Settlement of Slavic tribes outline map. Map of the settlement of Slavic tribes

Ancient historians were sure that in the territory Ancient Rus' live warlike tribes and “people with dog heads.” Much time has passed since then, but many mysteries of the Slavic tribes have not yet been solved.

Northerners living in the south

At the beginning of the 8th century, the tribe of northerners inhabited the banks of the Desna, Seim and Seversky Donets, founded Chernigov, Putivl, Novgorod-Seversky and Kursk. The name of the tribe, according to Lev Gumilev, is due to the fact that it assimilated the nomadic Savir tribe, which in ancient times lived in Western Siberia. It is with the Savirs that the origin of the name “Siberia” is associated. Archaeologist Valentin Sedov believed that the Savirs were a Scythian-Sarmatian tribe, and the place names of the northerners were of Iranian origin. Thus, the name of the Seym (Seven) river comes from the Iranian śyama or even from the ancient Indian syāma, which means “dark river”. According to the third hypothesis, the northerners (severs) were immigrants from the southern or western lands. On the right bank of the Danube lived a tribe with that name. It could easily have been “moved” by the invading Bulgars. The northerners were representatives of the Mediterranean type of people. They were distinguished by a narrow face, an elongated skull, and were thin-boned and nosed. They brought bread and furs to Byzantium, and back - gold, silver, and luxury goods. They traded with the Bulgarians and Arabs. The northerners paid tribute to the Khazars, and then entered into an alliance of tribes united Novgorod prince Prophetic Oleg. In 907 they took part in the campaign against Constantinople. In the 9th century, the Chernigov and Pereyaslav principalities appeared on their lands.

Vyatichi and Radimichi - relatives or different tribes?

The lands of the Vyatichi were located on the territory of the Moscow, Kaluga, Oryol, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tula, Voronezh and Lipetsk regions. Outwardly, the Vyatichi resembled northerners, but they were not so big-nosed, but they had a high bridge of the nose and brown hair. The Tale of Bygone Years states that the name of the tribe came from the name of the ancestor Vyatko (Vyacheslav), who came “from the Poles.” Other scientists associate the name with the Indo-European root “ven-t” (wet), or with the Proto-Slavic “vęt” (large) and place the name of the tribe on a par with the Wends and Vandals. The Vyatichi were skilled warriors, hunters, and collected wild honey, mushrooms and berries. Cattle breeding and shifting agriculture were widespread. They were not part of Ancient Rus' and more than once fought with the Novgorod and Kyiv princes. According to legend, Vyatko's brother Radim became the founder of the Radimichi, who settled between the Dnieper and Desna in the Gomel and Mogilev regions of Belarus and founded Krichev, Gomel, Rogachev and Chechersk. The Radimichi also rebelled against the princes, but after the battle on Peshchan they submitted. Chronicles mention them in last time in 1169.

Are Krivichi Croats or Poles?

The passage of the Krivichi, who from the 6th century lived in the upper reaches of the Western Dvina, Volga and Dnieper and became the founders of Smolensk, Polotsk and Izborsk, is not known for certain. The name of the tribe came from the ancestor Kriv. The Krivichi were different from other tribes tall. They had a nose with a pronounced hump and a clearly defined chin. Anthropologists classify the Krivichi people as the Valdai type of people. According to one version, the Krivichi are migrated tribes of white Croats and Serbs, according to another, they are immigrants from the north of Poland. The Krivichi worked closely with the Varangians and built ships on which they sailed to Constantinople. The Krivichi became part of Ancient Rus' in the 9th century. The Last Prince Krivichi Rogvolod was killed with his sons in 980. The principalities of Smolensk and Polotsk appeared on their lands.

Slovenian Vandals

The Slovenes (Ilmen Slovenes) were the northernmost tribe. They lived on the shores of Lake Ilmen and on the Mologa River. Origin unknown. According to legends, their ancestors were Sloven and Rus, who founded the cities of Slovensk (Veliky Novgorod) and Staraya Russa before our era. From Sloven, power passed to Prince Vandal (known in Europe as the Ostrogothic leader Vandalar), who had three sons: Izbor, Vladimir and Stolposvyat, and four brothers: Rudotok, Volkhov, Volkhovets and Bastarn. The wife of Prince Vandal Advinda was from the Varangians. Slovenes continually fought with the Varangians and their neighbors. It is known that ruling dynasty descended from the son of Vandal Vladimir. The Slavens were engaged in agriculture, expanded their possessions, influenced other tribes, and traded with the Arabs, Prussia, Gotland and Sweden. It was here that Rurik began to reign. After the emergence of Novgorod, the Slovenes began to be called Novgorodians and founded the Novgorod Land.

Russians. A people without territory

Look at the map of the settlement of the Slavs. Each tribe has its own lands. There are no Russians there. Although it was the Russians who gave the name to Rus'. There are three theories of the origin of the Russians. The first theory considers the Rus to be Varangians and is based on the “Tale of Bygone Years” (written from 1110 to 1118), it says: “They drove the Varangians overseas, and did not give them tribute, and began to control themselves, and there was no truth among them , and generation after generation arose, and they had strife, and began to fight with each other. And they said to themselves: “Let’s look for a prince who would rule over us and judge us by right.” And they went overseas to the Varangians, to Rus'. Those Varangians were called Rus, just as others are called Swedes, and some Normans and Angles, and still others Gotlanders, so are these.” The second says that the Rus are a separate tribe that came to Eastern Europe earlier or later than the Slavs. The third theory says that the Rus are the highest caste of the East Slavic tribe of the Polyans, or the tribe itself that lived on the Dnieper and Ros. “The glades are now called Rus'” - it was written in the “Laurentian” Chronicle, which followed the “Tale of Bygone Years” and was written in 1377. Here the word “Rus” was used as a toponym and the name Rus was also used as the name of a separate tribe: “Rus, Chud and Slovenes,” - this is how the chronicler listed the peoples who inhabited the country.
Despite research by geneticists, controversy surrounding the Rus continues. According to the Norwegian researcher Thor Heyerdahl, the Varangians themselves are descendants of the Slavs.

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Territory of settlement of the Eastern Slavs

Representatives of official historical science claim that the settlement of the East European Plain by tribes that can be classified as Slavic groups occurred in waves. Thus, the colonization of these territories occurred both in the form of one-time resettlement of tribal groups, and through the gradual resettlement of individual families and clans.

At the same time, in contrast to the western and southern directions of colonization of the Slavic tribes, the development of territories (mostly forest areas) by the Eastern Slavs, according to the research of modern historians, took place quite peacefully, without typical military conflicts with the Baltic population and local residents. It is worth noting that the main enemy in these places was not an aggressive human enemy, but dense, deserted forests. Thus, the forest part of the future Slavic territories had to be settled by the tribes, and not conquered.

But in southern lands, forest-steppe regions, Slavic tribes They encountered not the people living there, but aggressive nomadic hordes.

The author of one of the most significant and popular chronicles in the world, “The Tale of Bygone Years,” in his story about the beginning of Rus', notes several East Slavic tribes that settled in the second half of the first millennium in the territories located between the Black and Baltic seas. Among these tribes, Nestor identifies: Drevlyans, Polyans, as well as Tiverts, Glitches, Northerners, White Croats, Buzhans or Volynians (remains of the Duleb tribes), Slovenians, Krivichi, Vyatichi, Radimichi, Dregovich, Drevlyans.

Most of the listed tribes are known to many medieval authors under their proper names. For example, Konstantin Porphyrogenitus describes the life of the Drevlyans, Lendzians (here, most likely, immigrants from the area of modern Lodz are meant), Slovenians, as well as Krivichi and.

Researchers note that the bulk of the East Slavic tribes, which settled throughout the territory of the future Old Slavic state, belonged to the “Sklavenskaya” branch of the Slavs. The only exceptions were, perhaps, the northerners, Tivertsy and Uglich.

Also, it is worth noting that those Slavic tribes that at one time colonized Western European territories and the Balkans sometimes participated in the settlement of Russian territories. This is confirmed by numerous objects that were found as a result of archaeological excavations in the forest zone of Eastern Europe. First of all, historians include lunar temple rings among such objects, the origin of which is closely connected with the Middle Danube lands, where these objects acted as popular decorations of local Slavic tribes - Croats, Smolensk, Northerners and Droguvites.

The actual advancement of the bearers of the described lunar rings is most often associated with the popularity in folklore, during that historical period, of the “Danube theme,” which was transmitted in the form of epics.

The Danube River and the surrounding territories, in which the Slavic tribes realized their identity and ethnic independence, are forever imprinted in popular Slavic memory as the cradle of a single people.

Thus, some modern scientists propose to consider the text about the settlement of the Slavs from the banks of the Danube across European territories, not as a literary or scientific version, but as a pre-chronicle folk tradition, firmly established in people's memory for many years.

Map of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs

Having studied the map of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs, one can notice that the Slavic tribes were especially attracted to rivers, and mention of the inhabitants of these territories as “river” people is found among Byzantine writers of the sixth century. This is evidenced by the “Tale of Bygone Years” we examined.

In fact, the general contours of the settlement of this ethnic group, as a rule, completely correspond to the lines of river channels. According to the same chronicle of Nestor, the Polyan tribe settled on the lands of the middle Dnieper, the Drevlyans settled along the banks of the Pripyat River, the Dregovich tribe neighbored the Drevlyans in the north, the Buzhans lived to the west of the glades, the northerners lived to the east of the Polyan tribe, whose neighbors in the north were rodimichi. The author moves furthest away from the Vyatichi, who settled in the upper reaches of the Oka. The Krivichi settled along the Western Dvina, Volga and Dnieper, and the so-called Ilmen Slavs settled near Lake Ilmen.

Procopius of Caesarea and various Arab sources report the settlement of the Eastern Slavs even further - into the Don basin. At the same time, apparently, they were not able to gain a foothold there for long. So, in the eleventh – twelfth centuries, during the creation of the “Tale of Bygone Years,” they were under the rule of nomadic tribes, and the memory that the Slavs once lived there was lost.

Table on the topic: Settlement of the Eastern Slavs

Slavs- one of the largest groups of the European population, having indigenous (autochthonous) origin. As a separate ethnic community the Slavs formed at the turn new era. The first written mentions can be found in the works of Roman chroniclers of the 1st-2nd centuries. - Pliny the Elder, Tacitus, Ptolemy.

Settlement of the Slavs

Many modern scientists believe that the first Slavic tribes occupied the territory between the Vistula and the Dnieper. During the period of the Great Migration of Peoples (II-VI centuries) they populated a significant territory of Europe, dividing into three branches:

Western (Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Lusatian Serbs, Kashubians);
southern (Bulgarians, Croats, Serbs, Slovenes, Macedonians, Bosnians, Montenegrins);
Eastern (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians).

Great Migration- a term denoting a set of movements European peoples in the 4th-7th centuries, most of which was due to the pressure of the Huns who came to Europe from the Asian steppes in the middle of the 4th century.

They occupied the territory from Lake Ilmen in the north to the Black Sea steppes in the south, and from the Carpathian Mountains in the west to the Volga in the east. In the chronicles there are references to 13 different tribal groups of the Eastern Slavs (Polyans, Northerners, Radimichi, Krivichi, Ilmen Slovenes, Dregovichi, Tivertsy, Dulebs, White Croats, Volynians, Buzhans, Ulichs, Polo-chans). They all had common ethnic features.

Neighbors of the Slavs

On the formation of the East Slavic ethnos and its culture significant influence the neighbors of the Slavs provided. Ethnic contacts of the Eastern Slavs in the VI-VIII centuries. were: in Northern Europe - Finno-Ugrians(chud, all, muroma, etc.); V Eastern Europe - Balts(ancestors of Latvians, Lithuanians); in Asia - Iranian tribes(Scythians, Sarmatians). Contacts with Avars, Bulgarians, Khazars, Vikings. From the 5th century Relations between the Eastern Slavs and the Byzantine Empire are established.

Settlement of the Eastern Slavs

Polyana and Ilmen Slovenes - the largest East Slavic tribes early Middle Ages. Kiev (II-V centuries) and Penkovskaya (VI - early VIII centuries) archaeological cultures are the first archaeological cultures of the Eastern Slavs.

Slavic occupations

The economic system of the Eastern Slavs was based on agriculture(slash-and-burn and fallow) and cattle breeding. Two-field and three-field crop rotations in agriculture became common in the Slavic lands of the 7th-8th centuries, replacing slash-and-burn, in which the land was cleared from under the forest, used until exhaustion, and then abandoned. There is also information about the occupation of the Slavs fishing, beekeeping(collecting honey from wild bees), there were various types crafts(blacksmithing, weaving, pottery), intensively developed trade.

Social order

The development of society occurred in the direction from the primitive community in the first centuries of our era to the neighboring community. Initially, the Eastern Slavs were united on the basis consanguinity. At the head of the clan was elder. Clan ties are being replaced by territorial ones. Consanguinity was replaced by the neighboring community - rope(world). Private property already existed, but land, forests and livestock remained in common ownership.

Gradually increased the role of nobility and leaders who enriched themselves during the wars. This caused wealth stratification. Period VIII - early IX centuries. in historical science it is called military democracy - This transition period from primitiveness to statehood. Her signs: participation of all members of the tribal union (men) in solving public problems; people's assembly ( veche) as the highest authority; availability people's militia . Ruling stratum: old tribal aristocracy ( leaders, priests, elders) and members of the community who got rich from the exploitation of slaves and neighbors. Patriarchal slavery took place (when slaves were part of the family that owned them).

Beliefs

Played a significant role in the life of the East Slavic tribes paganism, which for a long time acted as the basis of their spiritual and material culture. Most modern experts attribute pagan beliefs Slavs to animism, since Slavic deities, as a rule, personified different forces nature. The main gods of the Slavs include:

Perun - god of thunder, lightning, war;
Svarog - god of fire;
Veles is the patron of cattle breeding;
Mokosh is a goddess who protected the female part of the tribe;
Dazhdbog (Yarilo) - god of the sun.

Paganism- polytheism, belief in many gods. The gods of paganism personified the forces of nature; at the same time, spirits, demons, etc. were revered. The Magi were ministers of the pagan religious cult of the pre-Christian period. It was believed that the Magi could influence the forces of nature, predict the future and heal people. Animism is the belief in the existence of souls and spirits, the animation of all nature.

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What tribes did the East Slavic peoples have?

According to information, much of which was obtained as a result of the study of ancient written sources and archaeological finds, the tribes of the Eastern Slavs separated from the Indo-European community around one hundred and fifty BC, after which their numbers and influence began to rapidly increase.

How did the tribes of the Eastern Slavs arise?

The first mentions of the numerous tribes of the Wends, as well as the Sklavins and Antes (that is what the first Slavic ethnic groups were called in those days) are present in the manuscripts of Greek, Byzantine, Roman, and Arab authors. ABOUT early times You can also glean information from Russian chronicles.

The very fragmentation of this people into eastern, western and southern, according to some scientists, occurs due to their displacement by other peoples, which was not uncommon in that period (the times of the great migration of peoples).

South Slavic (Bulgarian, Slovenian, as well as Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian) tribes are those communities that chose to remain in Europe. Today they are considered the ancestors of Serbs, Montenegrins, Croats, Bulgarians, as well as Slovenes and Bosnians.

Scientists include the Slavs who moved to northern latitudes. From these communities, according to the authors of the most popular versions of the appearance Slavic peoples, there were Czechs, Poles and Slovaks. The southern and western Slavic tribes were, in turn, captured and assimilated by representatives of other peoples.

The East Slavic tribes, to which scientists include the Tiverts, White Croats, Northerners, Volynians, Polotsk, Drevlyans, as well as the Ulichs, Radimichis, Buzhans, Vyatichi and Dregovichi, consist of Slavs who moved to the territory of the so-called East European Plain. Today's historians and Slavophile researchers consider Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians to be the descendants of the above tribes.

Table: East Slavic tribal unions

Scheme: Eastern Slavs during the era of the “Great Migration”

How did the Slavic tribes coexist with other nationalities?

Most of the Slavic tribes were forced to move to the territory of central Europe, in particular, to the lands of the once great Roman Empire, which collapsed in 476. At the same time, the conquerors of this empire formed a new statehood during this period, which, although based on the experience of the legacy of the Roman Empire, was different from it. At the same time, the territories chosen by the East Slavic tribes were not so culturally developed.

Some Slavic tribes settled on the shores of Lake Ilmen, subsequently founding the city of Novgorod on this place, others decided to continue their journey and, settling on the banks of the Dnieper River, founded the city of Kyiv there, which later became the mother of Russian cities.

By around the sixth to eighth centuries, the Eastern Slavs were able to occupy the entire territory of the East European Plain. Their neighbors were Finns, Estonians, Lithuanians, Laishes, Mansi, Khanty, as well as Ugrians and Komi. It is worth noting that, according to available historical data, the settlement and development of new territories took place peacefully, without any military action. The Eastern Slavs themselves were not at enmity with the above-mentioned peoples.

Confrontation of the Eastern Slavs with the nomads

But in the territories located in the east and southeast, a completely different situation developed at the same time. In these regions, the plain was adjacent to the steppe and the Slavs became neighbors there. nomadic people, called Turks. Regular raids by steppe nomads ravaged Slavic settlements for about a thousand years. At the same time, the Turks formed their states in the southeastern and eastern borders Eastern Slavs. Their largest and most powerful state, the Avar Kaganate, existed in the mid-500s and fell in 625, after the collapse of Byzantium. However, in the seventh and eighth centuries, the Bulgarian kingdom was located on the same territory. Most of the Bulgars, who settled along the middle reaches of the Volga, formed a state that went down in history as Volga Bulgaria. The remaining Bulgars who settled near the Danube formed Danube Bulgaria. A little later, as a result of the assimilation of representatives of the South Slavic tribes with Turkic settlers, a new people appeared, calling themselves Bulgarians.

The territories liberated by the Bulgars were occupied by new Turks - the Pechenegs. This nation was subsequently founded Khazar Khaganate, in the steppe territories located between the banks of the Volga and the Azov and Caspian seas. Later, the tribes of the Eastern Slavs were enslaved by the Khazars. At the same time, the Eastern Slavs pledged to pay tribute to the Khazar Kaganate. Such relations between the Slavic eastern tribes and the Khazars continued until the ninth century.

March 24th, 2014

I wanted to do without the introduction, but it was painful. So, over the past few weeks I have heard so many new things about the history of Russia, Ukraine and neighboring states that I decided to collect classical views on this issue in one place. Classic in the sense that they are included in textbooks and reference books. Nobody claims that this is exactly what happened. History is living science, discoveries are made, if not every day, then at least with enviable frequency. I’m not even talking about the fiery debates going on in the professional historical community on questions so clear to anyone who has read a school textbook or Wikipedia, such as “The Beginning of Rus'”, “The Emergence of the Centralized Moscow State”, etc. However, in any case, at this stage of development of historical science, a certain information “basis” was developed, which can be argued in detail, but, nevertheless, it represents a certain scientific consensus.

By the way, the differences between historians, be they Belarusians, Ukrainians or Russians, are much smaller than it usually seems. Firstly, scientific works nevertheless, it is customary to base it on facts, which, of course, can often be interpreted in different ways, but still within the framework of a certain scientific field. Secondly, it is considered inappropriate to fill these very works with ideology. Professionals, regardless of nationality, do not write about “proto-Ukrainians” or “the homeland of elephants.” Yes, the author is a human being, there’s no getting around it, his personal position will, no, no, be “enlightened” somewhere, but it will be “enlightened”, and will not be scorched on the first page. The anti-Russian/Ukrainian/Belarusian position is usually betrayed to them by subsequent interpreters who are not very familiar with the “classical version” of history.

I’ll give just a couple of examples: yesterday I read a “revealing” article that Ukrainian historians claim that the definition of “Russian” in chronicles refers to Ukraine. It’s terrible, there’s only one problem: Russian historians think about the same thing. The definition of “Russian” in the chronicles refers either to the entire Russian land, or to the southern principalities, located primarily in the territory modern Ukraine. The texts of the chronicles are all available on the Internet. And ideology has nothing to do with it. Or here’s another thing: a friend from Lithuania (Russian by nationality) is indignant: they teach absolutely perverted history in their schools. Allegedly, Lithuania was large and strong and competed with Moscow for “gathering Russian lands.” Outrageous. And most importantly, in the children's encyclopedia Avanta+ (published in Moscow, by the way), the same thing is written.

Why am I writing all this? Something that might be interesting for someone to “overlook” classic version history of the territories included in modern Ukraine, so that when someone posts on Facebook about “the lands cut off from Ukraine in 1954 and annexed to the Smolensk region” (for reference: the Smolensk region does not border Ukraine) or about the fact that the power of Ukraine was spreading on the territory modern Russia(for reference: if you put an equal sign between Ukraine and the Hetmanate, then it really did spread), know what the author publishes: a little-known but recognized fact or his latest theory. Then I finish my fiery speech and move on to the essence of the issue.

Part 1. From the Settlement of the Eastern Slavs to Daniil of Galicia.

1. Settlement of the Eastern Slavs.
The issue of the ancestral home of the Slavs remains extremely controversial, so I will not touch upon it. I'll start with the fact that in the V-VII centuries. The Slavs spread widely in Europe. Their numerous tribes were divided into southern, western and eastern. Eastern Slavs, in turn, also split into two streams. One group of tribes settled in the Dnieper basin in the territory of modern Ukraine. It then spread north to the upper reaches of the Volga, east of modern Moscow, and west to the valleys of the northern Dniester and Southern Bug through the territories of modern Moldova and southern Ukraine. Another group of Eastern Slavs moved to the northeast, where they encountered the Varangians. The same group of Slavs subsequently inhabited the territories of the modern Tver region and Beloozero, reaching the habitat of the Merya people.

East Slavic tribes in the 7th-9th centuries.

2. The beginning of statehood.
In the middle of the 9th century, the “northern branch” of the East Slavic tribes, as well as the tribal unions of the Krivichi, Chud and Meri, paid tribute to the Varangians. In 862, these tribes expelled the Varangians, and after that strife began between them. To end internal conflicts, representatives of the Slavic and Finnish tribes decided to invite the prince from the outside. Rurik became this prince.

The "southern branch" of the Slavic tribes, meanwhile, paid tribute to the Khazars. Askold and Dir saved them from this tribute, who, according to different versions, either they were Rurik’s warriors, or they were not connected with him in any way. In any case, they were Varangians. Thus, in the second half of the 9th century, two relatively independent centers of East Slavic statehood were formed: one in Kyiv, the other in Ladoga.

Ancient Rus' in 862-912.

3. Unification of the Old Russian state.
In 882 according to chronicle chronology (which is considered very arbitrary) Prophetic Oleg, according to different versions, either the “regent” under the young Igor (son of Rurik), or the governor under the adult Igor, begins to expand the Novgorod state. He captures Smolensk and Lyubech, and then descends the Dniester and, having killed Askold and Dir, occupies Kyiv. There he moves the capital of the state.

Old Russian state in 882.

4. Campaigns of Svyatoslav.
The next significant expansion of the borders of the Old Russian state is associated with the reign of Svyatoslav Igorevich. His first action was the subjugation of the Vyatichi (964), who were the last of all the East Slavic tribes to continue to pay tribute to the Khazars. Then Svyatoslav defeated Volga Bulgaria. In 965 (according to other sources also in 968/969) Svyatoslav made a campaign against the Khazar Kaganate, taking by storm the main cities of the Khazars: the fortress city of Sarkel, Semender and the capital Itil. The establishment of Rus' in the Black Sea region and the North Caucasus is also connected with this campaign, where Svyatoslav defeated the Yases (Alans) and Kasogs (Circassians) and where Tmutarakan, located on the Taman Peninsula, became the center of Russian possessions.

In 968, under the influence of Byzantine diplomacy, Svyatoslav goes to war to Bulgaria. For short time Bulgarian troops were defeated, Russian squads occupied up to 80 Bulgarian cities. Svyatoslav chose Pereyaslavets, a city in the lower reaches of the Danube, as his headquarters. Svyatoslav captured almost all of Bulgaria, occupied its capital Preslav and invaded Byzantium. However, Byzantium quickly suppressed the prince's claims to world domination- in 971 his army was defeated, and a year later he died.

5. Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko and Yaroslav the Wise
After the death of Svyatoslav, civil strife broke out between his sons, ending with the reign of Vladimir the Red Sun (reigned 980-1015) in Kyiv. Under him, the formation of the state territory of Ancient Rus' was completed, the Cherven cities and Carpathian Rus', which were disputed by Poland, were annexed. After Vladimir's victory, his son Svyatopolk married the daughter of the Polish king Boleslav the Brave and peaceful relations were established between the two states. Vladimir finally annexed the Vyatichi and Radimichi to Rus'.

Having become the prince of Kyiv, Vladimir faced an increased Pecheneg threat. To protect against nomads, he builds lines of fortresses on the border, the garrisons of which he recruited from “ best husbands“-then they will become heroes, the main characters of epics. Tribal boundaries began to blur, and the state border became important.

After the death of Vladimir, a new civil strife occurred in Rus', as a result of which Yaroslav the Wise (reigned 1019-1054) became prince. Yaroslav strengthens the presence of Rus' in the northwest. The campaigns of the 30s against the Estonian Chud led to the construction of Yuryev’s stronghold, outlining the borders of the state in the north. The first campaigns against Lithuania took place in the 1940s.

Old Russian state in the 11th century.

7. Feudal fragmentation
In the second quarter of the 12th century, the Old Russian state broke up into independent principalities. Kyiv, unlike most other principalities, did not become the property of any one dynasty, but served as a constant bone of contention for all powerful princes. Nominally, the Kiev prince still dominated all Russian lands, so this title became the object of struggle between various dynastic and territorial associations of the Rurikovichs.

Ancient Rus' in the 12th century.

8. Tatar-Mongol invasion.
In 1237, the Tatar-Mongols appeared on the southern borders of the Ryazan principality. After fierce resistance, Ryazan was taken. It was followed by Moscow, Vladimir, Suzdal, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, Yuryev-Polsky, Starodub-on-Klyazma, Tver, Gorodets, Kostroma, Galich-Mersky, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Uglich, Kashin, Ksnyatin, Dmitrov, as well as the Novgorod suburbs of Vologda and Volok Lamsky. For unknown reasons, the Tatar-Mongol army did not go to Novgorod, but instead turned around and returned to the steppes.

The Tatar-Mongols returned in 1239. Then the lands were plundered, apparently not damaged during the winter campaign of 1237-1238: Murom, Gorodets, Nizhny Novgorod and Gorokhovets. But the main blow was directed at the southern cities. On March 3, 1239, one of the Mongol detachments ravaged Pereyaslavl South. After the siege, Chernigov was captured. After the fall of Chernigov, the Mongols began plundering and destroying along the Desna and Seim. Gomiy, Putivl, Glukhov, Vyr and Rylsk were destroyed and devastated.

The next target of the Mongols was the Russian lands on the right bank of the Dnieper. By 1240, most of them (Galician, Volyn, Kiev, and also, presumably, the Turov-Pinsk principalities) were united under the rule of the sons of the Volyn prince Roman Mstislavovich: Daniil and Vasilko. The Mongols began their offensive with the conquest of Porosye, an area dependent on Kyiv princes Black Cowls. After Porosye, Mongol troops besieged Kyiv. Not considering himself able to resist the Mongols on his own, on the eve of the invasion (that is, around the fall of 1240), Daniel went to Hungary, probably trying to persuade King Bela IV to help him. This enterprise was not crowned with success. Kyiv was ruined.

The fall of Kyiv became a landmark event - panic began among the ruling circles of Galich and Volyn. Mikhail Vsevolodovich, who was imprisoned in Lutsk, fled with his son to Poland. The wife of Prince Daniil and his brother Vasilko fled there. The rulers of the Bolokhov land expressed their submission to the conquerors. Ladyzhin, Kamenets, and Vladimir Volynsky were taken. Daniel and his brother returned to Rus' only after the Mongols left their lands.

Tatar-Mongol invasion of Rus'.

9. Daniil Galitsky.
Almost all Russian princes recognized their dependence on the Golden Horde, including Alexander Nevsky, who reigned in Novgorod, which was never taken by the Tatar-Mongols. Among them was Daniel, under whose rule the Galician-Volyn principality united in 1245. However, if the princes took approximately the same position in relation to the Horde, their attitude towards the West was fundamentally different. The Vladimir princes chose to refuse cooperation with the Pope and accept Horde vassalage for the sake of preserving their faith; Daniel, on the contrary, turned to the West. He accepted the offer of Pope Innocent IV: a royal crown and assistance against the Horde in exchange for the Catholicization of Russian lands.

In January 1254, Daniel was crowned. Already in 1253, Innocent IV declared a crusade against the Horde, calling first on the Christians of Bohemia, Moravia, Serbia and Pomerania, and then on the Catholics of the Baltic states, to participate in it. However, the call for crusade, and the reunification of churches remained only a declaration. At the same time, it is from this moment that we can talk about the divergence of the historical paths of the Great Russian and Little Russian lands.

Galicia-Volyn principality in the middle of the 13th century.

Disclaimer: the overlay of maps turned out to be crooked, in addition, the control of the Black Sea territories by the Galician-Volyn principality is quite doubtful - nomads dominated there.