How did the Baltic and Finno-Ugric ethnic groups influence the Russians and where are most of their descendants now? Slavs and Balts Slavs, as a linguistic-cultural paradigm Distribution of different peoples on the territory of modern Russia

Performer: Shiberin Yuri 12 “V”

The arrival of the Indo-Europeans and the ethnogenesis of the Balts (late Neolithic and Bronze Age, late 3rd - mid 1st millennium BC)

During the Late Neolithic, agricultural and pastoral tribes began to move from south to north into the forest zone. Researchers consider them Indo-Europeans. They spread first to the territory of Lithuania, then went north to Latvia and Estonia, reaching Finland, and in the east to the Oka and Volga basins.

The influence of the Indo-European culture can be judged from the inventory of the studied settlement sites. In the Late Neolithic sites in Sventoji, the ceramics have a different character than before: they are flat-bottomed vessels of various sizes, decorated with corded patterns, sometimes with a fir-tree pattern. Clay contains a lot of grus. Bones of pigs, large and small livestock, wooden hoes, and flint arrowheads of triangular and heart-shaped shapes were also found here. Consequently, these people were already engaged in farming along with hunting and fishing.

Polished flint and stone axes, stone maces, stone, horn and wooden hoes are typical for this period. More than 2,500 such items have been found in 1,400 locations in Lithuania. They cleared the fields of trees and bushes with axes, and cultivated the soil with hoes. The distribution of these finds throughout the territory of Lithuania is evidence of its denser and more uniform settlement in the 2nd-1st millennia BC. e.

Along with polished stone products, people began to use metal - bronze. Bronze products came to the territory of Lithuania in the 17th-16th centuries. BC e. thanks to intertribal connections. The oldest metal product known in Lithuania is a dagger with a hilt, discovered in the vicinity of Veluony (Jurbarka region). Similar daggers were then common in the territories of what is now Western Poland and northern German lands.

At first, metal products were brought ready-made, but later they began to process bronze on site. Battle axes, spearheads, daggers, and short swords were made from imported metal ingots or broken items. The first metal jewelry also appeared: pins with a spiral head, neck hryvnias, bracelets and rings. Since bronze or copper was obtained only in exchange, products made from them were rare and expensive. Only about 250 bronze items from that time have been found on the territory of Lithuania. Along with bronze ones, stone tools continued to be used everywhere. During this era, weakly hatched ceramics gradually spread.

In addition to Bronze Age settlements, archaeologists also know funerary monuments - large mounds with concentric stone crowns. In the 2nd millennium BC. e. in such mounds the dead were buried unburned, and later - burned, often in a clay urn. Apparently, the cult of ancestors developed at this time.

Already in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. In the process of assimilation by Indo-Europeans of the inhabitants of the southern part of the Narva-Neman and Upper Neman cultural areas, the ancestors of the Balts (sometimes called Proto-Balts) arise.

At the end of the Neolithic - beginning of the Bronze Age, the territory between the Vistula and the lower Daugava (Western Dvina) gradually emerged as a separate cultural area with characteristic features of material culture and funeral rites.

Groups of Corded Ware culture carriers who penetrated further to the north were assimilated by Finno-Ugric tribes or partially returned to the south. Thus, in the Eastern Baltic in the Bronze Age, two regions arose: the southern - Indo-European-Baltic and the northern - Finno-Ugric. The territory of Lithuania forms part of a large area inhabited by Balts, between the Vistula in the south and the Daugava in the north, the Baltic Sea in the west and the Upper Dnieper in the east.

The development of productive forces led to the decomposition of the primitive communal system and the transition to a class society. This process occurred throughout almost the entire first millennium AD. e. It is characterized not only by archaeological finds, but also by the first, albeit fragmentary, written sources. The first written information about the inhabitants of the Eastern Baltic states.

The first reliable written evidence about the people who inhabited the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea is found in ancient authors. Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) in Natural History says that during the time of Emperor Nero, to decorate the upcoming gladiatorial games, a Roman horseman was sent to the distant shore of the Baltic Sea for amber, who delivered enough of it to decoration of the entire amphitheater. The Roman historian Cornelius Tatius (55-117 AD) in his work “Germania” reports that on the right bank of the Suebian Sea live tribes of the Aistii, or Aestii, who are engaged in agriculture, although they have few iron products. The Estii collect amber on the sea coast, deliver it to the merchants in unprocessed form, and, to their amazement, receive payment. Claudius Ptolemy (90-168 AD) in his work “Geography” mentions the Galinds and Sudins living in the far north of European Sarmatia, who, apparently, can be identified with the Baltic tribes of the Galinds and Suduvians known from later written sources (Yatvingians). This information indicates the trade of the Romans with the inhabitants of the Eastern Baltic states and that part of the Baltic tribes (Estii) was already known to the ancient world.

A later author, the Gothic historian Cassiodorus (6th century AD), mentions that at the beginning of the 6th century, the Ostrogoth king Theodoric was visited by Aestian ambassadors, offered their friendship and presented him with a gift of amber. In the 6th century Jordan. Retelling Gothic legends, he writes that the king of the Ostrogoths, Germanaric (351-376 AD), defeated the peaceful Aestian tribes.

Unions of Baltic tribes.

On the territory of Lithuania, tribal alliances, known from written sources, formed in the middle and second half of the first millennium AD. e. in the process of the collapse of primitive society. The anthropological composition of the population of Lithuania at the beginning of the second millennium was quite homogeneous. The main anthropological type is a dolichocrane Caucasian with a wide and somewhat elongated face, of average height. Tribal unions were territorial-political entities and included smaller related tribes. In these unions there were territorial units - “lands” with economic and administrative centers. Linguists suggest that it was in the fifth – sixth centuries that the process of isolating individual East Baltic languages ​​(Lithuanian, Latgalian, Zemgallian, Curonian) from the common East Baltic proto-language was completed. Archaeological materials - a characteristic set of decorations and funeral rites - allow us to outline a number of ethnocultural areas that can be identified with the territories of tribal unions.

To the east of the Sventoji River and the middle reaches of the Nemunas (Nemunas) there is an area of ​​mounds with earthen embankments, in which burials with corpses have predominated since the sixth century. The grave goods consist of a few decorations (with the exception of pins), often found iron narrow-bladed axes and spearheads, and sometimes horse skeletons. These are funeral monuments of Lithuanians.

To the west - in the central part of Lithuania (in the Nevėžys River basin and in northern Zanemanie) - ground burial grounds are widespread, in which burials with corpses predominated from the sixth - seventh centuries. The grave goods are few and there are few weapons. By the end of the first millennium, the custom of burying an unburnt horse with a richly decorated bridle next to the owner committed to the fire had spread. This is the ethnocultural region of the Aukštayts.

In the southern part of Zanemanja and south of the Märkis River there are mounds, largely made of stones. Burials with cremation, often in urns, and a small number of grave goods characterize the Yatvingian-Suduvian monuments.

In the Dubisa, Jura and upper Venta basins, ground burial grounds are widespread, where burials with corpses took place until the end of the tenth century. Corpse burnings make up a small part. There are many bronze decorations in the burials; in men's burials there is often a horse skull, and sometimes only items of horse harness as his symbolic burial. Only towards the end of the first millennium was a horse sometimes buried with its owner. These funerary monuments belong to the Samogitians.

On both banks of the Neman in its lower reaches there are ground burial grounds, where the ritual of corpse deposition in the middle of the first millennium is gradually replaced by cremation. A lot of metal, including women's head decorations, and unique pins were discovered. These burials were left by skalvas.

The burials of the Curonians, Semigallians and villagers who lived on the northern outskirts of Lithuania, in the southern and western parts of Latvia are also identified according to the corresponding characteristics.

Consequently, it is possible to distinguish 8 cultural-ethnic regions of individual unions of Letto-Lithuanian tribes. Only the tribes of Lithuanians, Aukštaitians and Samogitians lived exclusively on the territory of Lithuania. Selo, Semigallians and Curonians also lived in southern Latvia; rocks - and in the territory of the current Kaliningrad region; part of this region and the northwestern region of Poland were inhabited by related Prussian tribes, and the Yatvingian tribes also lived on the western outskirts of Belarus. Slavic, Prussian and Yatvingian settlements mixed here.

We would do wrong if, speaking about the ethnic composition of the Old Russian state, about the formation of the Old Russian nationality, we limited ourselves only to the Eastern Slavs.

Other things also took part in the process of the formation of the Old Russian people: non-Slavic, Eastern European population. This means Merya, Muroma, Meshchera. all, Golyad, Vod, etc., unknown to us by name, but traceable through archaeological cultures, tribes of Finno-Ugric, Baltic and other languages, which over time completely or almost completely became Russified and, thus, can be considered historical components of the Eastern Slavism. Their languages ​​disappeared when crossed with the Russian language, but they enriched the Russian language and expanded its vocabulary.

The material culture of these tribes also contributed to the material culture of Ancient Rus'. Therefore, although this work is devoted to the origin of the Russian people, nevertheless we cannot help but say at least a few words about those ethnic formations that, over time, organically became part of the “Slovenian language in Rus'”, part of the Eastern Slavs, or experienced his influence and entered the sphere of ancient Russian culture, into the composition Old Russian state, into his sphere of political influence.

Together with the Eastern Slavs, submitting to their leadership role, they acted as the creators of ancient Russian statehood, defended Rus' from the “invaders” - the Varangians, Turkic nomads, Byzantines, Khazars, troops of the rulers of the Muslim east, “established” their lands, took part in the creation of the “Russian Truth” ", represented Rus' during diplomatic embassies.

Tribes are the creators of ancient Russian statehood together with the Slavs

The Tale of Bygone Years lists the peoples who give tribute to Rus': Chud, Merya, Ves, Muroma, Cheremis. Mordovians, Perm, Pechera, Yam, Lithuania, Zimigola, Kors, Noroma, Lib (Livs) The Nikon Chronicle adds the Meshchera to the number of tributaries of Rus', distinguishing it as a special tribe.

It is unlikely that all of the listed tribes were genuine tributaries of Rus' already at the time of the formation of the Old Russian state. In particular, placing yam (em) and lib (liv) among the tributaries of Rus', the chronicler had in mind the contemporary situation, that is, the end of the 11th - beginning of the 12th centuries.

Some of the listed tribes were not as organically connected with the Russians and Russia (Lithuania, Kors, Zimigola, Lib, Yam) as others assimilated by the Slavs (Merya, Muroma, Ves). Some of them subsequently created their own statehood (Lithuania) or stood on the eve of its creation (Chud) and formed into the Lithuanian and Estonian nationalities.

Therefore, we will mainly focus only on those tribes that were most closely connected with the Eastern Slavs, with Russia and the Russians, with the Old Russian state, namely: Merya, Muroma, Chud, Ves, Golyad, Meshchera, Karelians.

The tribes of the Volga and Baltic regions were by no means savages. They went through a complex and unique path, learned bronze early, mastered agriculture and cattle breeding early, entered into trade and cultural relations with their neighbors, in particular with the Sarmatians, switched to patriarchal-tribal relations, learned property stratification and patriarchal slavery, and became acquainted with iron.

Balts, Baltic tribes

Tribes of the Baltic languages ​​from the deepest antiquity accessible to linguistic analysis inhabited the Poneman region, the Upper Dnieper region, the Poochie and Volga regions and most of the Western Dvina. In the east, the Balts reached the Moscow, Kalinin and Kaluga regions, where in ancient times they lived interstriated with the Finno-Ugrians, the aborigines of the region. Baltic hydronymy is widespread throughout this territory. As for archaeological cultures, the Balts of that distant time are associated with the cultures of hatched ceramics, apparently belonging to the ancestors of the Lithuanians (the western part of the Upper Dnieper), the Dnieper, Verkhneok, Yukhnov (Posemye) and, as some archaeologists believe (V.V. Sedov, P.N. Tretyakov), somewhat specific Milograd (Dnieper region, between Berezina and Ros, and Nizhny Sozh). In the southeast of this territory, in Posemye, the Balts coexisted with the Iranians, who left the so-called ash pit culture. Here, in Posemya, toponymy takes place both Iranian (Seim, Svapa, Tuskar) and Baltic (Iput, Lompya, Lamenka).

The culture of the Balts, farmers and pastoralists, is characterized by above-ground buildings of a pillar structure. In ancient times, these were large, long houses, usually divided into several living spaces of 20-25 m2 with a fireplace. Later, the home of the Balts evolves, and the ancient long multi-chamber houses are replaced by small quadrangular pillar houses.

In the middle part of Belarus in the Early Iron Age and until the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. settlements with hatched pottery were common. At first, these settlements were distinguished by the complete absence of defensive structures, and later (IV-V centuries AD) they were fortified with powerful ramparts and deep ditches.

The main occupation of the inhabitants of these settlements was shifting agriculture (as evidenced by sickles, stone grain grinders, remains of wheat, millet, beans, vetch, and peas), combined with cattle breeding (finds of bones of horses, cows, pigs, rams) and developed forms of hunting.

Various household crafts (mining and processing of iron, bronze casting, pottery, spinning, weaving, etc.) reached a high level of development.

Everywhere among the Balts, a primitive communal system with a patriarchal clan organization dominated. The main economic and social unit was the large patriarchal family, i.e., the family community. Its dominance was determined by the type of economy itself. Swidden farming required communal, collective labor. The presence of fortified settlements in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. speaks of the beginning of the process of accumulation and property stratification and the wars associated with it. Perhaps patriarchal slavery already existed.

The culture of hatched ceramics finds a complete analogy in the culture of settlements (Pilkalnis) of the Lithuanian SSR, the population of which was undoubtedly ancient Lithuanians.

The settlement of the Slavs across the lands of the Baltic-speaking tribes led to the Slavicization of the latter. Just as once in Poochie and adjacent regions the ancient Indo-European languages ​​of the Fatyanovo people and tribes close to them were absorbed by the Finno-Ugric ones, and then the Finno-Ugric speech was replaced by Baltic, so in the 7th-9th centuries. the Baltic languages ​​of the Yukhnovites and others gave way to the language of the Eastern Slavs. The ancient culture of the Balts was layered with Slavic culture. The culture of the Vyatichi was layered on the Eastern Baltic Moshchin culture, the Krivichi - on the culture of hatched ceramics, Old Lithuanian, the Northerners - on the Yukhnovsky, Eastern Baltic. The contribution of the Balts to the language and culture of the Eastern Slavs is very great3. This is especially typical for Krivichi. It is no coincidence that the Lithuanians have preserved legends about the Great Krivi, about the high priest Kriv Kriveito. In Latvia, near the city of Bauska in Zemgale until the middle of the 19th century. lived the Krivins. They spoke a Western Finno-Ugric language, close to the Vodi language. In the middle of the 19th century. they were completely assimilated by the Latvians. It is characteristic that in the women's clothing of the Krivins there were a lot of East Slavic features...

Yatvingians. Cultural and linguistic connection between the Balts and Slavs

Cultural and linguistic connection between the Balts and Slavs due either to the ancient Balto-Slavic community, or to long-term neighborhood and communication. Traces of the participation of the Balts in the formation of the Eastern Slavs are found in funeral rites (eastern burial orientation, snake-headed bracelets, special scarves pinned with brooches, etc.), in hydronymy. The process of Slavicization proceeded quickly, and this was due to the ethnocultural and linguistic proximity of the Slavs and Balts. There were Slavic tribes close to the Balts (for example, Krivichi), and Baltic tribes close to the Slavs. Such a tribe, apparently, were the Yatvingians (Sudavians), who lived in Ponemanya and the Bug region, related to the Western Baltic-Prussians, whose language is believed to have had much in common with the Slavic and represented a transitional form between the Baltic and Slavic languages.

Stone mounds Yatvingians with burnings and burials are not found either among the eastern Balts or among the Slavs. The treaty between Rus' and Byzantium, concluded by Igor, is mentioned among the Russian ambassadors of Yatvyag (Yavtyag) 4. Apparently, Golyad also belongs to the Western Balts. Ptolemy also speaks about the Baltic Galindas. Under 1058 and 1147 chronicles speak of loach in the upper reaches of the Porotva (Protva) River 5. In addition to golyad, the islands of the Balts have been preserved for the longest time in the Ostashkovsky district of the Kalinin region and in the Eastern Smolensk region.

During the formation of the Old Russian state, the process of assimilation of the Balts by the Slavs on its territory was basically completed. Among the Balts, the dolichocrania, wide- and medium-faced racial type predominated, apparently light-pigmented, which became part of the Slavic population as a substrate.

It should also be noted that on the indigenous lands of the Baltic tribes, where the Baltic languages ​​have been preserved, there is a very strong influence of the Russian language and Russian culture. In the eastern part of Latvia, Latgale, archaeologists find many things of Russian origin dating back to the 9th-12th centuries: dishes with wavy and ribbon ornaments, Ovruch pink slate whorls, silver and bronze twisted bracelets, brooches, beads, pendants, etc. In the material culture of Eastern Lithuania in the 10th-11th centuries. has much in common with Old Russian culture: the type of potter's wheel, the wavy ornament of ceramics, sickles of a certain shape, wide-bladed axes, general features of the funeral rite. The same is true for Eastern Latvia. The great influence of Russians on their neighbors - Latvians - is evidenced by a number of borrowings from the Russian language (borrowings, and not consequences of the Balto-Slavic linguistic community or proximity), indicating the spread of elements of a higher culture of the Eastern Slavs in the Eastern Baltic (for example, dzirnavas - millstone, stikls - glass, za- bak - boot, tirgus - bargaining, sepa - price, kupcis - merchant, birkavs - Berkovets. puds - pood, bezmen - steelyard, etc.). The Christian religion penetrated the faith of the Latvian tribes also from Rus'. This is evidenced by such borrowings from Russian in the Latvian language as baznica - shrine, zvans - bell, gavenis - fasting, fasting, svetki - Christmastide6. Such borrowings in the Latvian language as boyars, virnik, serfs, smerdy, pogost, orphans, druzhina, are evidence of the great influence of the socio-economic and political system of Ancient Rus' on Latvians and Latgalians. According to the testimony of Henry of Latvia, Russian princes have long taken tribute from Lets (Latgalians), villages and Livs7.

Chud tribe

Over a vast area, the Eastern Slavs coexisted with various Finno-Ugric tribes, which later became Russified. Some of them retained their language and their culture, but were just as much tributaries of the Russian princes as the East Slavic tribes.

In the extreme north-west the neighbors of the Slavs were the chronicle " Chud" Chud in ancient Rus' was the name given to the Baltic Finno-Ugric tribes: the Volkhov Chud, which represented people from various tribes attracted by the great waterway “from the Varangians to the Greeks,” Vod, Izhora, all (except Belozersk), Estonians6. Once upon a time, during the time of Jordan, the Balts were called aists (ests). Only over time did this name pass to the Finno-Ugric peoples in Estonia.

In the second half of the 1st millennium AD. e. Eastern Slavs came into contact with Estonian tribes. At this time, the Estonians were dominated by shifting agriculture and cattle breeding. Primitive tools of agricultural labor - a hoe, a fork and a plow - were replaced by a plow. The horse began to be widely used as draft power. Collective burials in the form of stone graves several tens of meters long with separate chambers, which prevailed in the 1st-5th centuries. n. e., are replaced by individual Gogils. Fortifications appear, which indicates the decomposition of primitive communal relations. In this process, the influence of their eastern neighbors, the Slavs, on the Estonians played an important role.

Connections between the Estonians and the Eastern Slavs were established a long time ago, at least not later than the 8th century. n. e., when mounds and hills of the Krivichi and Ilmen Slovenes appeared in the southeast of Estonia to the west of Lake Pskov. They penetrate into the territory of distribution of Estonian stone graves. In Slavic burial mounds discovered in Estonia, some items of Estonian material culture are found.

The revolution in the technique of shifting farming among the Estonians is almost connected precisely with their contact with the Slavs. Apparently, the plow, which replaced the primitive one-toothed ralo, was borrowed by the Estonians from the Slavs, since the very term denoting it in the Estonian language is of Russian origin (sahk - coxa, sirp - sickle). Later borrowings from the Russian language into Estonian speak of the influence of Russian culture on the Estonians and are associated mainly with crafts, trade, writing (piird - reed, varten - spindle, look - arc, turg - bargaining, aken - window, raamat - book and etc.).

At the Otepää settlement (“Bear’s Head” in Russian chronicles), dating back to the 11th-13th centuries, there is a lot of Slavic ceramics, jewelry, and arrowheads characteristic of Russian lands.

Slavic burial mounds were discovered along the Narova River. All this predetermined the subsequent entry of the southeastern part of Estonia into the Old Russian state. In some places in southeastern Estonia, the Slavic population was assimilated by the Estonians over time, but all of southeastern Estonia became part of the Old Russian state. The saga of Olaf Trygvasson tells that envoys of Prince Holmgard (Novgorod) Vladimir are collecting tribute in Estland. Yaroslav establishes the city of Yuryev (Tartu) in the * land of Chud (Estonians). Chud participated in the campaigns of Oleg and Vladimir, the Chudins Kanitsar, Iskusevi and Apubskar took part in the conclusion of the treaty between Rus' and Byzantium during the time of Igor. The “Russian Truth” of the Yaroszavichs, along with the Russians, was “set up” by the Russified Chudiy Minula, the thousand-year-old Vyshegorodsky. His brother Tuky is known to the Tale of Bygone Years. Vladimir “recruited” soldiers and populated with them the border fortifications erected against the Pechenegs, not only from among the Slavs: Slovenians, Krivichi, Vyatichi, but also Chud. In Novgorod there was Chudintseva Street. Finally, from among the Chud-Ests, Belozersk Chud or Vod came those kolbyags who act in Rus' in approximately the same role as the Varangians9.

Vod, Ves and Izhora tribes

To the east of the Estonians, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, lived the Vod (Vakya, Vaddya). Vodian monuments are considered to be the so-called “zhalniki”, which are group burial grounds without embankments, with stone fences in the form of a quadrangle, oval or circle. Quadrangular fences accompany the most ancient zhalniki with collective burials. Zhalniki are found in different places of the Novgorod land in combination with Slavic burial mounds. Their burial goods are unique, but there are many things typical of the Estonians, which indicates that the Vodi belong to the group of Estonian tribes. At the same time, there are many Slavic things. The memory of water is the Vodskaya Pyatina of Novgorod10.

Archaeologists consider the monuments of Izhora to be the mounds near Leningrad (Siverskaya, Gdov, Izhora) with multi-beaded temple rings, necklaces made of cowrie shells, etc. In terms of the level of socio-economic development, the farmers of Vod and Izhora are close to the Estonians.

The whole population played a significant role in the history of the population of Eastern Europe. “The Tale of Bygone Years” reports that “everyone is turning gray on Beleozero,” but, apparently, everyone was moving east from the southern shore of Lake Ladoga. The entire inter-lake region of Ladoga, Onega and Beloozero, Pasha, Syas, Svir, Oyat, reached the Northern Dvina. Part of the Vesi became part of the Karelian-Livviks (Ladoga region), part - of the Karelian-Luddiks (Prionezhye), and part took part in the formation of the “Chudi-Zavolotskaya”, i.e. Komi-Zyryans (Podvinye).

Vesi culture is generally homogeneous. Vesi owns small mounds in the southeastern Ladoga region, located alone or in numerous groups. Material culture characterizes the whole as a tribe that was engaged in the 11th century. shifting agriculture, cattle breeding, hunting, fishing and beekeeping. The primitive communal system and patriarchal tribal life were preserved. Only from the middle of the 11th century. Large burial mound groups are spreading, indicating the formation of a rural community. Plowshares from plows indicate the transition to arable farming. Vesya is characterized by ring-shaped and end-pointed temporal rings. Gradually, Slavic things and monuments of Christian worship are spreading more and more among the people. There is a Russification of the world. Everything is known not only to the Tale of Bygone Years, but also to Jordan (vas, vasina), the chronicler Adam of Bremen (vizzi), a Danish chronicler of the 13th century. Saxo Grammar (visinus), Ibn Fadlan and other Arabic-speaking writers of the 10th century. (visu, isu, vis). The descendants of the Vesi are seen in the modern Vepsians11. The memory of the village is such names as Ves-Egonskaya (Vesyegonsk), Cherepo-Ves (Cherepovets).

The Vepsians, numbering 35 thousand people, are now the most numerous of the nationalities mentioned in the chronicles that were assimilated by the Slavs. Izhora has 16 thousand people, Vod - 700, Liv - 500 people. Curonian. i.e. Corsi “Tale of Bygone Years”, who are Balts in language (according to some researchers, Latvianized Finno-Ugrians), recently there were only 100 people listed12.

It is difficult to trace the history of the Karelians in the period preceding the formation of the Old Russian state and in the initial stages of its history. The Tale of Bygone Years does not talk about Karelians. Karelians at that time lived from the coast of the Gulf of Finland near Vyborg and Primorsk to Lake Ladoga. The bulk of the Karelian population was concentrated in the northwestern Ladoga region. In the 11th century part of the Karelians went to the Neva. This was Izhora, Inkeri (hence Ingria, Ingria). The Karelians included part of the vesi and the Volkhov miracle. “Kalevala” and very few archaeological finds characterize the Karelians as farmers who used shifting agriculture, cattle breeders, hunters and fishermen who lived in separate stable clans. The social system of the Karelians intricately combined archaic (remnants of matriarchy, the strength of the clan organization, worship of forest and water deities, bear cult, etc.) and progressive features (accumulation of wealth, wars between clans, patriarchal slavery).

Karelians are not mentioned among the tributaries of Rus'. And, apparently, because Karelia was never a volost of Novgorod, but its integral part (like Vod and Izhora), its state territory. And, as such, it, like Obonezhye, was divided into graveyards.

“The Tale of Bygone Years”, the Charter of Svyatoslav Olgovich of 1137, Swedish sources (chronicles, descriptions, etc.) indicate that there is (from the Finnish hame), who lived in the 9th-12th centuries. in the southeastern part of Finland and in the north of the Karelian Isthmus, was at that time (at least in the 11th-12th centuries) a tributary of Rus'. It is no coincidence that in the modern Finnish language - Suomi, which was formed on the basis of a mixture of two dialects - Sumi and Emi (Tavastov), ​​the word archakka, i.e. Russian obrok, means tribute. And in Ancient Rus', dues and lessons meant tribute 13.

The Baltic tribes were greatly influenced by the Eastern Slavs and Russian culture. And the further to the east, the more and more noticeable this influence became. From the moment it became part of the Old Russian state, it became decisive. This is evidenced, first of all, by the vocabulary of the language of all the Baltic Finno-Ugrians and the Balts, where there are a lot, especially in the east, of borrowings from the language of the Eastern Slavs related to economics, political life and culture 14. Vocabulary borrowings indicate that trade, statehood and Christianity were brought here, to the north-west, by the Russians.

Speaking about racial types, it should be noted that in the territory of Chud, Vod, Izhora, Vesi, Karelians, and Emi, the Caucasoid long-headed racial type, usually broad-faced, dominated, although there were also representatives of other Caucasoid racial types. But the further to the east, the more often apparently dark-colored uralolaponoid racial types were encountered.

If the Baltic Finno-Ugric peoples have preserved their language, culture, linguistic and ethnographic features for a long time, then the Volga and Kama eastern Finno-Ugric tribes, such as the Merya, Muroma, Meshchera, Belozerskaya all, and maybe some others, whose names have not reached us, became completely Russified.

Tribes Merya, Muroma

The ancestors of the chronicle Meri, Murom and other eastern Finno-Ugric tribes belonged to the so-called “Dyakova-type settlements” with above-ground houses and flat-bottomed mesh or textile ceramics, common in the area between the Volga and Oka rivers, the Upper Volga region and Valdai. In turn, the Dyakovo settlements with reticulate (textile) ceramics grew out of various cultures of round-bottomed pit-comb ceramics that belonged to hunters and fishermen of the forest belt of Eastern Europe during the Neolithic era.

The Dyakovo settlements replaced their unfortified settlements in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. The Dyakovites were predominantly cattle breeders. They bred mainly horses that knew how to forage for themselves under the snow. This was very significant, since it was difficult to prepare hay for the winter, and there was nothing - there were no scythes. Horse meat was eaten, as was mare's milk. In second place among the Dyakovites was a pig, in third place were large and small livestock. The settlements were located mainly near rivers, on river capes, and near pastures. It is no coincidence that the “Chronicle of Pereslavl of Suzdal” calls the Finno-Ugrians “horse feeders.” Livestock was the property of the clan, and the struggle for it led to interclan wars. The fortifications of the dyak settlements were intended to protect the population during such inter-tribal wars.

In second place after cattle breeding was slash-and-hoe farming, as evidenced by the finds of grain grinders and sickles. Hunting and fishing were of no small importance. They played a particularly important role in the economy of the Belozersk village. Iron products are not found often, and among them, knives should be noted first. Lots of bone products. There are specific Dyakovo sinkers.

In the middle and lower reaches of the Oka, in the southern regions of the Western Volga region, the Gorodets culture was widespread. Being very close to the Dyakovo culture, it differed from the latter in the predominance of ceramics with matting imprints and dugouts instead of above-ground dwellings.

“The Tale of Bygone Years” places merya in the Upper Volga region: “merya on Rostov Lake, and merya on Kleshchina Lake”15. The area of ​​Mary is wider than outlined by the chronicle. The population of Yaroslavl and Kostroma, Galich Merenoy, Nerl, lakes Nero and Plesheevo, the lower reaches of Sheksna and Mologa were also Meryan. Merya is mentioned by Jordan (merens) and Adam of Bremen (mirri).

Monuments of the Meri are burial grounds with corpses burned, numerous women's metal jewelry, so-called “noisy pendants” (openwork images of a horse, pendants made of flat wire spirals, openwork pendants in the form of a triangle), men's belt sets, etc. The tribal characteristics of the Meri are temporal wire round rings in the form of a sleeve at the end where another ring was inserted. Celt axes, archaic eyed axes, spears, darts, arrows, bits, swords, and knives with a humped back were found in male burials. Ribbed vessels dominate in ceramics.

Many clay figurines in the form of bear paws made of clay, bear claws and teeth, as well as mentions of written sources indicate a widespread cult of the bear. Human idol figurines and images of snakes are specifically Meryan, indicating a cult that is different from the beliefs of the Finno-Ugric tribes of the Oka, Upper and Middle Volga.

Many elements of material culture, features of pagan beliefs, the laponoid racial type, toponymy, the more ancient Finno-Ugric and the later Ugric proper - all this suggests that the Merya was a Ugric tribe in language, Kama region in its origin. Ancient Hungarian legends tell that next to Great Hungary lay the Russian land Susudal, i.e. Suzdal, a city founded by the Russians on the site of villages with a non-Vyan population.

The settlement of Bereznyaki, located not far from the confluence of the Sheksna and the Volga near Rybinsk, can be associated with the measures. It dates back to the 3rd-5th centuries. n. e. The settlement of Bereznyaki is surrounded by a strong fence made of logs, wattle fence and earth. On its territory there were eleven buildings and a cattle pen. In the center stood a large log house - a public building. The living quarters were small houses with a fireplace made of stones. In addition to them, on the site there was a grain barn, a forge, a house for women who were engaged in spinning, weaving and sewing, and a “house of the dead”, where the remains of the dead, burned somewhere on the side, were preserved16. The dishes are smooth, molded by hand, of the late Dyakovsky type. Primitive sickles and grain graters speak of shifting agriculture, but it did not prevail. Cattle breeding dominated. The settlement was a settlement of a patriarchal family, a family community. Weights and dishes of the Dyakovsky type and, in general, the Late Dyakovo inventory of the Bereznyaki settlement indicate the ethnic composition of its population. The type of the village itself speaks for this, finding a complete analogy in the ancient houses of its neighbors - the Udmurts, who are the same Finno-Ugric in language as the Merya.

Mary owns the Sarskoye settlement, located 5 km from Lake Nero on the site of an ancient settlement of the 6th-VHI centuries, similar to the settlement of Bereznyaki. At the Sarskoe settlement, things similar to those from the Bereznyaki settlement were also found (large temple wire rings, celt axes, etc.). On the other hand, many things bring the material culture of the inhabitants of the Sarsky settlement closer to the Mordovians and Murom. Sarskoe settlement in the 9th-10th centuries. was already a real city, a craft and trade center, the predecessor of Rostov.

In terms of the level of development of social relations and culture, the Merya stood above all other Finno-Ugric tribes assimilated by the Slavs. At the same time, a number of data confirm the influence of the Slavs on Merya and its Russification. The large number of corpse burnings, a ritual not typical for the eastern Finno-Ugric tribes, the penetration of Slavic things (ceramics, bronze items, etc.), a number of features in the material culture of Mary that make her related to the Slavs - all this speaks of her Russification. The memory of the measure remains only the toponymy of the Upper Volga region (Mersky Stans, Galich Mersky or Kostroma), in some places along Sheksna and Mologa the bilingualism of its population at the beginning of the 16th century.17

Like the Merya, the Meshchera and Muroma, the inhabitants of the Oka, were completely Russified. They own burial grounds (Borkovsky, Kuzminsky, Malyshevsky, etc.) with numerous tools, weapons, jewelry (torches, temple rings, beads, plaques, etc.). There are especially many so-called “noisy suspensions”. These are bronze tubes and plates suspended on hinges from small rocker arms. They were richly decorated with hats, necklaces, dresses, and shoes. In general, a lot of metal products are found in the Murom, Meshchera and Mordovian burial grounds. The Muroma women's headdress consisted of arched plaits and a belt entwined with a bronze spiral. The braids were decorated with dorsal pendants and temple rings in the form of a shield with a hole in one side and an end with a curved shield. Murom women wore belts and shoes, the straps of which were covered with bronze clips at a height of 13-15 cm from the ankle. Muroma buried its dead with their heads facing north.

The Meshchera monuments are less visible. Their characteristic features should be considered decorations in the form of hollow figurines of ducks, as well as a funeral rite - the Meshchera buried her dead in a sitting position. The modern Russian Meshchera is a Russified Mordovian-Erzya. The Turkicized Ugric Meshchera (Myaschyar, Mozhar) are modern Tatars - Mishars (Meshcheryaks) 18. Muroma and Meshchera quickly became Russified. The penetration of the Slavs into their lands, on the Oka, began a very long time ago. There are a lot of Slavic things, including temple rings (Vyatichi, Radimichi, Krivichi), as well as Slavic burials. Slavic influence is felt in everything. It intensifies from century to century. The city of Murom was a settlement of the Muroms and Slavs, but in the 11th century. its population was completely Russified.

The Russification of Mary, Murom, Meshchera, Vesi was not the result of conquest, but of the peaceful and gradual settlement of the Slavs to the east, centuries-old proximity, mutual enrichment of culture and language, and as a result of crossing, the Russian language and Russian culture spread 19.

Tribe Mordovians, Erzya

The Mordovians also experienced the influence of the Eastern Slavs, especially the Erzya, in whose land Slavic things and the Slavic rite of burning corpses, together with the Slavs themselves, appeared in the 8th-9th centuries. In turn, in the lands of the Slavs, especially the Northerners and Vyatichi, Mordovian things (anklets, special clasps - sulgams, wire rings, trapezoidal pendants, etc.) are spreading.

The spread of the ritual of corpse burning among the Mordovians suggests that Russians lived nearby for a long time, who assimilated part of the Mordovian population. Apparently, the name Erdzian, Russian Ryazan, came from the Mordovian tribal name Erzya. In the Mordovian lands back in the 13th century. Purgasova Rus was located.

Among the tributaries of Rus', the Tale of Bygone Years also names the mysterious Nora (Neroma, Narova), in which some researchers see the Latgalians, and others the Estonians who lived along the Narova River, the Libi (Liv, Livs), a small southern Baltic Finno-Ugric tribe that lived off the coast of the Baltic Sea, which was strongly influenced by the Balts, as well as the “Cheremis... Perm, Pecheru” living in the “midnight countries.” The list of tributaries of Rus' in the "Tale of Bygone Years", which mentions Lib, Chud, Kors, Muroma, Mordovians, Cheremis, Perm, Pechera, covers the Baltic and Finno-Ugric tribes that lived from the Gulf of Riga to the Pechora River, from the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland to the forest-steppe stripes of the Right Bank of the Volga.

The name “Balts” can be understood in two ways, depending on the sense in which it is used, geographical or political, linguistic or ethnological. Geographical significance suggests talking about the Baltic states: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, located on the western coast of the Baltic Sea. Before World War II, these states were independent, with a population of approximately 6 million. In 1940 they were forcibly incorporated into the USSR.

This publication is not about the modern Baltic states, but about a people whose language is part of the common Indo-European language system, a people consisting of Lithuanians, Latvians and old, ancient, that is, related tribes, many of which disappeared in prehistoric and historical periods. Estonians do not belong to them, since they belong to the Finno-Ugric language group, they speak a completely different language, of a different origin, different from Indo-European.

The very name “Balts”, formed by analogy with the Baltic Sea, Mare Balticum, is considered a neologism, since it has been used since 1845 as a common name for peoples speaking “Baltic” languages: ancient Prussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Shelonians. Currently, only Lithuanian and Latvian languages ​​have been preserved.

Prussian disappeared around 1700 due to the German colonization of West Prussia. The Curonian, Semgalian and Selonian (Seli) languages ​​disappeared between 1400 and 1600, absorbed by Lithuanian or Latvian. Other Baltic languages ​​or dialects disappeared during the prehistoric or early historical period and are not preserved in written sources.

At the beginning of the 20th century, speakers of these languages ​​began to be called Estonians (Esti). Thus, the Roman historian Tacitus in his work “Germania” (98) mentions Aestii, gentes Aestiorum - Aestii, people who lived on the western coast of the Baltic Sea. Tacitus describes them as amber collectors and notes their particular industriousness in collecting plants and fruits in comparison with the German people, with whom the Aestians showed similarities in appearance and customs.

Perhaps it would be more natural to use the term “Aesti”, “Aesti” in relation to all the Baltic peoples, although we do not know for sure whether Tacitus meant all the Balts, or only the ancient Prussians (Eastern Balts), or the amber collectors who lived on the Baltic coast around the Gulf of Frisches Haf, which Lithuanians still call the “Sea of ​​Estov”. It was also called by Wulfstan, the Anglo-Saxon traveler, in the 9th century.

There is also the Aista River in eastern Lithuania. The names Aestii and Aisti appear frequently in early historical records. The Gothic author Jordanes (6th century BC) finds the Aestii, “a completely peaceful people,” east of the mouth of the Vistula, on the longest stretch of the Baltic coast. Einhardt, the author of the “Biography of Charlemagne” (approximately 830-840), finds them on the western shores of the Baltic Sea, considering them neighbors of the Slavs. It seems that the name "Esti", "Estii" should be used in a broader context than the specific designation of a single tribe.

The most ancient designation of the Balts, or most likely the Western Balts, was Herodotus’ mention of them as the Neuroi. Since it is a common view that the Slavs were called neuros, I will return to this issue when discussing the problem of the Western Balts in the time of Herodotus.

Since the 2nd century BC. e. individual names of Prussian tribes appeared. Ptolemy (about 100-178 AD) knew the Sudins and Galindians, the Sudians and the Galindians, which indicates the antiquity of these names. Many centuries later, the Sudians and Galindians continued to be mentioned in the list of Prussian tribes under the same names. In 1326, Dunisburg, a historiographer of the Teutonic Order, writes about ten Prussian tribes, including the Sudovites (Sudovians) and Galindites (Galindians). Among others, the Pogo-Syans, Warmians, Notangs, Zembs, Nadrovs, Barts and Skalovites are mentioned (the names of the tribes were given in Latin). Modern Lithuanian retains the names of the Prussian provinces: Pamede, Pagude, Varme, Notanga, Semba, Nadruva, Barta, Skalva, Sudova and Galinda. There were two more provinces located south of Pagude and Galinda, called Lyubava and Sasna, known from other historical sources. The Sudovians, the largest Prussian tribe, were also called Yat-Vings (Yovingai, in Slavic sources the Yatvingians).

The general name of the Prussians, that is, the Eastern Balts, appeared in the 9th century. BC e. - these are “brutzi”, first immortalized by a Bavarian geographer almost exactly after 845. It was believed that before the 9th century. One of the eastern tribes was called Prussians, and only over time they began to call other tribes this way, like, say, the Germans “Germans.”

Around 945, an Arab merchant from Spain named Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, who came to the Baltic shores, noted that the Prussians had their own language and were distinguished by their brave behavior in wars against the Vikings (Rus). The Curonians, a tribe that settled on the shores of the Baltic Sea in the territory of modern Lithuania and Latvia, are called Cori or Hori in the Scandinavian sagas. The wars between the Vikings and Curonians, which took place in the 7th century, are also mentioned. BC e.

The lands of the Semigallians - today the central part of Latvia and Northern Lithuania - are known from Scandinavian sources in connection with the attacks of the Danish Vikings on the Semigallians in 870. The designations of other tribes arose much later. The name Latgalians, who lived in the territory of modern Eastern Lithuania, Eastern Latvia and Belarus, appeared in written sources only in the 11th century.

Between the 1st century AD and the 11th century, one after another the names of the Baltic tribes appear on the pages of history. In the first millennium, the Balts experienced a prehistoric stage of development, therefore the earliest descriptions are very scarce, and without archaeological data it is impossible to get an idea of ​​​​the boundaries of residence or the way of life of the Balts. The names that appeared in the early historical period make it possible to identify their culture from archaeological excavations. And only in some cases the descriptions allow us to draw conclusions about the social structure, occupation, customs, appearance, religion and behavioral characteristics of the Balts.

From Tacitus (1st century) we learn that the Aestians were the only tribe that collected amber, and that they cultivated plants with a patience that did not characterize the lazy Germans. In terms of the nature of their religious rituals and appearance, they resembled the Sueds (Germans), but the language was more like Breton (Celtic group). They worshiped the mother goddess (earth) and wore boar masks, which protected them and terrified their enemies.

Around 880-890, the traveler Wulfstan, who sailed by boat from Haithabu, Schleswig, along the Baltic Sea to the lower reaches of the Vistula, to the Elbe River and Frisches Haf Bay, described the vast land of Estland, in which there were many settlements, each of which was headed by leader, and they often fought among themselves.

The leader and rich members of society drank kumis (mare's milk), the poor and slaves drank honey. They did not brew beer because there was honey in abundance. Wulfstan describes in detail their funeral rites, the custom of preserving the dead by freezing. This is discussed in detail in the section on religion.

The first missionaries who entered the lands of the ancient Prussians usually considered the local population to be mired in paganism. Archbishop Adam of Bremen wrote this around 1075: “The Zembs, or Prussians, are the most humane people. They always help those who get into trouble at sea or who are attacked by robbers. They consider gold and silver to be the highest value... Many worthy words could be said about this people and their moral principles, if only they believed in the Lord, whose messengers they brutally exterminated. Adalbert, the brilliant bishop of Bohemia, who died at their hands, was recognized as a martyr. Although they are in all other respects similar to our own people, they have prevented, down to the present day, access to their groves and springs, believing that they might be desecrated by Christians.

They eat their draft animals and use their milk and blood as drink so often that they can become intoxicated. Their men are blue [maybe blue eyes? Or do you mean tattoo?], red-skinned and long-haired. Living mainly in impenetrable swamps, they will not tolerate anyone’s power over them.”

On the bronze door of the cathedral in Gniezno, in northern Poland (chronicle mentions date back to the 12th century), the scene of the arrival of the first missionary, Bishop Adalbert, to Prussia, his disputes with the local nobility and his execution is depicted. The Prussians are depicted with spears, sabers and shields. They are beardless, but with a mustache, their hair is cropped, they wear kilts, blouses and bracelets.

Most likely, the ancient Balts did not have their own written language. No inscriptions on stone or birch bark in the national language have yet been found. The earliest known inscriptions, written in Old Prussian and Lithuanian, date back to the 14th and 16th centuries, respectively. All other known references to the Baltic tribes are made in Greek, Latin, German or Slavic.

Today, the Old Prussian language is known only to linguists, who study it from dictionaries published in the 14th and 16th centuries. In the 13th century, the Baltic Prussians were conquered by the Teutonic Knights, German-speaking Christians, and over the next 400 years the Prussian language disappeared. The crimes and atrocities of the conquerors, perceived as acts in the name of faith, are forgotten today. In 1701, Prussia became an independent German monarchical state. From that time on, the name “Prussian” became synonymous with the word “German”.

The lands occupied by the Baltic-speaking peoples were approximately one-sixth of those occupied in prehistoric times, before the Slavic and German invasions.

Throughout the territory located between the Vistula and Neman rivers, ancient place names are common, although mostly Germanized. Presumably Baltic names are also found west of the Vistula, in Eastern Pomerania.

Archaeological evidence leaves no doubt that before the appearance of the Goths in the lower Vistula and Eastern Pomerania in the 1st century BC. e. these lands belonged to the direct descendants of the Prussians. In the Bronze Age, before the expansion of the central European Lusatian culture (ca. 1200 BC), when, apparently, the Western Balts inhabited the entire territory of Pomerania down to the lower Oder and what is today Western Poland, to the Bug and the upper Pripyat in the south, we find evidence of the same culture that was widespread in the ancient Prussian lands.

The southern border of Prussia reached the Bug River, a tributary of the Vistula, as evidenced by the Prussian names of the rivers. Archaeological finds show that modern Podlasie, located in eastern Poland, and Belarusian Polesie were inhabited by Sudovians in prehistoric times. Only after long wars with the Russians and Poles during the 11th-12th centuries, the southern borders of the settlement of the Sudovians were limited to the Narev River. In the 13th century, the borders even moved further south, along the line Ostrovka (Oste-rode) - Olyntyn.

Baltic names of rivers and places exist throughout the entire territory located from the Baltic Sea to Western Great Russia. There are many Baltic words borrowed from the Finno-Ugric language and even from the Volga Finns who lived in western Russia. Since the 11th-12th centuries, historical descriptions have mentioned the warlike Baltic tribe of the Galindians (Golyad), who lived above the Protva River, near Mozhaisk and Gzhatsk, southeast of Moscow. All of the above indicates that the Baltic peoples lived on the territory of Russia before the invasion of the Western Slavs.

Baltic elements in the archeology, ethnography and language of Belarus have occupied researchers since the end of the 19th century. The Galindians living in the Moscow region created an interesting problem: their name and historical descriptions of this tribe indicate that they were neither Slavs nor Finno-Ugric. Then who were they?

In the very first Russian chronicle, “The Tale of Bygone Years,” the Galindians (Golyad) were first mentioned in 1058 and 1147. Linguistically, the Slavic form “golyad” comes from the Old Prussian “galindo”. "The etymology of the word can be explained by the Eton word galas - 'end'.

In ancient Russian, galindo also designated a territory located in the southern part of Baltic Prussia. As we have already noted, the Prussian Galindians are mentioned by Ptolemy in his Geography. Probably, the Galindians who lived on the territory of Russia were named so because they were located to the east of all the Baltic tribes. In the 11th and 12th centuries they were surrounded on all sides by Russians.

For centuries the Russians fought against the Balts until they finally conquered them. From this time on, there were no mentions of the warlike Galindians. Most likely, their resistance was broken, and, driven out by the increasing Slavic population, they were unable to survive. For Baltic history, these few surviving fragments are especially important. They show that the Western Balts fought against Slavic colonization for 600 years. According to linguistic and archaeological research, with the help of these descriptions it is possible to establish the territory of settlement of the ancient Balts.

On modern maps of Belarus and Russia one can hardly find Baltic traces in the names of rivers or localities - today these are Slavic territories. However, linguists were able to overcome time and establish the truth. In his studies of 1913 and 1924, the Lithuanian linguist Buga found that 121 river names in Belarus are of Baltic origin. He showed that almost all names in the upper Dnieper region and the upper reaches of the Neman are undoubtedly of Baltic origin.

Some similar forms are found in the names of rivers in Lithuania, Latvia and East Prussia, their etymology can be explained by deciphering the meaning of the Baltic words. Sometimes in Belarus several rivers can bear the same name, for example, Vodva (this is the name of one of the right tributaries of the Dnieper, another river is located in the Mogilev region). The word comes from the Baltic "vaduva" and is often found in the names of rivers in Lithuania.

The next hydronym “Luchesa”, which in Baltic corresponds to “Laukesa”, comes from the Lithuanian lauka - “field”. There is a river with the same name in Lithuania - Laukesa, in Latvia - Lautesa, and is found three times in Belarus: in the north and southwest of Smolensk, as well as south of Vitebsk (a tributary of the upper Daugava - Dvina).

Until now, the names of rivers are the best way to establish the zones of settlement of peoples in ancient times. Buga was convinced of the original settlement of modern Belarus by the Balts. He even put forward a theory that in the beginning the lands of the Lithuanians may have been located north of the Pripyat River and in the upper Dnieper basin. In 1932, the German Slavist M. Vasmer published a list of names that he considered Baltic, which included the names of rivers located in the areas of Smolensk, Tver (Kalinin), Moscow and Chernigov, expanding the zone of Baltic settlement far to the west.

In 1962, Russian linguists V. Toporov and O. Trubachev published the book “Linguistic analysis of hydronyms in the upper Dnieper basin.” They discovered that more than a thousand river names in the upper Dnieper basin are of Baltic origin, as evidenced by the etymology and morphemics of the words. The book became obvious evidence of the long occupation by the Balts in ancient times of the territory of modern Belarus and the eastern part of Great Russia.

The spread of Baltic toponymy in the modern Russian territories of the upper Dnieper and the upper Volga basins is more convincing evidence than archaeological sources. I will name some examples of Baltic names of rivers in the regions of Smolensk, Tver, Kaluga, Moscow and Chernigov.

The Istra, a tributary of the Vori in the territory of Gzhatsk, and a western tributary of the Moscow River has exact parallels in Lithuanian and West Prussian. Isrutis, a tributary of Prege-le, where the root *ser"sr means "swim", and strove means "stream". The Verzha rivers in the territory of Vyazma and in the Tver region are associated with the Baltic word "birch", Lithuanian "berzas". Obzha, tributary Mezhi, located in the Smolensk region, is associated with the word meaning “aspen”.

The Tolzha River, located in the Vyazma region, took its name from *tolza, which is associated with the Lithuanian word tilzti - “to dive”, “to be under water”; the name of the city of Tilsit, located on the Neman River, is of the same origin. The Ugra, an eastern tributary of the Oka, correlates with the Lithuanian “ungurupe”; Sozh, a tributary of the Dnieper, comes from *Sbza, goes back to the ancient Prussian suge - “rain”. Zhizdra - a tributary of the Oka and a city bearing the same name, comes from the Baltic word meaning "grave", "gravel", "rough sand", Lithuanian zvigzdras, zyirgzdas.

The name of the Nara River, a tributary of the Oka, located south of Moscow, was reflected repeatedly in Lithuanian and West Prussian: the Lithuanian rivers Neris, Narus, Narupe, Narotis, Narasa, lakes Narutis and Narochis are found, in Old Prussian - Naurs, Naris, Naruse, Na -urve (modern Narev) - all of them are derived from narus, which means “deep”, “one in which one can drown”, or nerti- “dive”, “to plunge”.

The farthest river, located in the west, was the Tsna River, a tributary of the Oka, it flows south of Kasimov and west of Tambov. This name is often found in Belarus: the Usha tributary near Vileika and the Gaina tributary in the Borisov region comes from *Tbsna, Baltic *tusna; Old Prussian tusnan means "calm".

River names of Baltic origin are found as far south as the Chernigov region, located north of Kyiv. Here we find the following hydronyms: Verepet, a tributary of the Dnieper, from the Lithuanian verpetas - “whirlpool”; Titva, a tributary of the Snov, which flows into the Desna, has a correspondence in Lithuanian: Tituva. The largest western tributary of the Dnieper, the Desna, is possibly related to the Lithuanian word desine - "right side".

Probably, the name of the Volga River goes back to the Baltic jilga - “long river”. Lithuanian jilgas, ilgas means "long", hence Jilga - "long river". Obviously, this name defines the Volga as one of the longest rivers in Europe. In Lithuanian and Latvian there are many rivers with the names ilgoji - “longest” or itgupe - “long river”.

For thousands of years, the Finno-Ugric tribes were neighbors of the Balts and bordered them in the north and west. During the short period of relations between the Baltic and Finno-Ugric-speaking peoples, there may have been closer contacts than in later periods, which was reflected in borrowings from the Baltic language in the Finno-Ugric languages.

There are thousands of similar words known since V. Thomsen published his remarkable study of the mutual influences between the Finnish and Baltic languages ​​in 1890. Borrowed words relate to the field of animal husbandry and agriculture, to the names of plants and animals, body parts, flowers; designations of temporary terms, numerous innovations, which were caused by the higher culture of the Balts. Onomastics, vocabulary from the field of religion, was also borrowed.

The meaning and form of the words prove that these borrowings are of ancient origin; linguists believe that they date back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Many of these words were borrowed from Old Baltic rather than from modern Latvian or Lithuanian. Traces of Baltic vocabulary were found not only in the Western Finnish languages ​​(Estonian, Livonian and Finnish), but also in the Volga-Finnish languages: Mordovian, Mari, Mansi, Cheremis, Udmurt and Komi-Zyrian.

In 1957, Russian linguist A. Serebrennikov published a study entitled “Study of extinct Indo-European languages ​​correlated with Baltic in the center of the European part of the USSR.” He cites words from Finno-Ugric languages ​​that expand the list of borrowed Balticisms compiled by V. Thomsen.

How far Baltic influence has spread in modern Russia is confirmed by the fact that many Baltic loanwords into the Volga-Finnish languages ​​are unknown to Western Finns. Perhaps these words came directly from the Western Balts, who inhabited the upper Volga basin and during the Early and Middle Bronze Age constantly sought to move further and further west. Indeed, around the middle of the second millennium, the Fatyanovo culture, as mentioned above, spread to the lower reaches of the Kama, the upper reaches of the Vyatka and even in the Belaya River basin, located in modern Tataria and Bashkiria.

During the Iron Age and in early historical times, the immediate neighbors of the Western Slavs were the Mari and Mordvins, respectively "Merya" and "Mordovians", as noted in historical sources. The Mari occupied the areas of Yaroslavl, Vladimir and the east of the Kostroma region. The Mordvins lived west of the lower part of the Oka. The boundaries of their settlement throughout the territory can be traced by a significant number of hydronyms of Finno-Ugric origin. But in the lands of the Mordvins and Mari, names of rivers of Baltic origin are rarely found: between the cities of Ryazan and Vladimir there were huge forests and swamps, which for centuries served as natural boundaries separating the tribes.

As noted above, a huge number of Baltic words borrowed from the Finnish languages ​​are the names of domestic animals, descriptions of ways to care for them, names of grain crops, seeds, designations of soil cultivation techniques, and spinning processes.

The borrowed words undoubtedly show what a huge number of innovations were introduced by the Baltic Indo-Europeans in the northern lands. Archaeological finds do not provide such an amount of information, since borrowings relate not only to material objects or objects, but also to abstract vocabulary, verbs and adjectives; the results of excavations in ancient settlements cannot tell about this.

Among the borrowings in the field of agricultural terms, the designations for grain crops, seeds, millet, flax, hemp, chaff, hay, garden or plants growing in it, and labor tools, such as harrows, stand out. Let us note the names of domestic animals borrowed from the Balts: ram, lamb, goat, pig and goose.

The Baltic word for the name of a horse, stallion, horse (Lithuanian zirgas, Prussian sirgis, Latvian zirgs), in Finno-Ugric it means an ox (Finnish Ъагка, Estonian bdrg, Livonian - arga). The Finnish word juhta - “joke” - comes from the Lithuanian junkt-a, jungti - “to joke”, “to make fun of”. Among the borrowings there are also words to designate a portable wicker fence used for livestock when kept open (Lithuanian gardas, Mordovian karda, kardo), the name of a shepherd.

A group of borrowed words to denote the spinning process, the names spindle, wool, thread, spindles show that the processing and use of wool was already known to the Balts and came from them. The names of alcoholic drinks, in particular beer and mead, were borrowed from the Balts, respectively, and words such as “wax”, “wasp” and “hornet”.

Words also borrowed from the Balts: axe, hat, shoe, bowl, ladle, hand, hook, basket, sieve, knife, shovel, broom, bridge, boat, sail, oar, wheel, fence, wall, support, pole, fishing rod, handle, bath The names of such musical instruments as kankles (lit.) - “zither”, as well as color designations came: yellow, green, black, dark, light gray and adjectives - wide, narrow, empty, quiet, old, secret, brave (gallant).

Words with the meaning of love or desire could have been borrowed in the early period, since they were found in both West Finnish and Volga-Finnic languages ​​(Lithuanian melte - love, mielas - dear; Finnish mieli, Ugro-Mordovian teG, Udmurt myl). The close relationship between the Balts and the Finno-Ugric peoples is reflected in the borrowings used to designate body parts: neck, back, kneecap, navel and beard. Not only the word “neighbor” is of Baltic origin, but also the names of family members: sister, daughter, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, cousin, which suggests frequent marriages between Balts and Ugro-Finnish people.

The existence of connections in the religious sphere is evidenced by the words: sky (taivas from the Baltic *deivas) and the god of air, thunder (Lithuanian Perkunas, Latvian Regkop, Finnish perkele, Estonian pergel).

A huge number of borrowed words associated with food preparation processes indicate that the Balts were the carriers of civilization in the southwestern part of Europe, inhabited by Finno-Ugric hunters and fishermen. The Ugro-Finns who lived next door to the Balts were to a certain extent subject to Indo-European influence.

At the end of the millennium, especially during the early Iron Age and the first centuries BC. BC, the Ugro-Finnish culture in the upper Volga basin and north of the Daugava-Dvina River knew food production. From the Balts they adopted the method of creating settlements on hills and building rectangular houses.

Archaeological finds show that over the centuries bronze and iron tools and patterns were “exported” from the Baltics to the Finno-Ugric lands. Starting from the 2nd century and up to the 5th century, the Western Finnish, Mari and Mordovian tribes borrowed ornaments characteristic of the Baltic culture.

In the case of a long history of Baltic and Finno-Ugric relations, the language and archaeological sources provide the same data, as for the spread of the Balts into the territory that now belongs to Russia, borrowed Baltic words found in the Volga-Finnish languages , become invaluable evidence.

Raisa Denisova

Balt tribes in the territory of the Baltic Finns

Publication in the magazine “Latvijas Vesture” (“History of Latvia”) No. 2, 1991.

The habitat of the Baltic tribes in ancient times was much larger than the lands of modern Latvia and Lithuania. In the 1st millennium, the southern border of the Balts stretched from the upper reaches of the Oka in the east through the middle reaches of the Dnieper to the Bug and Vistula in the west. In the north, the territory of the Baltic bordered on the lands of the Finno-Ugric tribes.

As a result of differentiation of the latter, perhaps already in the 1st millennium BC. From them a group of Baltic Finns emerged. During this period of time, a zone of contact between the Baltic tribes and the Finobalts was formed along the Daugava to its upper reaches.

The zone of these contacts was not the result of the onslaught of the Balts in a northern direction, but a consequence of the gradual creation of an ethnically mixed territory in Vidzeme and Latgale.

In the scientific literature we can find a lot of evidence of the influence of the culture, language and anthropological type of the Finobalts on the Baltic tribes, which occurred both during the mutual influence of the cultures of these tribes and as a result of mixed marriages. At the same time, today the problem of the influence of the Balts on the Finnish-speaking peoples of this area is still little studied.

This problem is too complex to solve overnight. Therefore, let us pay attention only to some essential questions characteristic of the discussion, the further study of which could be facilitated by the research of linguists and archaeologists.

The southern border of the Baltic tribes was always the most vulnerable and “open” to migration and attack from outside. Ancient tribes, as we now understand, in moments of military threat often left their lands and went to more protected territories.

A classic example in this sense would be the migration of the ancient Neuroi from the south to the north, to the Pripyat basin and the upper Dnieper, an event confirmed both by the testimony of Herodotus and by archaeological research.

First millennium BC became a particularly difficult period both in the ethnic history of the Balts and in the history of European peoples in general. Let us mention only a few events that influenced the movement of the Baltic people and migration at that time.

During the mentioned period, the southern territory of the Baltic tribes was affected by all kinds of migrations of a clearly military nature. Already in the 3rd century BC. The Sarmatians devastated the lands of the Scythians and Budins in the territories in the middle reaches of the Dnieper. From the 2nd-1st centuries, these raids reached the territories of the Balts in the Pripyat basin. Over the course of several centuries, the Sarmatians conquered all the lands of historical Scythia in the steppe zone of the Black Sea region up to the Danube. There they became a decisive military factor.

In the first centuries AD, in the southwest, in close proximity to the territory of the Balts (the Vistula basin), tribes of Goths appeared, forming the Wielbark culture. The influence of these tribes also reached the Pripyat basin, but the main stream of Gothic migration was directed to the steppes of the Black Sea region, in which they, together with the Slavs and Sarmatians, founded a new formation (the territory of the Chernyakhov culture), which existed for about 200 years.

But the most important event of the 1st millennium was the invasion of the Xiongnu nomads into the zone of the Black Sea steppes from the east, which destroyed the state formation of Germanaric and involved all the tribes from the Don to the Danube in constant destructive wars for decades. In Europe, this event is associated with the beginning of the Great Migration. This wave of migrations especially affected the tribes inhabiting Eastern, Central Europe and the lands of the Balkans.

The echo of the mentioned events also reached the Eastern Baltic. Centuries after the beginning of the new era, Western Baltic tribes appeared in Lithuania and the Southern Baltic, creating the “long barrow” culture in the late 4th - early 5th centuries.

In the early era of the “Iron Age” (7th-1st centuries BC), the largest Eastern Baltic area was in the Dnieper basin and in the territory of modern Belarus, where Baltic hydronyms predominate. The ancient ownership of this territory by the Balts is today a generally accepted fact. The territory north of the upper reaches of the Daugava to the Gulf of Finland, until the first appearance of the Slavs here, was inhabited by Finnish-speaking Baltic tribes - Livs, Estonians, Ves, Ingris, Izhoras, Votichi.

It is believed that the most ancient names of rivers and lakes in this territory are of Finno-Ugric origin. However, recently there has been a scientific reassessment of the ethnicity of the names of rivers and lakes in the lands of ancient Novgorod and Pskov. The results obtained revealed that in this territory hydronyms of Baltic origin are actually no less frequent than Finnish ones. This may indicate that Baltic tribes once appeared on lands inhabited by tribes of ancient Finns and left a significant cultural mark.

The presence of a Baltic component in the mentioned territory is recognized in the archaeological literature. It is usually dated to the time of the migration of the Slavs, whose movement to the north-west of Rus' may have included some Baltic tribes. But now, when a large number of Baltic hydronyms have been identified on the territory of ancient Novgorod and Pskov, it is logical to assume the independent influence of the Balts on the Baltic Finno-Ugric peoples even before the Slavs appeared here.

Also in the archaeological material of the territory of Estonia there is a great influence of the Baltic culture. But here the result of this influence is stated much more specifically. According to archaeologists, in the era of the “Middle Iron Age” (5-9 centuries AD), metal culture (castings, jewelry, weapons, implements) on Estonian territory did not develop on the basis of the culture of iron objects of the previous period. At the initial stage, the Semigallians, Samogitians and ancient Prussians became the source of new metal forms.

Metal objects characteristic of the Balts have been found in burial grounds and in excavations of settlements on the territory of Estonia. The influence of Baltic culture is also noted in ceramics, housing construction and funeral traditions. Thus, starting from the 5th century, the influences of Baltic culture have been noted in the material and spiritual culture of Estonia. In the 7th-8th centuries. here there is also influence from the southeast - from the region of the Bantserov East Baltic culture (the upper reaches of the Dnieper and Belarus).

The cultural factor of the Latgalians, in comparison with the similar influence of other Baltic tribes, is less pronounced and only at the end of the 1st millennium in the south of Estonia. It is virtually impossible to explain the reasons for this phenomenon only by the penetration of Baltic culture without the migration of these tribes themselves. Anthropological data also evidence this.

There is a long-standing idea in the scientific literature that the Neolithic cultures in this area belong to some ancient predecessors of the Estonians. But the mentioned Finno-Ugric peoples differ sharply from the modern inhabitants of Estonia in their anthropological complex of characteristics (head and face shape). Therefore, from an anthropological point of view, there is no direct continuity between the Neolithic ceramic cultures and the cultural layer of modern Estonians.

An anthropological study of modern Baltic peoples provides interesting data. They indicate that the Estonian anthropological type (head and face parameters, height) is very similar to the Latvian one and is especially characteristic of the population of the territory of the ancient Semigallians. On the contrary, the Latgalian anthropological component is almost not represented among Estonians and can only be discerned here and there in the south of Estonia. Ignoring the influence of the Baltic tribes on the formation of the Estonian anthropological type, it is hardly possible to explain the mentioned similarities.

Thus, this phenomenon can be explained, based on anthropological and archaeological data, by the expansion of the Balts in the mentioned territory of Estonia in the process of mixed marriages, which influenced the formation of the anthropological type of the local Finnish peoples, as well as their culture.

Unfortunately, any craniological materials (skulls) dating back to the 1st millennium have not yet been found on the territory of Estonia - this is explained by the traditions of cremation in funeral rites. But in the study of the mentioned problem, important data are given to us by finds from the 11th-13th centuries. The craniology of the Estonian population of this period also allows us to judge the anthropological composition of the population of previous generations in this territory.

Already in the 50s (20th century), the Estonian anthropologist K. Marka stated the presence of 11th-13th centuries in the Estonian complex. a number of features (massive structure of oblong-shaped skulls with a narrow and high face), characteristic of the anthropological type of Semigallians. Recent studies of the burial ground of the 11th-14th centuries. in the north-east of Estonia fully confirms the similarity with the Zemgale anthropological type of craniological finds in this area of ​​Estonia (Virumaa).

Indirect evidence of possible migrations to the north of the Baltic tribes in the second half of the 1st millennium is also evidenced by data from northern Vidzeme - skulls from the 13-14th century Anes burial ground in the Aluksne region (Bundzenu parish), which have a similar set of features characteristic of Semigallians. But the craniological materials obtained from the Asares burial ground in the Aluksne region are of particular interest. Only a few burials dating back to the 7th century were discovered here. The burial ground is located in the territory inhabited by ancient Finno-Ugric tribes and dates back to the time before the arrival of the Latgalians in Northern Vidzeme. Here, in the anthropological type of the population, we can again see similarities with Semigallians. So, anthropological data indicate the movement of the Baltic tribes in the second half of the 1st millennium through the central zone of Vidzeme in a northern direction.

It must be said that in the formation of the Latvian language the main place belonged to the “middle dialect”. J. Endzelins believes that “outside the Curonian language, the colloquial speech of the “middle” arose on the basis of the Semigallian dialect, with the addition of elements of the “Upper Latvian” dialect, and, possibly, the language of the Selovians, the inhabitants of the middle zone of ancient Vidzeme." 10 What other tribes of this area influenced the formation of the “middle dialect”? Archaeological and anthropological data today are clearly not enough to answer this question.

However, we will be closer to the truth if we consider these tribes to be related to the Semigallians - the burials of the Asares burial ground are similar to them in a number of anthropological features, but still not completely identical to them.

The Estonian ethnonym eesti strikingly echoes the name of the storks (Aestiorum Gentes) mentioned in the 1st century by Tacitus on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea, identified by scientists with the Balts. Also around 550 Jordan places the Aesti east of the mouth of the Vistula.

The last time the Baltic storks were mentioned was by Wulfstan in connection with the description of the ethnonym "easti". According to J. Endzelin, this term could have been borrowed by Wulfstan from Old English, where eаste means “eastern”11 This suggests that the ethnonym aistia was not the self-name of the Baltic tribes. They may have been so named (as was often the case in ancient times) by their German neighbors, who, however, called all their eastern neighbors so..

Obviously, this is precisely why in the territory inhabited by the Balts the ethnonym “Aistii” (as far as I know) is not “seen” anywhere in the names of places. Therefore, we can assume that the term “stork” (easte), with which the Germans may have associated the Balts, mainly in medieval manuscripts speaks of some of their neighbors.

Let us remember that during the period of the Great Migration of Peoples, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes crossed to the British Isles, where subsequently, through their mediation, this name of the Balts could be preserved for a long time. This seems plausible, since the Baltic tribes inhabited territories in the 1st millennium that occupied a very significant place on the political and ethnic map of Europe, so it is not surprising that they should have been known there.

Perhaps the Germans over time began to attribute the ethnonym “Aistii” to all the tribes that inhabited the lands east of the Baltic, for Wulfstan, in parallel with this term, mentions a certain Eastland, meaning Estonia. Since the 10th century, this polytonym has been attributed exclusively to Estonians. Scandinavian sagas mention the Estonian land as Aistland. In the chronicle of Indrik of Latvia, Estonia or Estlandia and the people of Estones are mentioned, although the Estonians call themselves maarahvas - “the people of (their) land.”

Only in the 19th century did Estonians adopt the name Eesti. for his people. This indicates that the Estonian people did not borrow their ethnonym from the Balts mentioned by Tacitus in the 1st century AD.

But this conclusion does not change the essence of the question about the symbiosis of the Balts and Estonians in the second half of the 1st millennium. This question has been least studied from the point of view of linguistics. Therefore, research into the ethnic origin of Estonian place names could also become an important source of historical information.

The Russian chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" contains two Finougo names in the mention of the Baltic tribes. If we take it on faith that the names of the tribes are obviously located in some specific sequence, we can assume that both lists correspond to the geographical location of these tribes. First of all, in the northwestern direction (where Staraya Ladoga and Novgorod are obviously taken as the starting point), while to the east the Finno-Ugric tribes are mentioned. After listing these peoples, it would be logical for the chronicler to move further to the west, which he does, mentioning the Balts and Livs in a sequence adequate to their numbers:

1. Lithuania, zimigola, kors, norova, lib;
2. Lithuania, zimegola, kors, letgola, love.

These enumerations interest us here insofar as the tribe appears in them
"Norva". Where was their territory? What was the ethnicity of this tribe? Can you guess any archaeological equivalent to “nora”? Why is Norova mentioned once instead of Latgalians? Of course, it is impossible to immediately give a comprehensive answer to all these questions. But let us try to imagine this main aspect of the problem, as well as a possible direction for further research.

The mentioned lists of tribes in the PVL previously dated back to the 11th century. Recent studies indicate that they are older and belong to the tribes that inhabited these territories either in the 9th or in the first half of the 10th century.12 Let’s try to somehow localize the term “Narova” based on the names of places, perhaps from it what's happening. The picture of their (places) location covers a very large territory of the Finno-Balts in the north-west of Russia - from Novgorod in the east to the border of Estonia and Latvia in the west.

Many names of rivers, lakes and villages are localized here, as well as personal names mentioned in various written sources, the origin of which is associated with the ethnonym “Narova”. In this region, “traces” of the name of the Nar ethnos in the names of places are very stable and are found in documents dating back to the 14th-15th centuries. For these names associated with the Narova tribe, there are many variations of Norova /narova/nereva/ neroma/morova/ mereva and others13

According to D. Machinsky, this region corresponds to the area of ​​burial mounds of long burial mounds of the 5th-8th centuries, which stretch from Estonia and Latvia to the east all the way to Novgorod. But these burial grounds are mainly concentrated on both sides of Lake Peipsi and the Velikaya River14. The noted long mounds have been partially explored in the east of Latgale and in the northeast. Their distribution area also covers the north-east of Vidzeme (Ilzene parish).

The ethnicity of the burial grounds of the long barrows is assessed differently. V. Sedov considers them Russian (or Krivichi, in Latvian this is one word - Bhalu), i.e., burials of tribes of the first wave of Slavs in the mentioned territory, although the Baltic component is obvious in the material of these graves. The graves of long mounds in Latgale were also attributed to the Slavs. Today, Russian ethnicity is no longer assessed so unambiguously, because Russian chronicles do not indicate that early Rus' would have spoken the language of the Slavs.

There is an opinion that the Krivichi belong to the Balts. Moreover, recent archaeological studies indicate that Slavic tribes appeared in the north-west of Russia no earlier than the mid-8th century. Thus, the question regarding the Slavic affiliation of the burial grounds of the long barrows disappears by itself.

Opposing opinions are reflected in the research of the Estonian archaeologist M. Aun. In south-eastern Estonia, mounds with corpses are attributed to the Baltic Finns16, although a Baltic component has also been noted17. These contradictory results of archeology are today supplemented by conclusions regarding the ownership of long mounds on the lands of Pskov and Novgorod to the Norova tribes. The statement is actually based on the only argument that the ethnonym Neroma is of Finnish origin, because in the Finno-Ugric languages ​​noro means “low, low place, swamp”18.

But this interpretation of the ethnicity of the name norovas/neromas seems too simplistic, since it does not take into account other significant facts that are directly related to the issue mentioned. First of all, the special attention paid in the Russian chronicle to the name Neroma (Narova): “Neroma, that is to say, zhemoit.”

So, according to the chronicler, the Neroma are similar to the Samogitians. D. Machinsky believes that such a comparison is illogical and therefore does not take it into account at all, because otherwise it should be recognized that the non-Roma are Samogitians19. In our opinion, this laconic phrase is based on a certain and very important meaning.

Most likely, the mention of these tribes is not a comparison; obviously the chronicler is sure that the Neroma and Samogitians spoke the same language. It is quite possible that it is precisely in this meaning that the mention of these tribes should be understood in ancient Russian speech. This idea is confirmed by another similar example. Chroniclers often transferred the name Tatars to the Pechenegs and Cumans, obviously believing that they all belonged to the same Turkic peoples.

So, it would be logical to conclude that the chronicler was an educated and well-informed person regarding the tribes he mentioned. Therefore, it is most likely that the peoples who are mentioned in the Russian chronicles under the name Norova/neroma should be considered Balts.

However, these conclusions do not exhaust this important scientific problem associated with the Neroma tribes. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the point of view, quite fully expressed in the scientific study of P. Schmit devoted to the neuros. The author draws attention to this possible explanation of the ethnonym Neroma. Shmit writes that the name “neroma” mentioned in Nestor’s chronicle in several versions means the land of “neru”, where the suffix -ma is the Finnish “maa” - land. He further concludes that the Vilna River, which is also known as the Neris in the Lithuanian language, may also be etymologically related to the “neries” or neurie"20.

Thus, the ethnonym “Neroma” can be associated with the “Neurs”, the Baltic tribes of the 5th century BC, whom Herodotus supposedly mentioned in the upper reaches of the Southern Bug. Archaeologists identify the Neuros with the area of ​​the Milograd culture of the 7-1st centuries BC, but localize them, however, in the upper reaches of the Dnieper in accordance with the testimony of Pliny and Marcellinus. Of course, the question regarding the etymology of the ethnonym neuros and its connection with neromu/norovu is the subject of the competence of linguists, whose research in this area we are still awaiting.

The names of rivers and lakes associated with the ethnonym Nevri are localized over a very wide area. Its southern border can be roughly designated from the lower reaches of the Varta in the west to the middle reaches of the Dnieper in the east,21 while in the north this territory covers the ancient Finns of the Baltic. In this region we also find names of places that completely coincide with the ethnonym norova/narova. They are localized in the upper reaches of the Dnieper (Nareva) 22, in Belarus and in the southeast (Naravai/Neravai) in Lithuania 23.

If we consider the Russian Norova mentioned in the chronicle to be a Finnish-speaking people, then how can we explain the similar toponyms throughout this mentioned territory? The toponymic and hydronymic correspondence of the localization for the ancient territory of the Baltic tribes is obvious. Therefore, based on this aspect, the arguments given regarding the Finnish origin of norovas/neromas are questionable.

According to linguist R. Ageeva, hydronyms with the root Nar-/Ner (Narus, Narupe, Nara, Nareva, Neredkaya, also the Narva River in its Latin medieval version - Narvia, Nervia) could be of Baltic origin. Let us recall that in the north-west of Russia R. Ageeva discovered many hydronyms considered to be of Baltic origin, which may correlate with the culture of long mounds. The reasons for the arrival of the Balts in the territory of the ancient Baltic Finns in the north-west of Russia is most likely related to the socio-political situation of the era of the Great Migration.

Of course, in the mentioned territory, the Balts coexisted with the Baltic Finns, which contributed to both mixed marriages among these tribes and the interaction of culture. This is also reflected in the archaeological material of the Long Barrow culture. From the middle of the 8th century, when the Slavs appeared here, the ethnic situation became more complicated. This also separated the fate of the Baltic ethnic groups in this territory.

Unfortunately, there is no craniological material from the burial grounds of the long barrows, because there was a tradition of cremation here. But skulls recovered from burial grounds of the 11th-14th centuries in this territory clearly testify to the anthropological components of the Balts in the local population. There are two anthropological types represented here. One of them is similar to Latgalian, the second is characteristic of Semigallians and Samogitians. It remains unclear which of them formed the basis of the population of the Long Barrow Culture.

Further studies of this issue, as well as discussions on issues of Baltic ethnic history, are obviously interdisciplinary in nature. Their further research could be facilitated by research from various related industries that could clarify and deepen the conclusions made in this publication.

1. Pie Baltijas somiem pieder lībieši, somi, igauņi, vepsi, ižori, ingri un voti.
2. Melnikovskaya O.N. Tribes of southern Belarus in the early Iron Age M., 19b7. P, 161-189.
3. Denisova R. Baltu cilšu etnīskās vēstures procesi m. ē. 1 gadu tūkstotī // LPSR ZA Vēstis. 1989. Nr.12.20.-36.Ipp.
4. Toporov V.N., Trubachev O.N. Linguistic analysis of hydronyms in the Upper Dnieper region, M., 1962.
5. Agaeva R. A. Hydronymy of Baltic origin on the territory of Pskov and Novgorod lands // Ethnographic and linguistic aspects of the ethnic history of the Baltic peoples. Riga, 1980. P.147-152.
6. Eestti esiajalugi. Tallinn. 1982. Kk. 295.
7. Aun M. Baltic elements of the second half of the 1st millennium AD. e. // Problems of the ethnic history of the Balts. Riga, 1985. pp. 36-39; Aui M. Relationships between the Baltic and South Estonian tribes in the second half of the 1st millennium AD // Problems of the ethnic history of the Balts. Riga, 1985. pp. 77-88.
8. Aui M. Relations between the Baltic and South Estonian tribes in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. // Problems of the ethnic history of the Balts. Riga, 1985. pp. 84-87.
9. Asaru kapulauks, kurā M. Atgazis veicis tikai pārbaudes izrakumus, ir ļotl svarīgs latviešu etniskās vēstures skaidrošanā, tādēļ tuvākajā nākotnē ir jāatrod iespēja to pilnīgi izpētīt.
10. Endzelīns J. Latviešu valodas skaņas un formas. R., 1938, 6.Ipp.
11. Endzelins J. Senprūšu valoda. R., 1943, 6.Ipp.
12. Machinsky D. A. Ethnosocial and ethnocultural processes in Northern Rus' // Russian North. Leningrad. 198b. S. 8.
13. Turpat, 9.-11.Ipp.
14. Sedov V.V. Long mounds of the Krivichi. M., 1974. Table. 1.
15. Urtāns V. Latvijas iedzīvotāju sakari ar slāviem 1.g.t. otrajā pusē // Arheoloģija un etnogrāfija. VIII. R, 1968, 66.,67.Ipp.; arī 21. atsauce.
16. Aun M. Mound burial grounds of eastern Estonia in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. Tallinn. 1980. pp. 98-102.
17. Aoun M. 1985. pp. 82-87.
18. Machinsky D. A. 1986. P. 7, 8, 19, 20, 22
19. Turpat, 7.Ipp.
20. Šmits P. Herodota ziņas par senajiem baltiem // Rīgas Latviešu biedrības zinātņu komitejas rakstu krājums. 21. Riga. 1933, 8., 9.lpp.
21. Melnikovskaya O. N. Tribes of southern Belarus in the early Iron Age. M. 1960, fig. 65. P. 176.
22. Turpat, 176.lpp.
23. Okhmansky E. Foreign settlements in Lithuania X711-XIV centuries. in the light of ethnonymic local names // Balto-Slavic studies 1980. M., 1981. P. 115, 120, 121.

Eastern Balts.

Now let's talk about the eastern Balts: the Latvians of Latvia, the Zhemoits and Aukštaites, who branched off from the Latvian tribes and came to the territory of present-day Lietuva in the 9th-10th centuries.

In the section of the website of the Laboratory of Population Genetics of the Moscow State Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences “70 peoples of Europe according to haplogroups of the Y chromosome”, the Zhemoits and Aukstaites of Lietuva are called “Lithuanians” (although they had nothing to do with historical Lithuania), and they are reported: 37% according to the “Finnish” haplogroup N3 and 45% according to the “Aryan” (ancient Indo-European) haplogroup Rla.

Latvians: 41% Finnish haplogroup N3, 39% Rla haplogroup, and another 9% Rlb - Celtic haplogroup. That is, Latvians, like Russians, are close to Finns in their genes. This is not surprising, since their tribes once mixed with the Livs, the Finnish people, who lived on the territory of Latvia. Plus the genetic influence of the Finns living nearby in Estonia and the Pskov region (let me remind you that the name Pskov itself comes from the Finnish name of the Pleskva River, where “Va” means “water” in Finnish).

Among the Lietuvis, the Finnish composition is only slightly less - 37%, but it still turns out that almost half of the Zhemoits and Aukstaites are Finns by genes.

The share of the “Aryan” haplogroup Rla in the genes of the Baltic peoples is depressingly small. Even among the Lietuvis their 45% is comparable to the average Ukrainian 44%.

All this completely refutes the myth that developed among linguists in the 1970s that, they say, the Zhemoits and Aukshtaits are the “progenitors of the Indo-Europeans,” because their language is closest to Sanskrit and Latin.

In fact, the “mystery” is explained very simply. The Zhemoyts and Aukshtayts kept their language so archaic only because they completely dropped out of the history of European civilization and led the lifestyle of wild recluses. They lived in dugouts in the thickets of forests, avoiding any contact with foreigners. Attempts by the Germans to baptize them in the 11th-12th centuries failed, as these peoples simply fled from the “colonizing baptists” and hid in forest thickets and swamps.

Before the formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Zhemoits and Aukshtaits had neither cities nor villages! They were complete savages: they wore animal skins, fought with stone axes, and did not even have pottery. Only the Belarusians, having seized their lands, first taught them to make pots on a potter's wheel. The Zhemoyts and Aukshtayts were the last in Europe to abandon paganism and accept Christianity and the last in Europe to acquire their own written language (only in the 15th-16th centuries).

Therefore, it is clear how such a way of life of the ancestors of the current Lietuvis preserved “untouched” a language similar to both Sanskrit and Latin.

I'll express my opinion. What we today call “Eastern Balts” in the person of Lietuvis and Latvians are not “Balts” at all. They are half Finnish by genes, and by the proportion of the “Aryan” haplogroup Rla - which is the only determinant of the Baltic component in the blood - they are much inferior to the Belarusians, Masurians and Sorbs. These last three peoples are genetically true Balts.

Yes, the language of the Eastern Balts was indeed preserved, while the languages ​​of the Litvins, Masurians and Sorbs became Slavic. This happened because the eastern Balts avoided contact with foreigners and isolated themselves, while the western Balts were in the midst of ethnic contacts with Slavic migrants.

According to comparative linguistics, at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago (long after the appearance of the Slavs), the inhabitants of the lands of present-day Belarus spoke a language that differed little from the Latin language and from the current language of the Zhemoits, Aukshtaits, and Latvians. It was also a common language for the Indo-Europeans, which made it much easier for the Roman Empire to conquer different countries. Dialectal differences already existed in this common language, but in principle people understood each other without translators. For example, a resident of Rome fully understood the speech of an ancient Belarusian or an ancient German.

In the 4th century, the Goths who inhabited the Don decided to embark on a “great campaign to Europe.” Along the way, they annexed the Western Balts from the territory of present-day Belarus and defeated Rome. From the amazing symbiosis of the Goths, Western Balts, Frisians and other peoples, a new ethnic group was born in Polabie - the Slavic, which turned out to be tenacious and promising for civilization.

I suppose that it was during the Goths’ campaign against Europe that the ancestors of the present-day Eastern Balts hid from them in the thickets and made a cult of their self-isolation from the whole world. This is how the language of the “4th century model” has been preserved.

From the book Another History of Rus'. From Europe to Mongolia [= The Forgotten History of Rus'] author

From the book The Forgotten History of Rus' [= Another History of Rus'. From Europe to Mongolia] author Kalyuzhny Dmitry Vitalievich

Celts, Balts, Germans and Suomi All people once had common ancestors. Having settled across the planet and living in different natural conditions, the descendants of the original humanity acquired external and linguistic differences. Representatives of one of the “detachments” of a single humanity,

author

Chapter 5. So Balts or Slavs?

From the book Forgotten Belarus author Deruzhinsky Vadim Vladimirovich

Belarusians - Balts

From the book Forgotten Belarus author Deruzhinsky Vadim Vladimirovich

The Prussians and the Balts were different...

From the book The Beginning of Russian History. From ancient times to the reign of Oleg author Tsvetkov Sergey Eduardovich

Balts During their settlement on the ancient Russian lands, the Eastern Slavs also found some Baltic tribes here. “The Tale of Bygone Years” names among them zemgolu, letgolu, whose settlements were located in the Western Dvina basin, and golyad, who lived on the banks of the middle

From the book Russian Mystery [Where did Prince Rurik come from?] author Vinogradov Alexey Evgenievich

First, about relatives: Balts and Veneti Thus, relationships with the Baltic ethnic groups are the cornerstone of philological reconstructions of the Slavic ancestral home. There is no doubt that even now, of all the Indo-European languages, Lithuanian and

author Gudavičius Edwardas

2. Indo-Europeans and Balts on the territory of Lithuania a. Corded Ware Culture and its representatives The limited anthropological data allow only a very general characterization of the Caucasians who lived on the territory of Lithuania from the end of the Paleolithic to the late

From the book History of Lithuania from ancient times to 1569 author Gudavičius Edwardas

b. The Balts and their development before the beginning of ancient influence Around the 20th century. BC In the areas of the Primorsky and Upper Dnieper Corded Cultures, an ethnic group emerged that spoke dialects of the Baltic proto-language. In the Indo-European language family, the Slavs are closest to the Balts. They, the Balts and

author Trubachev Oleg Nikolaevich

Late Balts in the upper Dnieper region After such a brief, but as specific as possible, description of Balto-Slavic linguistic relations, naturally, the view of their mutual localization is also concretized. The era of the developed Baltic language type finds the Balts,

From the book To the Origins of Rus' [People and Language] author Trubachev Oleg Nikolaevich

Slavs and Central Europe (the Balts do not participate) For the most ancient time, conventionally - the era of the mentioned Balto-Balkan contacts, apparently, it is necessary to talk about the predominantly Western connections of the Slavs, in contrast to the Balts. Of these, the older than others is the orientation of the Proto-Slavs in connection with

From the book To the Origins of Rus' [People and Language] author Trubachev Oleg Nikolaevich

The Balts on the Amber Road As for the Balts, their contact with Central Europe, or even more likely with its radiations, is not primary; it apparently begins, however, quite early, when the Balts fell into the Amber Road zone, in lower reaches of the Vistula. Only conditionally

author Tretyakov Petr Nikolaevich

Slavs and Balts in the Dnieper region at the turn and at the beginning of our era 1So, in the last centuries BC, the population of the Upper and Middle Dnieper consisted of two different groups, significantly different from each other in character, culture and level of historical

From the book At the Origins of the Old Russian Nationality author Tretyakov Petr Nikolaevich

Slavs and Balts in the upper Dnieper region in the middle and third quarter of the 1st millennium AD. e 1Until recently, the question of the Zarubintsy tribes as ancient Slavs, first raised seventy years ago, remained controversial. This is explained by the fact that between

From the book Starazhytnaya Belarus. Polack and Novagarod periods author Ermalovich Mikola

SLAVS I BALTS It goes without saying that the Masavs and the ever-growing Slavs on the other Balts could not help but achieve their own self-sustaining ethnic revolution. Menavita with the passage of the Slavs to the territory of Belarus and the beginning of their crazy life with the Balts and the beginning