The most extreme Slavic tribe in the east in the 9th century. are Vyatichi. As is known, the chronicler preserved a curious legend about the origin of the Vyatichi and their neighbors Radimichi, from which they conclude that these tribes, separated from the Lyakh family, took their places much later than the other Slavs and that the people still remembered their movement in the 11th century to the East. The Vyatichi occupied the upper reaches of the Oka, and thus came into contact with the Merya and the Mordovians, who, apparently, moved north without much struggle. There could hardly be serious reasons for a collision with aliens during a huge number empty lands and the insignificance of the household economy among the Finns. Moreover, the Finnish tribe itself, poorly gifted by nature, with a clear lack of energy, as a result of an unchangeable historical law, had to give way everywhere to a more developed breed. It is difficult to draw boundaries between Meshchera and its new neighbors; We can roughly say that the villages of the Vyatichi in the first centuries of our history extended to the Lopasnya River in the north and to the upper reaches of the Don in the east.
In few, but very bright colors, Nestor depicts the pagan life of some Slavic tribes. “And Radimichi, and Vyatichi, and the North have one custom: I live in the forest, like every beast, eating everything unclean, blasphemy in them before their fathers and before their daughters-in-law; there was no competition in them, but the games were between the villages. I look like I’m going to games, dancing, and all the demonic games, and that kidnapping of my wife, whoever was with her; I also have two and three wives. If someone dies, I perform a funeral feast over him, and according to this I put a great treasure and burn it in the treasure of the dead man, and then, having collected the bones, I put it in a small vessel and put it on a pillar on the paths, which is what Vyatichi is doing even now.” Judging by the first words, the mentioned tribes had neither agriculture nor household management. But further it is clear that they lived in villages and had quite definite customs or rituals regarding marriage and burial; and such a circumstance already presupposes a certain degree of religious development and indicates the beginnings of social life. However, it is difficult to decide to what extent Nestor’s words applied specifically to the Vyatichi of the 9th century, because it is hardly possible to equate them with the northerners, who settled in their places much earlier and lived next to the Greek waterway. It is clear, at least, that the Vyatichi in those days were the wildest tribe among the Eastern Slavs: remote from the two main centers of Russian citizenship, they left tribal life later than others, so that Russian cities are mentioned among them no earlier than the 12th century.
The movement of the Radimichi and Vyatichi apparently stopped the settlement of Slavic tribes in Russia: they ceased to occupy the lands in more or less dense masses and pushed the Finnish dwellings further to the north and east. The latter could now calmly remain in their places; but they had to submit forever to the influence of their neighbors. Slowly and slowly the Finnish tribe is imbued with the Slavic element; but the more surely and deeper it takes root. The vehicle for this irresistible influence was, in our country, as elsewhere, the system of military or princely colonization, the beginning of which coincides with the beginning of Russian history. Slavic-Russian colonization goes partly from Novgorod to the east along the great Volga route and reaches the lower reaches of the Oka. It is known that Novgorod youth have long walked along rivers to distant countries with the dual purpose of robbery and trade. It was these campaigns that paved the way for Slavic influence in the Finnish northeast. The movement of the Slavic element from Novgorod along the Volga is met by another movement from southwestern Rus' along the Oka. According to the initial chronicle, in 964 Svyatoslav went to the Oka and Volga, came to the Vyatichi and asked them, as usual: “Who do you give tribute to?” They answer: “We give the Kozars a shell of a raal.” Then Svyatoslav turns to the kozar and destroys their kingdom. The Vyatichi, however, do not agree to voluntarily pay tribute to him, as shown by the news of the chronicler in 966: “Svyatoslav defeated the Vyatichi, and imposed tribute on them.”
The dependence of the Radimichi and Vyatichi on the Russian princes probably ceased during Svyatoslav’s stay in Bulgaria, and his son Vladimir, having gained a foothold on the Kiev table, had to enter into a new struggle with the warlike tribes. It was in 981 that Vladimir “defeated Vyatichi, and paid nan tribute from the plow, like his father imash.” But this matter did not end: next year there was again news: “Vyatichi has attacked, and Vladimir has come to Nya, and won the second.” In 9888, he fights the Radimiches, whom Wolf Tail defeats. In this case, the chronicler once again recalls that the Radimichi (and, consequently, the Vyatichi) were from the Lyakhov: “having come to the whole world, and paying tribute to Russia, they drive the cart to this day,” he adds, generally showing an obvious dislike. Such reluctance is very understandable if we remember that among the Vyatichi, and, probably, partly among the Radimichi, in his time paganism still existed in full force.
With the subjugation of the Vyatichi to the Kyiv princes, the upper reaches of the Oka became part of the Russian possessions. The mouths of this river belonged to them even before, therefore the middle course could no longer remain outside the boundaries of the nascent state, especially since the small native population was not able to provide significant resistance to the Russian princes. The chronicle does not even mention the conquest of Meshchera, which was naturally implied during Vladimir’s campaigns to the northeast. His successors in the 11th century calmly walked with their squads through the Meshchera lands and waged internecine wars here, not paying attention to the poor residents. Near the confluence of the Volga and Oka, the further movement of Russian domination had to stop for a while: the obstacle was the state of the Bulgarians, which was quite strong at that time. In addition to hostile clashes, the Kama Bulgarians were known to the Russian princes through relations of a different kind. They then served as active intermediaries in trade between Muslim Asia and Eastern Europe. Bulgarian merchants traveled with their goods up the Volga to the country of Vesi; and through the Mordovian land, therefore, along the Oka, they went to southwestern Rus' and walked to Kyiv. The news of Arab writers is confirmed by the story of our chronicler about the Mohammedan preachers of Vladimir and the trade agreement between the Russians and the Bulgarians during his reign. If successful campaigns of St. the prince on the Kama Bulgarians and did not crush this barrier to the spread of Russian influence down the Volga, but they finally secured the entire Oka system for him. But the principles of citizenship did not soon penetrate into this forest wilderness; the first city is mentioned here a whole century later.
When Vladimir distributed the cities to his sons, the Murom land went to Gleb's share. It is remarkable that he did not appoint anyone to the country of the Vyatichi and Radimichi. This circumstance is explained by the lack of cities at that time in the northeast from the Desna to the very lower reaches of the Oka. The northern half of this space, i.e. the Ryazan lands themselves were included in the Murom reign; and the southern steppe strip was connected with the Tmutrakan principality. After the Battle of Listven, Mstislav, the first appanage prince of Tmutrakan, united both parts in his hands.
Academician O.N. Trubachev
History found Vyatichi in the position of the most extreme Slavic tribe in the east [ Ilovaisky D.I. History of the Ryazan Principality. M., 1858, p. 8.]. Already our first famous chronicler Nestor in The Tale of Bygone Years(Monuments of literature of ancient Rus'. XI – early XII century) characterizes them as extremely backward and wild people, living like animals in the forest, eating everything unclean, speaking foul language, not being ashamed of their parents and women of the family, and, of course, not Christians. Some of this negative picture probably corresponded to the reality of the time at the beginning of the 12th century, and some of it turned out to be an outright exaggeration at that time, in today’s language - political propaganda [ Nikolskaya T.N. Land of the Vyatichi. On the history of the population of the Upper and Middle Oka basin in the 9th – 13th centuries. M., 1981, p. 10.].
The Monk Nestor was a Kyiv Polyana , and the Vyatichi, who did not immediately submit to Kyiv, deserved such an assessment in his eyes. We now, after centuries, look at the matter differently, calmer, much has outlived time, although - who knows, maybe not everything. It is with the Vyatichi that a number of contradictions or paradoxes, known or less known, are associated. Already one of the first historians are ready, based on the testimony of Nestor, admit that they did not have agriculture, but immediately after this false statement, based on chronicle data, mentions on the payment of tribute by the Vyatichi to Svyatoslav and Vladimir , that is, at a fairly early time, “according to the shell from the plow” concludes that the Vyatichi knew agriculture [Ilovaisky D.I. History of the Ryazan Principality. M., 1858, pp. 9-12].
And this tendency judge the Vyatichi in the spirit of paradoxes, which, curiously, has been preserved by historians right up to our time, prompting us to look at these Vyatichi as the most Russian of tribes - this judgment, as we will see later, is also quite paradoxical. Our most prominent historian, academician. M.N. Tikhomirov, in his book “Ancient Russian Cities” talking about "the wilderness of the Vyatichi" , in order to recognize a little further that “in the middle of the 12th century, the country of the Vyatichi was not at all as remote as it is usually imagined, but filled with towns.”[Tikhomirov M.N. Old Russian cities. Ed. 2nd. M., 1956, p. 12, 32.].
By the way, everything is in the same paradoxical spirit - about “towns” or cities of Vyatichi , about which one can supposedly speak “no earlier than the 12th century,” but in the same In the 12th century, the Vyatichi suddenly found themselves with an amazingly large number of cities. [Ilovaisky D.I. History of the Ryazan Principality. M., 1858, p. 9 and 50.]. It seems that in addition to persistent bias in judgment Lack of information is also to blame for this discrepancy, and we have reason to believe the latest historian-archaeologist, when he talks about the flourishing of urban culture on the middle Oka, where the Vyatichi region also extended already from the 11th century . [Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 255.]. Is it possible to continue talking about backwardness? the Vyatichi, who held lands along the Oka River, through which the most important eastern trade route ran from early times, predecessor of the notorious paths “from the Varangians to the Greeks” ? [Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 255.]
And, finally, it was not “backwardness” that attracted the Kyiv princes to the Vyatichi, in particular such a victorious conqueror as Svyatoslav; the seriousness of his plans of conquest illustrates miniature from the Radzivilov Chronicle under 964: Prince Svyatoslav receives the defeated Vyatichi, sitting on the throne.[Rybakov B.A. Kievan Rus and Russian principalities of the 12th – 13th centuries. M., 1982, p. 102].
It is also useful to keep in mind what probably attracted attention in the early centuries of Russian history - tribal identity of the Vyatichi which they preserved “longer than other East Slavic tribes” [Tretyakov P.N. East Slavic tribes. M., 1953, p. 241; Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 254].
Further more. It is known that Russian tribes are aliens in the main land of its habitat, in Eastern Europe, otherwise - Russian plain. The remarkable thing about the Vyatichi is that they are like pure aliens. The arrival of the Vyatichi on the Russian Plain happened, if not entirely before the eyes of written history, then still in the memory of the tribes that had already settled around, and it is usually reported that where did the Vyatichi come from together with the Radimichi , according to the wording of the initial Russian chronicle – "from the Poles." And this really is "grain of truth" [Lyapushkin I.I. Slavs of Eastern Europe on the eve of the formation of the Old Russian state in the 8th - first half of the 9th century.) L., 1968, p. 13.]. In contrast to the inherently tendentious ancient reasonings about backwardness and “savagery” “, information about the place of exodus of the Vyatichi did not promise any self-interest or political reason. For us, these are priceless crumbs of ancient knowledge, although we are not going to use them with straightforwardness. Shakhmatova, since the great scientist associated with the Vyatichi supposedly Polish features in the language of the Eastern Slavs [ Shakhmatov A.A. Essay on the most ancient period in the history of the Russian language // Encyclopedia of Slavic Philology. Pg., 1915 (Issue 11.1), p. XIX].
But about the language - later, as agreed, although in general the “Polish” reputation of the Vyatichi is also one of the long-standing traditions, or paradoxes of science, for, as one of our first historians writes: “Vyatichi are Sarmatians, possessed by the Slavs along the Oka... «[ Tatishchev V.N. Russian history. T. I. M.-L., 1962, p. 248]. At the same time, you just need to keep in mind that old Polish scholarship readily identified the Poles with the Sarmatians, although it is known that the Sarmatians are ancient Iranians! It is clear that we are talking about very old events and their participants, hence this forgivable mythology.
Too early the Vyatichi were mentioned in our writing, their participation in the campaign of Prince Oleg to Byzantium is listed under 907 [Ryazan Encyclopedia. Ryazan, 1995, p. 126 et seq., 674]. That is more than a thousand years ago , but this, of course, is not the limit, not the terminus post quem, because archeology confidently judges the earlier appearance of the Vyatichi on the Russian Plain.
It is appropriate to briefly say about the tribal name Vyatichi
, since the borderline linguistic discipline of onomastics routinely appears among historical arguments. In general it is obvious that Vyatichi - from the west, but neither in the Slavic West nor in the South there is such an ethnonym,
and this despite the fact that the repetition of ethnonyms is a well-known phenomenon among the Slavs; it is enough to name the glades of Kyiv and Polish glades. We have one more paradox associated with the Vyatichi people. 
The chronicle suggests the right path here too: Vyatichi are nicknamed by the name of a certain leader (leader), referred to as Vyatko[Vasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language in 4 volumes. Translation from German and additions by O.N. Trubachev. Ed. 3rd, T. I. St. Petersburg, 1996, p. 376.]. Name Vyatko is a diminutive form of a personal name Vyacheslav, prasl. *vętjeslavъ , Wed Czech Vaclav , that is, exclusively West Slavic name . Thus, although not quite usually, the Western source of the ethnonym Vyatichi turned out to be documented, among them - the form V(a)ntit , name of the people and region in eastern sources X century [Rybakov B.A. Kievan Rus and Russian principalities of the 12th – 13th centuries. M., 1982, p. 215, 259.], allowing one to judge the form in which the name of the Vyatichi appeared until the 10th century inclusive, when the decline of nasals, common among the Eastern Slavs, was subjected to). It makes no sense to etymologically associate *vętitje - Vyatichi with the Wends-Venetians, much less with the Antes, both are alien alloethnonyms for the Slavs, despite the popularity of such experiments. Before us is a case when ancient tribe initially in general had no tribal name, was content with the designations itself “we”, “our”, “ours” , up to the moment of personal union with a daredevil named Vyatko leading them …
In general, on the very eve of our written stories of Poochie , which became the main region Vyatichi, received “different streams of Slavic colonization”, which simultaneously complicates our problem and makes it attractive for knowledge. [ Mongait A. L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 66] V.V. Sedov directly speaks about the multi-act nature of the Slavic development of the East European Plain[ Sedov V.V. Old Russian people. Historical and archaeological research. M., 1999, p. 7].
It is possible to outline this multi-act in advance, at least for our region Vyatichi : Middle Dnieper Slavs, Vyatichi Slavs from its more distant southwest and Don Slavs, who ended up there, on the Upper Don, in turn, as a result of some kind of relocation. It is believed that the Slavic population appeared in the Oka basin, especially in its upper reaches, in the 8th – 9th centuries .[Nikolskaya T.N. Land of the Vyatichi. On the history of the population of the Upper and Middle Oka basin in the 9th – 13th centuries. M., 1981, p. 12; Sedov V.V. Eastern Slavs in the VI – XIII centuries. M., 1982, p. 148] The Slavic population, having met tribes of Baltic origin here, perhaps golyad (other -Russian .), which name characterized the local Balts also as “Ukrainian”, “outskirts” (lit. galindai, galinda: galas - “end” ). However, the places were quite deserted, there was enough for everyone, even though archeology shows a tendency to constantly push back, make ancient the arrival of the Slavs, the first groups on the upper Oka - already in the 4th - 5th centuries. (!), and in Ryazan (middle) Poochie - in the 6th - 7th centuries. [Sedov V.V. Old Russian people. Historical and archaeological research. M., 1999, p. 58, 251].
Obviously, those contacts with the Balts conveyed to the newcomer Slavs the name of the rivers – Oka , together with its stress in the spirit of the Fortunatov-de Saussure law (transfer from a short, circumflex vowel root to an acute longitude ending). Wed. Latvian. aka - “well”, lit. akas - “hole”, akis - “eye”; “not overgrown water in a swamp”, “small bog” [Vasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language in 4 volumes. translation by O.N. Trubachev. Ed. 3rd, T. III. St. Petersburg, 1996, p. 127]. Judging by the semantics of the Baltic prototype, this name could have been given the upper reaches, the source of the Oka, and not at all to the middle or lower reaches of this large river.
Apparently in the upper reaches of the Oka and the beginning of the later region of the Vyatichi was laid, for the core of the Vyatichi is called the Upper Oka group of Slavs, dated archaeologically to the 8th - 10th centuries [ Sedov V.V. Old Russian people. Historical and archaeological research. M., 1999, p. 81].
However, Upper Don (Borshev) Slavs VIII – X centuries. , migrated en masse to the middle Oka in the 10th century, Same counted among the Vyatichi [Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 81, 85, 124]. The multi-act nature of the arrival of the Slavs, known to us, is aggravated by widespread infiltration from the Danube region in the 8th – 9th centuries, Moreover, the realities and routes are very reminiscent of what It is known about the Vyatichi, where we are talking about prototypes of seven-blade - Vyatichi - pendants that came here from the Danube through Mazovsze. [Sedov V.V. Old Russian people. Historical and archaeological research. M., 1999, p. 145, 149, 183, 188, 195.]
Approaching us gradually from time immemorial, the Vyatichi are acquiring features that bring them closer to modern settlement and population European Russia. So, in some chronicles Vyatichi are already identified with Ryazan residents [Kuzmin A.G. Ryazan chronicle. Information about Ryazan and Murom until the middle of the 16th century. M., 1965, p. 56]. The habitats also coincide. “The entire Ryazan “regional” territory known to us was Vyatichi in terms of the composition of the Slavic population” [Nasonov A.N.“Russian land” and the formation of the territory of the ancient Russian state. Historical and geographical research. M.. 1951, p. 213].
With some amendments and additions: The Kursk-Oryol lands also belong to the Vyatichi region [Kotkov S.I. Dialects of the Oryol region (phonetics and morphology). dis. ... doc. Philol. n. T. I – II. M., 1951, p. 12.]. Regarding the continuity of settlement, it is important to keep in mind the popularity views of the past , the essence of which was that the steppe side, which closely approached the Ryazan side from the south, and in general the wide spaces of the South and Southeast were completely depopulated and were deserted during the famous events that shook these places before and more often than the more protected forest side. But the absoluteness of these views has long been raised doubts and was gradually refuted by the history of language and onomastics of this periphery, which preserved surprisingly ancient formations.
However, deprivation of fate still did not bypass the land of the Vyatichi, if we touch upon the issue of continuing the Cyril and Methodius traditions of Slavic writing. A unanimously negative answer awaits us: “The Ryazan chronicles have not reached us” [Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 9.]; " Nothing has survived from the writing of the vast Ryazan and Chernigov lands «[ Filin F.P. Origin of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages. Historical and dialectological essay. L., 1972, p. 89.]; Ryazan chronicles existed (but did not reach)[ Darkevich V.P. Travel to Ancient Ryazan. Notes of an archaeologist. Ryazan, 1993, p. 136]. However, this should not be surprising if you think about it the tragic role of the outpost, which the Vyatka land was destined to play.
In a relationship preservation of writing all other ancient Russian lands are richer and more prosperous - Kiev, Galician, Pskov-Novgorod, Rostov-Suzdal and others. Therefore, those reaching us sound like a much greater paradox. information about grassroots literacy, which – against the background of the mentioned impoverishment – suddenly discovers the Ryazan, Vyatichi land from the earliest times, but more about it a little lower, when we talk about culture.
The nature of the Vyatichi dwellings
further distinguishes them as the original Southerners – they settled in dugouts and semi-dugouts, like the Danube Slavs, like the “Sklavins” of Jordan
and finally, how, apparently, also Proto-Slavs.
They say that this sign should not be exaggerated, it is determined by the geographical environment; It is still important to note the presence among the Vyatichi on the Upper and Middle Oka semi-dugouts,
and to the north, including at Krivichi, – above-ground log buildings (houses),
adding that the border between the more northern hut and the more southern hut lay somewhere here, along river Pre.
[Tretyakov P.N. East Slavic tribes. Second edition, revised and expanded. M., 1953, p. 197, 198; Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 127; Lyapushkin I.I. Slavs of Eastern Europe on the eve of the formation of the Old Russian state (VIII - first half of the 9th century) L., 1968, p. 120].
In this situation we are left with judge the culture of life and spirit of the Vyatichi
according to the traces and remains that the fossil provides, archaeological culture,
Vyatichi farmers are obviously not rich. Yet, thanks to the work of our archaeologists, we are learning a surprising amount here. And here perhaps one of the most paradoxical surprises awaits us: Vyatich women wore unusually elegant seven-lobed temple rings, which were consistently characteristic of the Vyatich region[Sedov V.V. Eastern Slavs in the VI – XIII centuries. M., 1982, p. 143]. Their analogues are also being sought in the East, but we are more impressed - in the general ensemble of known data - by the Western prototypes, which are also briefly indicated above. 
More Ancient Vyatka women had plate-shaped curved-ended bracelets of the Western European type. [Nikolskaya T.N. Land of the Vyatichi. On the history of the population of the Upper and Middle Oka basin in the 9th – 13th centuries. M., 1981, p. 100, 113]. An enviable adherence to fashion, especially considering that we are talking about “the wilderness”!
Speaking about Vyatichi, then - about Ryazan women,
one cannot help but recall the tradition that is still alive wearing poneva,
especially since, as noted, “The range of the blue checkered poneva coincides with the distribution area of the Vyatichi seven-lobed temporal rings...«[ Osipova E.P. Names of clothing in Ryazan dialects. dis. Ph.D. Philol. n. M., 1999, p. 72.]. 
We can further recall about the specificity of poneva - a kind of skirt for the Great Russian South,
A sundress - for the Great Russian North
, however, let us immediately say, looking ahead somewhat, that the named opposition turns out to be historically inappropriate, since “Northern Great Russian” sundress has arrived also from the south
and in general it's later borrowing from Persian and later form (cf. -f-!
) and initially did not mean women’s clothing... All that remains is poneva/ponka
with its reduced dialect level, but bright, still proto-linguistic antiquity (Proto-Slavic *pon’a), no less than that of Ukrainian. plakhta (proto-Slavic *рlahъta, plate), designation of an archaic straight cut, actually a piece of fabric, which is confirmed etymologically. Wed. interesting analogies[ Tretyakov P.N. East Slavic tribes. Edition 2. M., 1953, p. 197]: “Ethnographic data show that in Danube Bulgaria has a special type of women's national costume,
in other parts of the peninsula, almost never found, finding its closest analogies in Ukrainian national clothing, of which it belongs “plakhta”, or the clothing of the Great Russians of the Kursk and Oryol regions, where “poneva” and a special type of apron were used«.
It is natural that all life on the Oka
completely transformed when I arrived there Christianity.
It is also true that Christianity emerged as an urban culture
[Ilovaisky D.I. History of the Ryazan Principality. M., 1858, p. 32] X Christianity on the Oka
appeared somewhat later than the rest of Rus', yet Christianization was greatly facilitated by the presence a significant number of ancient Ryazan cities, known in the period from the 11th to the 13th centuries:
chronicles mention during this time as Ryazan cities (and villages) Kolomna, Rostislavl, Sturgeon, Borisov-Glebov, Solotcha, Olgov, Opakov, Kazar, Pereyaslavl, Ryazan, Dobry Sot, Belgorod, New Olgov, Isady, Voino, Pronsk, Dubok, Voronezh, and according to the Nikon Chronicle, Ryazan cities also include Kadom, Teshilov, Koltesk, Mtsensk, Yelets, Tula.
And this, of course, is not all; cities are mentioned in other sources Izheslavets, Verderev, Ozhsk.
[Ryazan Encyclopedia. Ryazan, 1995, p. 98, 126, 183, 388]. Of course, in ancient times, too, obviously, these were often villages rather than cities in the full sense of the word. In addition, some of them decayed and turned into villages, like a village with a glorious name Vyshgorod, on the Oka River
as, in the end, the same Ryazan (Old), the former capital of the principality.
Some such towns and villages were literally forgotten by history, never coming to the attention of the chronicler.
This is what experts say about two cities of Vyatichi , which bore the ancient name Przemysl - on the Oka in the Kaluga region, and on the Mocha River in the Moscow region. [Nikolskaya T.N. Land of the Vyatichi. On the history of the population of the Upper and Middle Oka basin in the 9th – 13th centuries. M., 1981, p. 157 et seq.]. The nomenclature itself in this case leads us back to ancient Russian-Polish borderland, where the city of Przemysl is still known, also known in Polish Przemyśl, now within Poland, thereby returning us to the “Vyatichi route”, as we understand it.
There is a known transfer of city names in the Ryazan land associated with migration from the relatively close south, from the middle Dnieper region, Kiev region, the land of glades . Here we are dealing with the repetition of entire toponymic hydronymic ensembles, take, for example, this repetition within the city Pereyaslavl Ryazansky (present-day Ryazan) – Pereyaslavl – Trubezh – Lybid – Danube/Dunaets, which is invariably mentioned by all who write about these places [ Smolitskaya T.P. Hydronymy of the Oka basin (list of rivers and lakes). M., 1976, passim; Tikhomirov M.N. Old Russian cities. Ed. 2nd. M., 1956, p. 434]. Not everything, however, is simple and unambiguous with these names, at least those of them that bear the stamp of more distant connections and parishes/ transfer from the further South and / Dunajec, pointing through Polish territory and local landmarks like Dunajec, tributary of the upper Vistula on the great river in Central Europe, and Vyshgorod, also detecting, in addition to Kyiv, Dnieper, - Danube prototype. Relatively Danai, Lybid see “Etymology Dictionary...”, another Western association - Wislica in the middle Poochie.
A huge problem still remains the southern, south-eastern territories of the Vyatichi, the maximum expansion of which occurred in the pre-literate, “dark” centuries, which are mainly concerned with the reconstruction in the work of Shakhmatov and several other scientists, covered by the concept "Priazovskaya" or , which entire subsequent generations for some reason hastened to be archived. The point is not only that from the 11th century the “road route” from the Oka along the Don to Taurida was cut [Ilovaisky D.I. History of the Ryazan Principality. M., 1858, p. 123]. The fact is that the space of the Russian language and tribe was really different , And Tmutarakan as a far southern outpost objectively testifies to this . Only on this path we are still, perhaps, able to catch up and understand a lot, including In return for this, history is content only with reality wild field and studiously avoids reconstructing even the most obvious.
From antiquities much earlier than the 10th century
, connected primarily Vyatka, Ryazan Rus' and Russian Tmutarakan on the Taman Peninsula, let's call here Bosporan coins of the 3rd - 4th centuries. n. e. in archaeological excavations at the site of Old Ryazan and also, perhaps, the identity of semantic tracing established between the Old Russian name of the city Slavyansk-on-Kuban – Kopyl,
which apparently meant not only “support”, but also “process”
, and recoverable Indo-Aryan (Sindo-Meotian)
names of approximately the same places - * utkanda, - “outgrowth”
, very eloquent in my eyes. [ Trubachev O.N. Indoarica in the Northern Black Sea region. Reconstruction of language relics. Etymological dictionary. M., 1999, p. 286].
Everything that has been said, including this striking, in my opinion, example “ Indo-Aryan dawns on the Kuban farm"
, was intended to show a fairly clear link to another of Vyatka-Ryazan paradoxes
as if at the stage of brilliant growth of Russian lands by the South-East (“O Russian land, you are already beyond the shelom!” – “...beyond the strait
", "The Tale of Igor's Host"), and at the stage of subsequent bitter losses, calling out " look for the city of Tmutorokan
«.
Rus' remembered this connection between Ryazan and Tmutarakan [Ilovaisky D. I. History of the Ryazan Principality. M., 1858, p. 14; Tatishchev V.N. Russian history. T. I. M.-L., 1962, p. 249] and, moreover, very clearly: “Tmutorokan..., now Rezanskaya Pravintsyya” . Of course, with options: Tmutarakan is a Chernigov city. [Tikhomirov M.N. Old Russian cities. Ed. 2nd. M., 1956, p. 351]. Of course, we must not forget about participation in all this Seversk land , although not with the same degree of sovereignty.
Returning to the history of culture, we observe, albeit unique, but curious a repetition of the Vyatich-Ryazan paradox - this is the lack of writing in the presence of manifestations of early grassroots and everyday literacy, again in Tmutarakan, where did this only ancient stationery come from? an inscription on a stone from the 11th century that Prince Gleb measured the sea “on the ice from Tmutorokan to Korchev” (Kerch)…
This epigraphic monument has sparked a whole discussion about its authenticity, but it is worth listening to the opinion: “From the point of view of language, it (the inscription - O.T.) is impeccable.” 
Treasure in the Prioksky village with the ancient name Vyshgorod
contained, along with iron agricultural implements, also wrote for the letter
[Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 196]. These wrote
, or styles, were used to apply a wide variety of, mostly household, inscriptions. Obviously, we have before us what is classified as pre-manuscript production [ Rozhdestvenskaya T.V. Epigraphic monuments Ancient Rus' X –
XV centuries dis. ...Dr. Philol. n. St. Petersburg, 1994, p. 9]. But only such writing of the Ryazan land is the only one that has reached us
, signifying both literacy and urban culture [ Tikhomirov M.N. Old Russian cities. Ed. 2nd. M., 1956, p. 85, 263], and – with all its meagerness – the state of a living local language, without being a work of translated literature. 
Ryazan graffiti dates mainly from the 11th – 13th centuries
[Darkevich V.P. Travel to Ancient Ryazan. Notes of an archaeologist. Ryazan, 1993, p. 138]. Curious as evidence female literacy
there are also more ancient inscriptions, as on whorl - a weight mounted on a spindle to give it stability and uniform rotation,
found by Ryazan archaeologist V.I. Zubkov in 1958: SPILLING PARASIN “spinning Parasin” in the 11th – early 12th centuries.
[Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 156 –
157].
Of course, this assumes, except owner literacy
, urban population, otherwise the inscription simply loses its meaning, also literacy of producers and artisans.
The literature has already accumulated a number evidence of literacy from the 11th–12th centuries
in the inscription “there is a prince”, “Molodilo”
, even the phrases: “ Dobrilo sent new wine to Prince Bogunka
“, and an interesting statement is made that this - pre-Mongol - the literacy of the population of Ryazan exceeds the literacy of later times.
[Medyntseva A.A. Epigraphic finds from Old Ryazan // Antiquities of the Slavs and Rus'. Collection in honor of the 80th anniversary of B.A. Rybakova. M., 1988, p. 248, 255]. 
The inscriptions record the personal names of people: “Orina” – medallion, found in Old RyazanTikhomirov M.N. Old Russian cities. Ed. 2nd. M., 1956, p. 427., "Makosimove" , inscription on a foundry mold in Serensk, in the latter case a possessive form "Maksimov" (sc. lie. “lyachek”?) with a curious vowel at the end of the word im. p.un. h.m.r., usually observed in the Novgorod north-west. It remains to add that they are of the same type spindle whorl, very a common item for making inscriptions, “they exist in the Ryazan region to this day”[ Mongait A.L. Ryazan land. M., 1961, p. 296].
The city of Ryazan was first mentioned in 1096, a good half century earlier than Moscow,
it is mentioned, but not based. We can still remember this half-century advance later, when we ask ourselves the question: by whom or on whose soil Moscow was founded.
When it comes to the founding of the city of Ryazan, everyone readily begins to recall the etymology of its name - historians, archaeologists, perhaps more willingly than others. So it is this time. Apart from the frankly amateurish approximation of the title Ryazan with dial. cassock - “sinking place”
, which is elementary doesn't fit here
primarily because Ryazan,
both the Old and the New, Pereyaslavl Ryazan, was founded in ancient times on the right, mountainous bank of the Oka,
the interpretation from Mordovian is popular and widely known Erzyan "Erzyan", "erzya" - "Mordovian"
[Nikonov V.A. Brief toponymic dictionary. M., 1966, p. 362], but it too doubtful
, in general, invented ad hoc. [ Vasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language in four volumes. Translation from German and additions by O.N. Trubachev. Ed. 3rd, stereotypical. T. III. St. Petersburg, 1996, p. 537]
We need to start with clarification original form of the name , and such - which is wonderful! – there was a form masculine: to Rezan [Ilovaisky D. I. History of the Ryazan Principality. M., 1858, p. 23]. Then everything lines up in a fairly logical series: Rezan – possessive adjective starting with -jb from l the personal name Rezan, that is, “belonging to a person named Rezan.” The masculine gender of the oldest form of the name of the city is understandable due to its agreement with gorod: the binomial Rezan (city) is "Rezanov city". ABOUT we note the reality of the personal name Rezan, famous since 1495 g . [Tupikov N.M. Dictionary of Old Russian personal names.//Notes of the Department of Russian and Slavic Archeology of the Emperor. Russian Archaeological Society. T.VI. St. Petersburg, 1903, p. 402; Veselovsky S.B. Onomastics. Old Russian names, nicknames and surnames. M., 1974, p. 267: Rezanovs, Rezany, 16th century]
By the way, this is where surname Ryazanov (e>i
outside the emphasis in the yak environment, but a direct correlation with Ryazan is inaccurate). However, the forms on -e– lasted quite a long time, cf. Rezanskiy, 1496
.[Unbegaun B.O. Russian surnames. M., 1989, p. 113]. To the natural question, what is this original personal name Rezan
, the answer is generally clear: short form passive participle, that is "cut"
, could be called or nicknamed that way a baby "cut from its mother's womb"
«[ Vasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language in 4 volumes. Translation from German and additions by O.N. Trubachev. Ed. 3rd, T. III. St. Petersburg, 1996, p. 537]. Outwardly not prestigious, this name-nickname could sometimes be worn by outstanding people. Let's assume that there was some kind of leader-Vyatichi Rezan
, after which it was not without reason named *Rezan city.
What allows us to do this is no more and no less than the analogy with Constantinople, for our king is completely Caesar - from lat. Caesar,
derived from caedo - “to cut”, “to chop”, from which caesar literally means “flogged”, “cut out of the mother’s womb”.
Famous Gaius Julius Caesar
was born just this way, operationally" caesarean section",
subsequently glorifying his nickname. Our etymological distraction can also be useful in that it shows: The name of the city of Ryazan cannot hide any “cut-off land”.
[Ryazan Encyclopedia. Ryazan, 1995, p. 511]. 
It makes sense to complete the comparison two cities: Ryazan - Moscow because we seem to be Speaking about Moscow, we legally remain in the land of the Vyatichi.
In connection with the questions that interest us, we cannot help but draw attention to the presence of a wide wedge uncovered by archaeologists Vyatichi of the 11th – 13th centuries, capturing from the South the entire “near Moscow region” and Moscow. [Voitenko A.F. Lexical atlas of the Moscow region. M., 1991, p. 61]. Vyatichi burial mounds are found around Moscow and within its boundaries, which was stated starting from Artsikhovsky [ Nasonov A.N.“Russian land” and the formation of the territory of the ancient Russian state. Historical and geographical research. M., 1951, p. 186].
The most dense area the finds of Vyatka seven-lobed temporal rings turn out to be not in Poochye, but in the Moscow region. [Sedov V.V. Eastern Slavs in the VI – XIII centuries. M., 1982, p. 144 – 145]. Further, when V.V. himself Sedov believes that Moscow was founded and populated from Rostov and Suzdal , [Sedov V.V. Old Russian people. Historical and archaeological research. M., 1999, p. 238 – 239] He apparently underestimates those known, of course, to him too Lyash-Vyatichi toponymic identities , Wed Tula – Tul, Vshizh – Uściąz, Kolomna – Kolomyia [some Vyatich-Czech correspondences of the Moscow region and Poochye - chronicle name of the Vyatichi tribal elder Khodops with its proven West Slavic associations. Hoduta* as part of the patronymic colleague Khodoutinich in a birch bark document of the 12th century].
The brightest and most complete is Lyash-Vyatichi identity Moskiew (in Polish Mazowsze) = Moscow, both members of which, on the Polish and Russian side, regularly ascend to the ancient Proto-Slavic basis on -i– long *mosky, gen. n. *moskъve , and at the same time the etymology from slavs is obvious. *mosk – “wet”, “raw” “[Etymological Dictionary of Slavic Languages, vol. 20, M., 1994, p. 20; Trubachev O.N. Proto-Slavic lexical heritage and Old Russian vocabulary of the preliterate period].
Thus, it seems that we can draw certain conclusions in a long discussion about the origin of the name of our capital, more precisely, of course, historically originally - names of the Moscow river, moreover, rapprochement with Suomi-Fin. Masku or with Baltic material (“Baltic Sea region of Moscow”) are still inferior in likelihood, depth of reconstruction and the entire cultural background mentioned above to the identity Moskiew=Moscow, other Russian Moscow, wine p.un. h.[ Vasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language in 4 volumes. Translation from German and additions by O.N. Trubachev. Ed. 3rd, T. II. St. Petersburg, 1996, p. 660].
How can one not recall old Tatishchev and all his insight: “ But I understand more correctly that the name of the Moscow River is Sarmatian - swamp, because at the top of it there are many swamps ... " [Tatishchev V.N. Russian history. T. I. M.-L., 1962, p. 314] Everything is true and fair, and, moreover, not only “at the top,” remember at least the famous “ Moskvoretskaya puddle ", and frequent Moscow floods in the old days, and, in the end, one thing is that Moscow and the entire Moscow region stand on clay soils... That’s all about Moscow for now, we’ll only add, remembering that once wrote about Ryazan which of the two Vyatka capitals , ended up in the deepest place Moscow .
Vyatichi, Slavic tribe, who lived in the east of the Slavic lands from the 8th to the 13th centuries AD. Their role in the formation of the Russian state is difficult to deny, since the number of this tribe was very large. By the standards of those times, when the number of people on the planet was small, the Vyatichi were considered an entire people, which stood out clearly against the background of such tribes as Dregovichi, Drevlyans, Polyans or Ilmen Slavs. Archaeologists consider the Vyatichi to be very large group Romeno-Borschag culture, which also includes all the above-mentioned tribes and small groups.
In the chronicles they were noted as excellent farmers, blacksmiths, hunters and warriors. This tribe for a long time remained practically impregnable for many invaders, because they acted under the control of a single prince, and not in disparate groups torn apart by civil strife. Some historians are inclined to believe that Vyatichi possessed all the signs of a primitive state - they had a set of laws, their own regular army, symbols and culture. were also included in the pantheon of gods of this tribe. Therefore, the Vyatichi can be considered one of the key peoples who formed.
Etymology of the word "Vyatichi"
The most plausible version of the origin of the name of this tribe is considered to be the one that refers to the name of the first prince, known as Vyatko. There are also other versions. So, according to the Indo-European version Slavs Vyatichi got their name from the same root word vent, which meant “wet” in those days. This is attributed to the fact that they inhabited wetlands. Also, some historians believe that the Vandals or Vendels are, in some way, akin in name to this tribe. Since the data was collected from various documents written in ancient languages, they vary greatly.
Land of Vyatichi
The Arabic name of the lands that this tribe inhabited is also very interesting. The Arabs called them a separate country, and even with a separate name, Vantit. In order to understand what lands these ancient people inhabited peoples, it is easier to describe their possessions within the boundaries of modern regions. Partially they were located in the Moscow region, a small part of the lands also lay in the modern Smolensk region. To the west, the lands of the Vyatichi extended to Voronezh and Lipetsk. Almost entirely these Slavs populated the Oryol, Tula, Ryazan and Kaluga regions. About the stay of the Vyatichi on the territory of modern Lipetsk region There are still disputes between historians. In general, their lands are briefly described as being part of the Oka basin.
Princes of Vyatichi
At the moment when Rurik was formed and ascended the throne in Kyiv, Vyatichi were not part of this state. The fact that the first prince of the Vyatichi was Vyatko is known not so much from historical documents as from legends. When they became part of the Old Russian state, they accepted power from Kyiv, but soon found themselves practically cut off from the rest of the Slavs by the Khazars, to whom they paid tribute. Therefore, there is very little information about the local princes of this tribe. They did not mint their own coins, nor did they have their own seals, officially confirmed by the Supreme Prince of Kyiv. In fact, they needed it only for a military alliance, but in general they had all the signs of statehood.
Assimilation of the Slavic tribe of Vyatichi
It is believed that Vyatichi, like Slavic tribe, finally began to lose their main features under the influence of the Khazars. In fact, they had nothing to lose, so they went to the northern lands, where the nomads did not want to go to war. The Khazars considered it prestigious to marry a Slavic woman, so over time the gene pool of this tribe was mixed. It is difficult to trace the situation among the Vyatichi during the Great Migration of Peoples, but it is impossible to say that this did not affect them in any way. Vyatichi simply disappeared into the centuries. According to archaeological research, due to living in damp lands, a third of the Vyatichi population did not live to be 10 years old, and the vacant places were quickly occupied by visiting people from other tribes. The path to the north dissolved the Vyatichi into the Balts and Finno-Ugric peoples.
Then the Vyatichi border runs along the Ugra and Oka valleys until the confluence of Moscow and the Oka, bypassing the Protva and Nara basins. Further, the border of the Vyatichi settlement follows northwest along the right tributaries to the upper reaches of the Moscow River (where Krivichi monuments are also found), and then turns east towards the upper reaches of the Klyazma. At the confluence of the Ucha and the Klyazma, the border turns to the southeast and runs first along the left bank of Moscow and then the Oka. The extreme eastern border of the distribution of seven-lobed temporal rings is Pereyaslavl-Ryazan.
Further, the distribution border of the Vyatichi goes to the upper reaches of the Oka, including the Pronya basin. The upper reaches of the Oka are entirely occupied by the Vyatichi. Individual archaeological sites of the Vyatichi people were also discovered on the upper Don, in the territory of the modern Lipetsk region.
Chronicle mentions
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 Kagan Joseph to the dignitary of the Cordoba Caliph Hasdai ibn Shaprut (960s), which reflects the ethnopolitical situation of the late 8th - mid-9th centuries.
In one of the Arab sources, the ancient author Gardizi wrote about those places: “ And at the extreme limits of the Slavic there is a madina called Vantit (Vait, Vabnit)" Arabic word " Madina"could mean the city, the territory subject to it, 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 Russians here yet, and this land was ruled by its princes, who called themselves “ Swiet-malik" From here there was a road to Khazaria, to Volga Bulgaria, and only later, in the 11th century, did the campaigns of Vladimir Monomakh take place.
The Vantit theme also found a place in the texts of the Scandinavian chronicler and saga collector Snorri Sturluson.
Origin
According to archaeological observations, the settlement of the Vyatichi occurred 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 substrate of the Vyatichi was the local Baltic population. The predecessors of the Slavic population in the upper Oka basin were representatives of the Moshchin culture that had developed by the 3rd-4th centuries. Such cultural features as house-building, rituals, ceramic materials and decorations, in particular things inlaid with colored enamels, allow its carriers to be classified as a Baltic-speaking population. Archaeologist Nikolskaya T.N., who devoted most of her life to archaeological research of the 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. .
Story
The Vyatichi settled in the Oka basin in the 8th century. According to the Tale of Bygone Years, in the middle of the 10th century, the Vyatichi paid tribute to Khazaria by shelyag (presumably a silver coin) per plow. Like other Slavs, government was carried out by the veche and princes. The discovery of numerous coin hoards indicates the participation of communities in international trade.
The lands of the Vyatichi became part of the Chernigov, Rostov-Suzdal and Ryazan principalities. IN last time The Vyatichi are mentioned in the chronicle under their tribal name 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 flowed into it, the process of assimilation proceeded most intensively and was completed by the 12th century.
The advance of the Vyatichi to the northeast along the valleys of the Oka and then Moscow began in the 10th century. This is evidenced by the discovery of several villages with molded ceramics in the Serpukhov, Kashira and Odintsovo districts of the Moscow region. It should be noted that 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. The largest number of such burials were discovered in the Moscow basin.
Settlements
The dwellings of the Vyatichi were dugouts (4 meters by 4 meters), lined with wood on the inside; log walls with a gable roof rose above the ground. Settlements were located at great distances from each other and, as a rule, along river banks. Many villages were surrounded by deep ditches. The Vyatichi dumped the earth dug out from the ditch into a rampart, strengthening it with boards and piles, and then compacted it until the wall reached the desired height. An entrance with a strong gate was made in the wall. Before the entrance, a wooden bridge was thrown across the moat. Archaeologists call the remains of fortified settlements settlements, and unfortified settlements - settlements.
There are known settlements of the Vyatichi in the Glazunovsky district of the Oryol region (Taginskoye fortified settlement), Maloyaroslavetsky 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 protective structures. The log house was taller than a half-dugout and was often built on two floors. Its walls and windows were decorated with carvings, which made a strong aesthetic impression.
Farm
The Vyatichi were engaged in hunting (they paid tribute to the Khazars with furs), collecting honey, mushrooms and wild berries. They were also engaged in shifting farming, and later in arable farming (millet, barley, wheat, rye), and cattle breeding (pigs, cows, goats, sheep). At all times, the Vyatichi were excellent farmers and skilled warriors. On the farm, the Vyatichi used iron axes, plows, and sickles, which indicates developed blacksmithing.
Beliefs
The Vyatichi remained pagans for a long time. In the 12th century, they killed the Christian missionary Kuksha Pechersky (presumably on August 27, 1115). A later 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, son of Donskoy, the Mtsenians did not yet recognize the true God, which is why they sent that year, from him and Metropolitan Photius, priests, with many troops, to bring the inhabitants to the true faith. The Mtsenians were horrified and began to fight, but were soon struck by blindness. Those sent began to persuade them to accept baptism; Convinced by this, some of the Mtsenians: Khodan, Yushinka and Zakei were baptized and, having received their sight, found the Cross of the Lord, carved from stone, and a carved image of 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 funeral feast over the dead and then cremated them, erecting small mounds over the burial site. This is confirmed by archaeological excavations in the Moscow basin. A distinctive feature of the Vyatichi women’s burials is considered to be seven-lobed temporal rings. The Baltic influence on the Vyatichi (through the local tribes of the Moshchin culture) is also indicated by characteristic jewelry - neck torches, which are not among the common jewelry 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 centuries, 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 was 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 face, well profiled in the horizontal plane, and a rather wide, medium-protruding nose with a high bridge. V.V. Bunak (1932) noted elements of similarity of the Vyatichi and Northerners with the Sardinians as representatives of the Mediterranean type, and attributed them to the Pontic anthropological type. T. A. Trofimova (1942) identified among the Vyatichi the Caucasoid dolichocephalic and subural types, which have analogies in the Finno-Ugric population of the Volga and Urals regions. G.F. Debets believed that it would be more correct to talk only about a small subural admixture.
A third of the Vyatichi died in childhood. Life expectancy for men rarely exceeded 40 years, for women it was much lower.
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Notes
- (Russian) . NTV. Retrieved July 3, 2008. .
- Gagin I. A.(Russian) . Retrieved July 3, 2008. .
- Sedov V.V. Volyntsevo culture. Slavs in the southeast of the Russian Plain // . - M.: Scientific and Production Charitable Society "Archaeology Foundation", 1995. - 416 p. - ISBN 5-87059-021-3.
- Wed. other Russian vyache"more". To the same root the words go back Vyacheslav"great glory" Vyatka"big [river]".
- Khaburgaev G. A. Ethnonymy of the “Tale of Bygone Years” in connection with the tasks of reconstructing East Slavic glottogenesis. M.: Moscow State University Publishing House, 1979. P. 197.
- Nikolaev S. L.
- (Russian) . Retrieved July 3, 2008. .
- 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.
- Sedov V.V.
- Krasnoshchekova S. D., Krasnitsky L. N. Local history notes. Archeology of the Oryol region. Eagle. Spring Waters. 2006
- “We give Kozarom one sliver of the raal”
- B. A. Rybakov noted the similarity of the name Kordno with someone Khordab- a city of the Slavs, mentioned by Arab and Persian authors
- Nikolskaya T. N. Land of the Vyatichi. On the history of the population of the upper and middle Oka basin in the 9th-13th centuries. Moscow. The science. 1981.)
- Artsikhovsky A.V. Vyatichi burial mounds. 1930.
- tulaeparhia.ru/home/istoriya-tulskoj-eparxii.html
- Sedov V.V. Slavs of the Upper Dnieper and Podvinia. M., 1970. S. 138, 140.
- In earlier lists of the chronicle, instead of stealing"funeral pyre" is the word treasure"deck, coffin."
- Quote By: Mansikka V.Y. Religion of the Eastern Slavs. M.: IMLI im. A. M. Gorky RAS, 2005. P. 94.
- Alekseeva T. I. Ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs according to anthropological data. M., 1973.
Literature
- Nikolskaya T. N. The culture of the tribes of the Upper Oka basin in the 1st millennium AD. / Rep. ed. M. A. Tikhanova; . - M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1959. - 152 p. - (Materials and research on the archeology of the USSR. No. 72). - 1500 copies.(in translation)
- Nikolskaya T. N. Land of the Vyatichi: On the history of the population of the upper and middle Oka basin in the 9th-13th centuries. / Rep. ed. Doctor of History V. V. Sedov; . - M.: Nauka, 1981. - 296 p. - 3000 copies.(in translation)
- Grigoriev A.V. Slavic population of the Oka and Don watershed at the end of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. e. / Editorial Board: V. P. Gritsenko, A. M. Vorontsov, A. N. Naumov (chief editor); Reviewers: A. V. Kashkin, T. A. Pushkina; State military-historical and natural museum-reserve “Kulikovo Field”. - Tula: Repronix, 2005. - 208 p. - 500 copies. - ISBN 5-85377-073-X.(region)
Links
- // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
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The Vyatichi are one of the most famous and archaeologically well-studied ancient Russian tribes that made a significant contribution to the formation of the ancient Russian people.
The first mentions of the Vyatichi can be found already on the very beginning pages of Russian chronicles. In the “Tale of Bygone Years” it is stated that “...Vyatko grew gray with his family in Otsa, from whom he was nicknamed Vyatichi...”; in the chronicle article of 6367 (859), the Vyatichi are mentioned in connection with the payment of tribute to the Khazars - “...and Kozare imahut [tribute] on Polyanekh, and on Severeh, and on Vyatichi, imah for Bela and Veveritsi, and tako from smoke."
Apparently, the Vyatichi did not become part of the Old Russian state united by Prince Oleg (882), for which reason they became the object of campaigns for the Grand Dukes Svyatoslav (in 964–966) and Vladimir the Saint (in 981). Despite occasional tributary acts, the Land of the Vyatichi was not actually subordinate to the first Russian princes; later, various parts of it were part of the Smolensk, Chernigov, Ryazan and Rostov-Suzdal principalities.
Most often, Vyatichi and their cities begin to appear on the pages of chronicles in the 12th century in connection with internecine wars. At the beginning - between Svyatoslav Olgovich, expelled from Novgorod-Seversky in 1146, and the Chernigov prince Vladimir Davydovich and the Suzdal prince Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgoruky, who acted in alliance against him. The second cycle of wars is already associated with the struggle of the princes Izyaslav Davydovich with Svyatoslav Olgovich, who became the prince of Chernigov. It was during this period that the Vyatichi lands were actively involved in political life ancient Russian principalities. The first mentions of the cities of the Vyatichi appear in the chronicles - Vorotynsk, Kozelsk, Kolomna, Moscow, Mtsensk, Serensk, Teshilova and others. The last chronicle mention of the Vyatichi dates back to 1197.
The mounds of the Upper Poochye attracted the attention of researchers back in the 18th century, but the time to study them had not yet come. The first, first amateur, and then increasingly scientific excavations, carried out by A. D. Chertkov, S. D. Nechaev, A. A. Gatsuk, A. P. Bogdanov, date back to 1830–1860. Subsequently, there was a steady accumulation of archaeological materials originating from the territory of settlement of ancient Russian tribes, including the Vyatichi. TO end of the 19th century V. this allowed the outstanding Russian archaeologist A. A. Spitsyn to reach fundamental generalizations, reflected in his work “The Settlement of Old Russian Tribes Based on Archaeological Data” (1899). Having systematized the material from numerous excavations, comparing it with information from written sources about the settlement of ancient Russian tribes, he came to the conclusion that the distribution areas of certain sets of women’s jewelry corresponded to the territories of the chronicle tribes. First of all, this turned out to be true for the temporal rings. Distribution zones different types temporal rings and a number of other things became a criterion for identifying territories occupied by certain tribes using archaeological material.
Subsequently, research on the archeology of ancient Russian tribes, including the Vyatichi, deepened and expanded. In the 1930s The first monographic works devoted to individual ancient Russian tribes were published - “Mounds of the Vyatichi” by A. V. Artsikhovsky (1930), “Radimichi” by B. A. Rybakov (1932; in Belarusian). They summarized the enormous archaeological material accumulated by that time. Widespread discussions soon began. For example, these works were criticized by P. N. Tretyakov, who, unlike A. A. Spitsyn, A. V. Artsikhovsky and B. A. Rybakov, saw in the designated “communities” not the tribes of the times of “The Tale of Bygone Years” , but “communities” corresponding to the political boundaries of the emerging principalities. Nevertheless, the general line of research on ancient Russian tribes was continued - the works of B. A. Rybakov (“Polyane and Northerners”, 1947; “Ulichi”, 1950), V. V. Sedov (“Krivichi”, 1960) and a number of others.
In the book “Mounds of the Vyatichi” A. V. Artsikhovsky summarized and systematized materials from the excavations of burial mounds, developed a typology of clothing items, outlined the territory of settlement of the Vyatichi based on these data, and also presented a general outline of the history of this tribe. As a result of archaeological research, it was possible to identify the territory of settlement of the Vyatichi, including the entire basin of the upper reaches of the Oka River, Moskvorechye and Ryazan Poochye. Outside the field of vision of A. V. Artsikhovsky, such topics as the features of funeral rites, farming and crafts, and the characteristics of Vyatichi settlements remained. These questions became the focus of attention of subsequent generations of researchers. It is worth mentioning such works as “Funeral rite of the Vyatichi” by N. G. Nedoshivina (1974), “Chronology of “Vyatichi” antiquities” by T. V. Ravdina (1975), “Land of the Vyatichi” by T. N. Nikolskaya (1981), “Moscow land of the 9th-14th centuries." A. A. Yushko (1991); “Jewelry making of the “Land of Vyatichi” of the second half of the 11th–13th centuries” by I. E. Zaitseva and T. G. Saracheva (2011).
Currently, the most pressing problem in the archaeological study of the Upper Poochie is the question of the presence of monuments of the 9th–10th centuries, that is, standing between the final stage of the Dyakovo culture and the monuments associated with the chronicle Vyatichi. Judging by the latest discoveries, this layer of antiquities is associated with the Romny culture. Another range of issues is related to the study of late medieval settlements and the historical topography of this time.
Questions of the history of the Vyatichi Land, including the problems of the formation of the medieval population of the Upper Oka basin and the nature of ethnogenetic processes throughout the 2nd millennium as a whole, required an integrated approach to sources, the use of not only archeological and written history data, but also the active involvement of data from other sciences - linguistics (V.N. Toporov, O.N. Trubachev, G.A. Khaburgaev, etc.), physical anthropology (T.I. Alekseeva, S.G. Efimova).
The first anthropological studies of the ancient Russian population of the Oka basin belonged to the outstanding Russian anthropologist and zoologist of the 19th century. A. P. Bogdanov. His work “Materials for the anthropology of the Kurgan period in the Moscow province” (1867) gave general information about the physical appearance of the population, which in historical and archaeological literature is associated with the Vyatichi tribe. In the first half of the 20th century. V.V. Bunak and T.A. Trofimova turned to the study of the craniological characteristics of the Vyatichi, studying groups of the Old Russian population of the upper reaches of the Oka and its tributaries, the Dnieper region and the Upper Volga region. The results of their research were published separately and also included in the general monograph by G. F. Debets “Palaeoanthropology of the USSR” (1948). By the second half of the 20th century. include monumental studies by T. I. Alekseeva, devoted to the problems of ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs according to anthropological data. She noted that the Vyatichi were long-headed and had a narrow face and a rather wide, medium-protruding nose. Having divided the skulls of Old Russian times from excavations in the Oka basin into several groups, T. I. Alekseeva identified differences between the population living along the river. Moscow and in the Moscow-Klyazma interfluve, on the one hand, and the eastern and western groups of Vyatichi, on the other. Populations located to the east, in the lower reaches of the river. Those from Moscow and the Pakhra river turned out to be narrower-faced, while the western ones, who occupied the Ugra river, were longer-headed.
