited territories, as you think - A.P.) and the emergence of social -political synthesis - Slavic-Finno-Ugric and Slavic-Baltic.

In the Middle Ages, on the Oka and the Upper Don, according to a number of researchers, there was a strong Vyatichian state (!!!) - a tribal association independent of Kievan Rus with the center - the city of Kordno.

In the epics about Ilya Muromets, his trip from Murom to Kyiv "by the straight road" through the Vyatka lands was considered one of the heroic deeds. Usually they preferred to go around this territory in a roundabout way.

Christian monks vilify the Vyatichi people, first of all, not because they blocked the road from Kyiv to Rostov and Murom, but because they are pagans of other faiths, with their own original culture. Paganism among the Vyatichi persisted until the 17th century, when the term “Vyatichi” itself had already gone out of use. This once again emphasizes their independence and originality, and not the archetype...

Thanks for the interesting read. Good luck!

In the VIII-IX centuries, in the interfluve of the Volga and Oka and on the upper Don, an alliance of tribes headed by the elder Vyatko came; after his name, this people began to be called "Vyatichi". The chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" writes on this occasion: "And Vyatko is gray-haired with his family according to Otse, from whom they are called Vyatichi."

Migration of peoples

The first people in the upper reaches of the Don appeared several million years ago, in the era of the Upper Paleolithic. The hunters who lived here knew how to make not only tools, but also amazingly carved stone figurines, which glorified the Paleolithic sculptors of the Upper Don region. For many millennia, our land has been inhabited by various peoples, among which are the Alans, who gave the name to the Don River, which means "river" in translation; wide expanses were inhabited by Finnish tribes, who left us many geographical names as a legacy, for example: the rivers Oka, Protva, Moscow, Sylva.

In the 5th century, the migration of the Slavs to the lands of Eastern Europe began. In the VIII-IX centuries, in the interfluve of the Volga and Oka and on the upper Don, an alliance of tribes headed by the elder Vyatko came; after his name, this people began to be called "Vyatichi". The chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" writes on this occasion: "And Vyatko is gray-haired with his family according to Otse, from whom they are called Vyatichi." A map of the Vyatichi settlement in the 11th century can be viewed here.

Life and customs

The Vyatichi-Slavs received an unflattering description of the Kiev chronicler as a rude tribe, "like animals, eating everything unclean." Vyatichi, like everyone else Slavic tribes, lived tribal system. They knew only the genus, which meant the totality of relatives and each of them; clans constituted a "tribe". The people's assembly of the tribe elected a leader for himself, who commanded the army during campaigns and wars. It was called old Slavic name"prince". Gradually, the power of the prince increased and became hereditary. Vyatichi, who lived among the boundless forests, built log huts similar to modern ones, small windows were cut through in them, which were tightly closed with valves during cold weather.

The land of the Vyatichi was vast and famous for its wealth, abundance of animals, birds and fish. They led a closed semi-hunting, semi-agricultural life. Small villages of 5-10 households, as the arable land was depleted, were transferred to other places where the forest was burned, and for 5-6 years the land gave good harvest until exhausted; then it was necessary to move again to new areas of the forest and start all over again. In addition to farming and hunting, the Vyatichi were engaged in beekeeping and fishing. Beaver ruts then existed on all rivers and rivers, and beaver fur was considered an important article of trade. Vyatichi bred cattle, pigs, horses. Food for them was harvested with scythes, the blades of which reached half a meter in length and 4-5 cm in width.

Vyatichesky temporal ring

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.

Vyatichi conducted a brisk trade. Trade relations were established with the Arab world, they went along the Oka and 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. Denaria crowd out other coins and become the main instrument monetary circulation. But the Vyatichi traded with Byzantium for the longest time - from the 11th to the 12th centuries, where they brought furs, honey, wax, products of gunsmiths and goldsmiths, and in return received silk fabrics, glass beads and vessels, bracelets.

Judging by archaeological sources, the Vyatiche settlements and settlements of the 8th-10th centuries. and especially XI-XII. centuries were settlements not so much tribal communities as territorial, neighboring ones. Findings speak of a noticeable property stratification among the inhabitants of these settlements of that time, about the wealth of some and the poverty of others dwellings and graves, about the development of crafts and trade exchange.

It is interesting that among the local settlements of that time there are not only settlements of the “urban” type or obvious rural settlements, but also quite small in area, surrounded by powerful earthen fortifications of the settlement. Apparently, these are the remains of the fortified estates of local feudal lords of that time, their original "castles". In the Upa basin, similar fortified estates were found near the villages of Gorodna, Taptykovo, Ketri, Staraya Krapivenka, Novoye Selo. There are such in other places in the Tula region.

About significant changes in the life of the local population in the IX-XI centuries. tell us the ancient chronicles. According to the "Tale of Bygone Years" in the IX century. Vyatichi paid tribute to the Khazar Khaganate. They continued to be his subjects into the 10th century. The initial tribute was levied, apparently, in furs and house-to-house (“from smoke”), and in the 10th century. a monetary tribute was already required and “from the ral” - from the plowman. So the chronicle testifies to the development of arable farming and commodity-money relations among the Vyatichi at that time. Judging by the chronicle data, the land of the Vyatichi in the VIII-XI centuries. was an integral East Slavic territory. long time Vyatichi retained their independence and isolation.

Religion

The Vyatichi were pagans and retained the ancient faith longer than other tribes. If in Kievan Rus the main god was Perun - the god of the stormy sky, then among the Vyatichi - 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 violent 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 creature of a wild species, which was above all tall tree. Goblin tried to knock a person off the road in the forest, lead him into an impenetrable swamp, slums and destroy him there. At the bottom of the river, lake, in the whirlpools lived a water man - a naked, shaggy old man, the owner of waters and swamps, all their riches. He was the lord of the mermaids. Mermaids are the souls of drowned girls, evil creatures. Coming out of the water where they live on a moonlit night, they try to lure a person into the water with singing and charms and tickle him to death. The brownie - the main owner of the house - enjoyed great respect. This is a little old man who looks like the owner of the house, all overgrown with hair, an eternal troublemaker, often grouchy, but deep down kind and caring. In the view of the Vyatichi, Santa Claus was an unsightly, harmful old man, who shook his gray beard and caused bitter frosts. Children were scared of Santa Claus. But in the 19th century, he turned into a kind creature who, together with the Snow Maiden, brings gifts for the New Year. Such were the life, customs and religion of the Vyatichi, in which they differed little from other East Slavic tribes.

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

Vyatichi burial mounds

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. In a number of mounds, burial chambers were found - 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.

Conquest by Kiev

In 882, Prince Oleg created a united Old Russian state. The freedom-loving and warlike tribe of the Vyatichi for a long time and stubbornly defended independence from Kyiv. They were headed by the princes elected by the people's assembly, who lived in the capital of the Vyatich tribe, the city of Dedoslavl (now Dedilovo). The strongholds were the fortress cities of Mtsensk, Kozelsk, Rostislavl, Lobynsk, Lopasnya, Moskalsk, Serenok and others, which numbered from 1 to 3 thousand inhabitants. Under the command of the Vyatich princes there was a large army, in the forefront of which stood recognized strongmen and brave men, who boldly exposed their bare chests to arrows. All their clothes were linen trousers, tightly tied with belts and tucked into boots, and their weapons were wide axes-axes, so heavy that they fought with both hands. But how terrible were the blows of battle axes: they cut through even strong armor and split helmets like clay pots. Spear warriors with large shields made up the second line of fighters, and behind them crowded archers and javelin throwers - young warriors.

In 907, the Vyatichi are mentioned by the chronicler as participants in the campaign of the Kiev prince Oleg against Tsargrad, the capital of Byzantium.

In 964 Kyiv prince Svyatoslav invaded the borders of the easternmost Slavic people. He had a well-armed and disciplined squad, but he did not want a fratricidal war. He held negotiations with the elders of the Vyatichi. The chronicle of this event reports briefly: “Svyatoslav went to the Oka River and the Volga and met the Vyatichi and said to them:“ To whom are you giving tribute? to him.

However, the Vyatichi soon separated from Kyiv. The Prince of Kyiv Vladimir Svyatoslavich also fought twice with the Vyatichi. The chronicle says that in 981 he defeated them and laid tribute - from each plow, as his father took it. But in 982, as the chronicle reports, the Vyatichi rose up in a war, and Vladimir went to them and won a second time. Having baptized Russia in 988, Vladimir sent a monk of the Kiev Caves Monastery to the land of the Vyatichi in order to introduce the forest people to Orthodoxy. Gloomy bearded men in bast shoes and women wrapped up to the very eyebrows in headscarves respectfully listened to the visiting missionary, but then they unanimously expressed bewilderment: why, why is it necessary to change the religion of their grandfathers and fathers to faith in Christ? that dark corner of the endless Vyatich forests at the hands of fanatical pagans.

It is noteworthy that in the epics about Ilya Muromets, his move from Murom to Kyiv by the road "straight" through the Vyatka territory is considered one of his heroic deeds. Usually they preferred to go around it in a roundabout way. With pride, as about a special feat, Vladimir Monomakh also speaks of his campaigns in this land in his “Instruction”, dating back to the end of the 11th century. It should be noted that he does not mention either the conquest of the Vyatichi by him, or the imposition of tribute. Apparently, they were ruled in those days by independent leaders or elders. In the Teaching, Monomakh crushes Khodota and his son out of them.

Until the last quarter of the 11th century. chronicles do not name a single city in the land of Vyatichi. Apparently, she was essentially unknown to the chroniclers.

Khodota uprising

In 1066, the proud and recalcitrant Vyatichi again rise against Kyiv. They are headed by Khodota and his son, well-known adherents of the pagan religion in their region. 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.

For the second winter, the Grand Duke prepared differently. First of all, he sent his scouts to the Vyatka settlements, occupied the main ones and brought there all kinds of supplies. And when the frost hit, Khodota was forced to go to warm himself in the huts and dugouts. Monomakh overtook him in one of the winter quarters. The combatants knocked out everyone who fell under the arm in this battle.

But the Vyatichi still fought and rebelled for a long time, until the governors intercepted and bandaged all the instigators and executed them in front of the villagers with a fierce execution. Only then did the land of the Vyatichi finally become part of the Old Russian state. In the XIV century, the Vyatichi finally leave the historical scene and are no longer mentioned in the annals.

The capital of the Vyatichi

The following is known about the capital of the state: "In VII-X centuries on the Oka and the upper Don there was a state of the Vyatichi, independent of Kievan Rus. The center of this state, the ancient Russian city of Kordno, historians see near the modern village of Karniki, Venevsky district. Arab sources called this city Khordab and described how the squad collected tribute from the population.

Source - http://www.m-byte.ru/venev/