The ancient world of the European continent is the time between the prehistoric, or stone (from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic) period, and the beginning of the Middle Ages. If you voice a more accurate time frame of the Old Russian civilization (the formation of Kievan Rus), it will come out like this: 8th - 9th, 13th - 14th centuries A. D.
Who set the framework for historical periods?
Each country in its own way stepped over the time frame of antiquity and entered the road of the Middle Ages. This is also important for the definition of the Middle Ages for Ancient Rus.
These features will be explained below.
The beginning of this period in Europe is considered the fifth century - it was then that the once omnipotent Roman Empire collapsed, more specifically - September 476, when the last emperor Augustus abdicated the throne. Probably, "delayed" so that the unlucky month for him did not coincide with his name.
But the scientific reference compilation of the special Commission on Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) of the United Nations considers differently: the border from barbarism and antiquity to the Middle Ages was crossed with the rise of Islam. As for the transition of the Middle Ages to modern times, it is even more difficult to navigate in the events and specific dates attributed to them. There are at least a dozen such interpretations. For example, the fall of Constantinople, almost a thousand years after the date indicated above; convergence of the rights of Protestants and Catholics. Or the border of 1680 - 1690. Why?
Ancient Russia
It is not uncommon for scientists to set such timelines if they are close to their scientific preference. He put a lot of effort into the history of the Thirty Years' War - it is that main turn of the century and the way out of the Middle Ages into new times. Obviously, it is necessary to consider this topic taking into account both the global evolutionary process and the characteristics of the development of each country.
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As you can see, the time length of the medieval period is different for different researchers. Some have a fleeting, some have a long one. Supporters of the second direction operate on the level of development not of the elite, but of ordinary citizens of a particular state.
There is logic in this. If we rely on the elite strata, then a number of Western European countries, for example, Greece, could have embarked on the path of the Middle Ages before the fall of the Roman Empire. It is important not only to know the elite, but also the differences in the living conditions of all segments of the population. Therefore, they consider the border of the end of the Middle Ages to be the Great French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century. This point of view was also supported by Soviet historiographers. Based on the latest scientific research, Russian scientists have determined their "finish" for the medieval race: the Middle Ages of Kievan Rus ended in the middle or late 15th - early 16th centuries.
Therefore, if there are such numerous discrepancies in the assessment of this topic and it is difficult to apply them to a specific country, then it is customary in historiography to consider the term of the Middle Ages conditional.
Ancient Russia - the cradle of civilization
What were the most ancient peoples and civilizations on the territory of Russia, we will consider in this section. The development in this time period of the Russian state was influenced by many both objective and subjective factors. It differed from many Western European countries at least in that the state was located on the line of contact between Europe and Asia. Therefore, its civilization is a Euro-Asian mix of culture and architecture, technology and legal relations between the West and the East.
All citizens of modern Russia have a nationality, but many also call themselves Slavs as an ethnic group. And they are also proud of it. But scientists warn that, when speaking about ethnic groups - Indo-Europeans or Slavs, Finno-Ugric or Balts, these concepts should be applied carefully. Because due to assimilation, mass migrations of peoples, they all got mixed up. But one difference always remains unchanged - the language of the people. But partly also his culture.
Baptism of Russia
Here is an example regarding Ancient Rus (Kievan Rus). On the territory of Russia in the Middle Ages, the ethnos were Indo-Europeans (south of the country) and Finno-Ugric. The first ethnos disintegrated in the fourth century BC. The Balto-Slavic people split into their components in the five hundredth years of the same era, and they also underwent their assimilation with the Iranians, Finns and other peoples. On the Black Sea coast, the Cimmerians were ancient, then the Sarmatians, Khazars, Greeks, and Huns. Who lives there now? Partly Greeks in the hundredth generation, Russians (Eastern Slavs).
In the 8th - 9th centuries, everything took shape for the formation of the state of Rus on the territory of the Eastern Slavs. The process accelerated with the formation of centers headed by Novgorod and Kiev, and the transition to a manufacturing economy began. That is, there are historical trends in this process.
Baptism of Olga in Constantinople. Miniature from the Tale of Bygone Years
The next question is also important: who led this process? There are still two options. First, Norman. The state was created thanks to the Vikings. In the days of Ancient Rus, they were called Varangians (remember from history: a journey from the Varangians to the Greeks - to Byzantium). At the end of the ninth century, the Slavs called them Prince Rurik, who created the first dynasty of Russian princes.
After him, Oleg decided that Kiev should become the capital of the state. He captured it, annexed Novgorod to it, and then conquered a number of nationalities. So in the future, the state was created by a voluntary-compulsory method. It was based on more than a dozen alliances of the Eastern Slavs, Finno-Ugrians, and Balts.
Before the invasion of Kievan Rus by the Mongol-Tatar Altyn Hordes, it was ruled by: Igor, Olga, Svyatoslav, Vladimir. We are used to calling these names purely Russian. Internal and external conflicts were created and resolved. Rus entered international cooperation.
View of the Old Russian city
Mikhail Lomonosov was an anti-Normanist on the formation of Russian statehood. He did not consider the Slavs flawed and incapable of creating a state by themselves. Many sources are convincing that statehood on the territory of the Eastern Slavs existed long before the campaigns of the "Varangians to the Greeks" through these lands. The Slavs, according to him, were superior in development to the Normans in many respects.
Batu Khan captured a number of important cities of Kievan Rus in the first third of the 13th century. During three hundred years of the rule of the eastern barbarians, they turned the lands of Kievan Rus into wastelands, and made the cities deserted. All positive processes in the state were frozen for a long time.
Foundations of the civilization of Kievan Rus
At this time, legal norms were developed for the state and various social groups of the population. They are recorded in the codes of laws ("Russian Truth"), charters of the rulers of various principalities. But still, elements of the so-called military democracy prevailed.
In cities and other territories, popular assemblies considered various aspects of life, politics, but only with the personal presence of the Grand Duke. And only he finally decided all the issues. The most widespread were veche in important political centers of Rus - Pskov, Novgorod, Kiev, Chernigov. But soon the role of Kiev sharply decreases, and this leads to feudal strife, which grew into military clashes that weakened the still fragile state.
A word about Igor's regiment
Culture of Ancient Rus
Like nowhere else in other countries, the culture of Kievan Rus bears the imprint of the existing social system - feudalism and religious movement. All cultural monuments that made up the dignity of the 9th - 15th centuries belong to the second period. Because they are imbued with a divine idea. But there are also artifacts from the times before Christianization.
Education and literacy
The Old Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) alphabet was created by the Byzantine monks Cyril and Methodius. And one of two (along with the verb) ancient alphabets.
Church books for the Slavs were translated into Glagolitic. Later, the improved Glagolitic alphabet becomes Cyrillic. This alphabet has become convenient for the Eastern Slavs.
The level of education has grown and become higher than in the West of Europe. The son of Yaroslav the Wise knew five foreign languages, the daughter - three. And one king of France could not write his name. In the Kiev cathedral in the 11th century, literacy was taught to half a thousand children, including ordinary people.
In one of the centers of Kievan Rus, the first notes of ordinary citizens on the bark of birch bark were found: about their debts, love letters and a school student's notebook.
Tale of Bygone Years
Literature
It was Christianity that laid the foundation for book literature. Moreover, even the first works were written in a highly artistic manner. There were few genres.
For example, chronicles. Most of all they described the life of the nobility, the construction of temples, natural disasters: fires, floods, earthquakes. There was not a word about the life of the common people.
As a rule, the annals were compiled by monks. From them came the story of ancient years, written by the monk Nestor at the beginning of the eleventh century. He analyzed the past of the lands.
Teachings
One of the Byzantine metropolitans described in detail the ten commandments from part of the Bible - the New Testament. For the first time, a detailed interpretation of love for one's neighbor - the main moral postulate of Christianity - has been presented to people.
In the same genre, the ruler of Kievan Rus Monomakh instructs his children on how to govern the state. Moreover, it was written with love for the poor and suffering, with an appeal for the protection of widows and orphans.
A secular work has come down to us - "The Lay of Igor's Campaign." The events are reproduced very accurately, it is possible to check historiographically, although the author is not known.
Architecture. What was the “frozen music”, as architecture is often called? The main wooden construction, which is very vulnerable to fires, gave way to stone construction, which was taught by the Byzantines. The first such church was erected on a special brick of irregular shape, which gave the building a special originality.
The Kiev Sophia Cathedral with thirteen domed towers was also created from it. Similar temples were erected in other lands of Kievan Rus. The unification of architectural schools - Vladimir and Novgorod began. Most of the erected temples have survived to this day.
Great Tartary - an unknown part of Russia
Let's look for traces of ancient civilizations on the territory of Russia on this land. One of the researchers, Duald, to the west of the Great Wall of China pointed out the lands of the barbarian world, calling them Tartaria. Other historiographers also agreed with him. In present-day Russia there was Siberia, on the territory of the Eastern Slavs - between Muscovy and the Caspian Sea. One part was under the kings of China, and the other under the Moscow rulers. On various Western European maps, Russian tsars were depicted in a dwelling (yurt) unusual for the Eastern Slavs, but in the clothes of an oprichnik.
Map of Tartary, 16th century
It was only in the 16th century that Russian historiographers began to study Tartary, based on the sources of Western Europe. Often these sources used our information. Under Ivan the Terrible, Tartary was designated on the map from the Urals to the Ishim (the longest tributary of the Irtysh) and Sarysu (in Kazakhstan, not to be confused with the same river in the Crimea) and the Karatau mountains.
In the 17th century, Tartaria in the West began to be called Tartary. But Russian historians had little interest in Tartary, the lands of Muscovy did not trade with it because of the danger of being in those lands. Scientists say that Tartaria is not a state, but a territory centered in the city of Tobolsk.
Taratars. Illustration for the book by Marco Polo
Without the letter "r" this country is also indicated in the Bible. This means that the word "Tatars" has been used since antiquity. In Russian sources "tartars" meant "hell", but there was neither "Tartary" or "tartar". Only Peter the Great ordered to print a map of Tartary within Muscovy. Over time, most of this territorial entity became part of the Russian lands, mainly after their conquests. For example, the Siberian Khanate.
Khazar civilization
This state arose with inherent characteristics in the eighth century in the Caspian region and in the surrounding territories to the north of the Caucasian ridge. For two centuries the Khazars owned the Crimea and the middle Volga (it was called Itil).
Khazars
Large cities were located on the Volga and on the territory of present-day Dagestan. Itil is the capital. Quite crowded - up to hundreds of thousands of people. More Tmutarakan on Taman and others. The economy of Khazaria is a mixture of nomadic pastoralism and trade on the Asia-Europe route. Arab conquerors blocked the Silk Road. Then he went through the Volga and the Dnieper - they carried silver and fabrics, no worse than silk. The state for the most part lived on duties from trade, also "living goods".
The Khazars ruled over a large territory of the European part of present-day Russia and Volga Bulgaria. They captured Kiev, imposing tribute on the city and the land. In the ninth - tenth centuries, it became the richest and militarized country in Eurasia. The state possessed a strong mercenary army, and by political intrigues it pitted different countries against Russia; argued with Byzantium over the Crimea.
Tribute to the glades to the Khazars. Miniature. 15th century
Part of Khazaria was "ripped off" by the Arabs. Kievan Rus by the forces of two princes - Svyatoslav and Vladimir - defeated the remnants of this state. The peoples of Khazaria were assimilated with the Slavs.
"Straw" state
This is another ancient civilization of Russia. Polovtsi appeared on the banks of the Seversky Donets (river of Russia and Ukraine) from the Irtysh. For a century they mastered the bare steppes and established trade routes, on which they collected a considerable fee.
Polovtsi
The name of the tribes "Polovtsy" was given in Russian: from the word "straw" (floor) for blond hair. There are few Polovtsian artifacts. In addition to stone statues on the graves of relatives. They are called "Polovtsian women" because the statues are "female". Today you will no longer see stone figures in the steppe. In Eastern Ukraine, they were collected and installed in cities for examinations.
Polovtsian women
For a century, the Polovtsians settled down to the Dnieper and Volga. Both Kievan Rus and Byzantium were wary of them. It was often necessary to repel the Polovtsian raids on Russia. Vladimir Monomakh smashed them to pieces. Some migrated across the Volga and the Urals, others to the Caucasus to serve the Georgian king David the Builder