The pre-baptismal period of the history of Russia was a big headache for Soviet historians and ideologists, it was easier to forget about it and not mention it. The problem was that in the late 20s and early 30s of the twentieth century, Soviet scientists in the humanities were able to more or less substantiate the natural “evolutionary nature” of the newly minted communist ideology of the “genius” Marx - Lenin, and divided the whole history into five well-known periods:
from the primitive communal formation to the most progressive and evolutionary - the communist one.
But the period of Russian history before the adoption of Christianity did not fit into any "standard" pattern - it was not similar to either the primitive communal system, or to the slaveholding, or to the feudal one. But rather it looked like a socialist.
And this was the whole comic nature of the situation, and a great desire not to pay scientific attention to this period. This was also the reason for dissatisfaction with Froyanov and other Soviet scientists when they tried to understand this period of history.
In the period before the baptism of Rus, the Rus undoubtedly had their own state and at the same time did not have a class society, in particular a feudal one. And the inconvenience was that the “classical” Soviet ideology asserted that the feudal class creates the state as an instrument of its political domination and suppression of the peasants. And then it turned out to be a discrepancy …
Moreover, judging by the military victories of the Rus over the neighbors, and that the "queen of the world" Byzantium herself paid tribute to them, it turned out that the "original" way of society and the state of our ancestors was more effective, harmonious and advantageous in comparison with other ways and structures of that period among other peoples.
“And here it should be noted that the archaeological sites of the Eastern Slavs recreate a society without any clear traces of property stratification. The outstanding researcher of East Slavic antiquities I. I. Lyapushkin emphasized that among the dwellings known to us
“… In the most different regions of the forest-steppe zone it is not possible to indicate those which, in terms of their architectural appearance and the content of household and household implements found in them, would stand out for their wealth.
Promotional video:
The internal arrangement of the dwellings and the implements found in them do not yet allow to dismember the inhabitants of these latter only by occupation - into landowners and artisans."
Another well-known specialist in Slavic-Russian archeology V. V. Sedov writes:
“It is impossible to reveal the emergence of economic inequality on the materials of settlements studied by archaeologists. It seems that there are no distinct traces of property differentiation of the Slavic society in the grave monuments of the 6-8 centuries.”
All this requires a different understanding of the archaeological material”- notes I. Ya. Froyanov in his research.
That is, in this ancient Russian society, the accumulation of wealth and its transfer to children was not the meaning of life, it was not some kind of ideological or moral value, and this was clearly not welcomed and contemptuously condemned.
What was valuable? This is evident from what the Russians swore by, for they swore to the most valuable - for example, in the agreement with the Greeks in 907, the Russians swore not by gold, not by their mother and not by children, but by “their weapons, and Perun, their God, and Volos, the beastly god”. Svyatoslav also swore by Perun and Volos in the 971 treaty with Byzantium.
That is, they considered the most valuable their connection with God, with the Gods, their reverence and their honor and freedom. In one of the agreements with the Byzantine emperor there is such a fragment of the oath of Svetoslav in case of violation of the oath: “let us be golden, like this gold” (golden tablet-stand of the Byzantine scribe - RK). That once again shows the contemptuous attitude of the Russians to the golden calf.
And now and then the Slavs, the Rus stood out and stand out in their overwhelming majority of benevolence, sincerity, tolerance for other views, what foreigners call “tolerance”.
A vivid example of this is even before the baptism of Rus, at the beginning of the 10th century in Russia, when in the Christian world it was out of the question for pagan temples, sanctuaries or idols (idols) to stand on “Christian territory” (with glorious Christian love for all, patience and mercy) - in Kiev, half a century before the adoption of Christianity, a Cathedral Church was built and a Christian community existed around it.
It is only now that enemy ideologues and their journalists falsely screamed about the non-existent xenophobia of the Russians, and through all binoculars and microscopes they are trying to see this xenophobia of them, and even more to provoke them.
The researcher of Russian history, the German scientist B. Schubart wrote with admiration:
“The Russian person possesses Christian virtues as permanent national properties. Russians were Christians even before converting to Christianity”(B. Schubart“Europe and the Soul of the East”).
The Russians did not have slavery in the usual sense, although there were slaves from captives as a result of battles, who, of course, had a different status. I. Ya. Froyanov wrote a book on this topic "Slavery and tributary among the Eastern Slavs" (St. Petersburg, 1996), and in his last book he wrote:
“Slavery was known to the East Slavic society. Customary law prohibited the enslavement of their fellow tribesmen. Therefore, captured foreigners became slaves. They were called servants. For the Russian Slavs, servants are primarily an object of trade …
The situation of the slaves was not harsh, as, say, in the ancient world. Chelyadin was a member of a related collective as a junior member. Slavery was limited to a certain period, after which the slave, acquiring freedom, could return to his land or stay with the former owners, but already in a free position.
In science, this style of relations between slave owners and slaves was called patriarchal slavery”.
The patriarchal is the paternal. You will not find such an attitude towards slaves not among the wise Greek slave owners, not among the medieval Christian slave traders, nor among the Christian slave owners in the south of the New World - in America.
Russians lived in clan and inter-clan settlements, were engaged in hunting, fishing, trade, agriculture, cattle breeding and handicrafts. The Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan described in 928 that the Russians built large houses in which 30-50 people lived.
Another Arab traveler Ibn Rust at the turn of the 9-10th centuries described the Russian baths as a curiosity in severe frosts:
“When the stones of the highest degree are heated, they are poured over them with water, from which steam spreads, heating the house to the point that they take off their clothes”.
Our ancestors were very clean. Especially in comparison with Europe, in which even during the Renaissance at the courts of Paris, London, Madrid and other capitals, ladies used not only perfumery - to neutralize the unpleasant "spirit", but also special tricks for dexterous lice on the head, and the problem of throwing out feces from the windows to the streets of the city, even at the beginning of the 19th century, was considered by the French parliament.
The pre-Christian ancient Rus society was communal, veche, where the prince was accountable to the people's assembly - veche, which could approve the transfer of the prince's power by inheritance, or could re-elect the prince for itself.
“The ancient Russian prince is not an emperor or even a monarch, because a veche, or a national assembly, to which he was accountable, stood over him,” noted I. Ya. Froyanov.
The Russian prince of this period and his squad did not show feudal "hegemonic" signs. Without taking into account the opinion of the most authoritative members of society: heads of clans, wise “dids” and respected military leaders, the decision was not made. The famous prince Svetoslav was a good example of this. A. S. Ivanchenko in his research notes:
“… Let's turn to the original text of Leo the Deacon … This meeting took place near the Danube bank on July 23, 971, after the day before Tzimiskes asked Svetoslav for peace and invited him to his headquarters for negotiations, but he refused to go there … Tzimiskes had to tame his pride, go to Svetoslav himself.
However, thinking in a Romish way, the emperor of Byzantium wished, if he did not succeed in military force, then at least the splendor of his vestments and the richness of the attire of his accompanying retinue … Lev the Deacon:
“The Emperor, covered with ceremonial, gold forging, armor, rode up on horseback to the bank of the Istra; followed by numerous horsemen glittering with gold. Soon Svyatoslav also appeared, crossing the river in a Scythian boat (this once again confirms that the Greeks called the Rus as Scythians).
He sat on the oars and rowed, like everyone else, not standing out among others. His appearance was as follows: medium height, not very large and not very small, with thick eyebrows, with blue eyes, with a straight nose, with a shaved head and with thick long hair hanging from his upper lip. His head was completely naked, and only on one side of it was a tuft of hair hanging … His clothes were white, which, apart from being noticeably clean, did not differ from the clothes of others. Sitting in a boat on the rowers' bench, he talked a little with the emperor about the conditions of peace and left … The emperor gladly accepted the conditions of the Rus …
If Svyatoslav Igorevich had the same intentions regarding Byzantium as against Great Khazaria, he would have easily destroyed this arrogant empire even during his first campaign on the Danube: he had four days' journey to Constantinople, when Theophilus Sinckel, the closest adviser to the Byzantine patriarch, fell kneel before him, asking the world on any terms. Indeed, Constantinople paid a huge tribute to Russia”.
I will emphasize an important testimony - the prince of the Rus Svetoslav, equal in status to the Byzantine emperor, was dressed like all his vigilantes and rowing oars along with everyone … That is, in Russia during this period, the communal, veche (cathedral) system was based on equality, justice and accounting interests of all its members.
Taking into account the fact that in the modern language of clever people “society” is society, and “socialism” is a system that takes into account the interests of the whole society or its majority, we see in pre-Christian Russia an example of socialism, moreover, as a very effective way of organizing society and principles of regulation life of society.
The story of the invitation to the reign of Rurik in about 859-862. also shows the structure of Russian society of that period. Let's get acquainted with this story and at the same time find out - who was Rurik by nationality.
Since ancient times, the Russians have developed two centers of development: the southern one - on the southern trade routes on the Dnieper river, the city of Kiev and the northern one - on the northern trade routes on the Volkhov river, the city of Novgorod.
It is not known for certain when Kiev was built, as well as much in the pre-Christian history of Russia, for numerous written documents, chronicles, including those on which the famous Christian chronicler Nestor worked, were destroyed by Christians for ideological reasons after the baptism of Russia. But it is known that Kiev was built by the Slavs, led by a prince named Kyi and his brothers Shchek and Khorev. They also had a sister with a beautiful name - Lybid.
The then world suddenly found out and started talking about the Kiev princes, when on June 18, 860, the Kiev prince Askold and his voivode Dir approached the Byzantine capital Constantinople from the sea on 200 large boats and presented an ultimatum, after which they attacked the world capital for a week.
In the end, the Byzantine emperor could not stand it and offered a huge contribution, with which the Russians sailed to their homeland. It is clear that the main empire of the world could only be opposed by an empire, and it was a great developed Slavic empire in the form of a union of Slavic tribes, and not dense barbarian Slavs who were blessed with their arrival by civilized Christians, as the authors of the books write about it even in 2006-7.
In the same period in the north of Russia in the 860s, another strong prince appeared - Rurik. Nestor wrote that “Prince Rurik and his brothers arrived - from their birth … those Varangians were called Rus”.
“… Rusky Stargorod was located in the area of the present West German lands of Oldenburg and Macklenburg and the adjacent Baltic island of Rügen. It was there that Western Russia or Ruthenia was located. - VN Emelyanov explained in his book. - As for the Varangians, this is not an ethnonym usually mistakenly associated with the Normans, but the name of the profession of warriors.
Mercenary warriors, united under the general name Varangians, were representatives of different clans of the West Baltic region. Western Rus also had their own Varangians. It was from among them that the native grandson of the Novgorod prince Rostomysl, Rurik, the son of his middle daughter Umila …
He came to Northern Russia with the capital in Novgorod, since the male line of Rostomysl faded away during his lifetime.
Novgorod by the time of the arrival of Rurik and his brothers Saneus and Truvor was older than Kiev - the capital of South Russia - for centuries.
"Novugorodtsi: these are the people of nougorodtsi - from the Varangian clan …" - wrote the famous Nestor, as we see, meaning by the Vikings all the northern Slavs. It was from there that Rurik began to rule, from located north of Ladograd (modern Staraya Ladoga), which is recorded in the annals:
"And the oldest in Ladoz Rurik".
According to Academician V. Chudinov, the lands of today's northern Germany, where the Slavs used to live, were called White Russia and Ruthenia, and, accordingly, the Slavs were called Rus, Ruthenes, Rugs. Their descendants are the Slavs-Poles, who have long lived on the Oder and the shores of the Baltic.
“… The lie aimed at the castration of our history is the so-called Norman theory, according to which Rurik and his brothers have been stubbornly listed as Scandinavians for centuries, and not as Western Russians … - VN Yemelyanov was indignant in his book. - But there is a book by the Frenchman Carmier "Letters about the North", published by him in 1840 in Paris, and then in 1841 in Brussels.
This French researcher, who, to our happiness, has nothing to do with the dispute between the anti-Normanists and the Normanists, during his visit to Maclenburg, i.e. just the region from which Rurik was called, among the legends, customs and rituals of the local population, he also wrote down the legend of the call to Russia of the three sons of the prince of the Slavs-encouraging Godlav. Thus, back in 1840, there was a legend about a vocation among the Germanic population of McLenburg …”.
The researcher of the history of ancient Russia Nikolai Levashov in his book "Russia in crooked mirrors" (2007) writes:
“But the most interesting thing is that they could not even make a fake without serious contradictions and gaps. According to the “official” version, the Slavic-Russian state of Kievan Rus arose in the 9-10th centuries and arose immediately in a finished form, with a set of laws, with a rather complex state hierarchy, a system of beliefs and myths. The explanation for this in the “official” version is very simple: the “wild” Slavs-Rus invited to their prince Rurik the Varangian, supposedly a Swede, forgetting that in Sweden itself at that time there was simply no organized state, but there were only squads of jarls who were engaged in armed robbery of their neighbors …
In addition, Rurik had nothing to do with the Swedes (who, moreover, were called Vikings, not Varangians), but was a prince from the Wends and belonged to the caste of the Varangians, professional warriors who studied the art of combat from childhood. Rurik was invited to reign according to the traditions existing among the Slavs at that time to choose at the Veche the most worthy Slavic prince as his ruler.
An interesting discussion took place in the Itogi magazine # 38 for September 2007. between the masters of modern Russian historical science professors A. Kirpichnikov and V. Yanin on the occasion of the 1250th anniversary of Staraya Ladoga - the capital of Upper or Northern Russia. Valentin Yanin:
“It has long been inappropriate to argue that the vocation of the Varangians is an antipatriotic myth … It should be understood that before the arrival of Rurik, we already had some statehood (the same elder Gostomysl was before Rurik), thanks to which the Varangian, in fact, was invited local elites (not to be confused with the current interpretation) / ed. /) to reign.
The Novgorod land was the place of residence of three tribes: Krivichi, Slovenian and Finno-Ugric. At first it was owned by the Varangians, who wanted to be paid "one squirrel from each husband."
Perhaps it was because of these exorbitant appetites that they were soon driven out, and the tribes began to lead, so to speak, a sovereign way of life, which did not lead to good.
When a showdown began between the tribes, it was decided to send ambassadors to (neutral) Rurik, to those Varangians who called themselves Rus. They lived in the southern Baltic, northern Poland and northern Germany. Our ancestors called the prince from where many of them were from. We can say that they turned to relatives for help …
If we proceed from the real state of affairs, then before Rurik there were already elements of statehood among the tribes mentioned. Look: the local elite ordered Rurik that he has no right to collect tribute from the population, only high-ranking Novgorodians themselves can do this, and he should only be given a gift for sending them duties, again I will translate into modern language, a hired manager. The entire budget was also controlled by the Novgorodians themselves …
By the end of the 11th century, they generally created their own vertical of power - posadnichestvo, which then became the main organ of the veche republic. By the way, I think, it is no coincidence that Oleg, who became the prince of Novgorod after Rurik, did not want to linger here and went to Kiev, where he already began to reign supreme."
Rurik died in 879, and his only heir Igor was still very young, so Rus was headed by his relative Oleg. In 882 Oleg decided to seize power in all of Russia, which meant the unification of the Northern and Southern parts of Russia under his rule, and set out on a military campaign to the south.
And taking Smolensk by storm, Oleg moved to Kiev. Oleg invented a cunning and insidious plan - he sailed along the Dnieper to Kiev with wars under the guise of a large trade caravan. And when Askold and Dir went ashore to meet the merchants, Oleg jumped out of the boats with armed wars and, making a claim to Askold that he was not from the princely dynasty, killed both. In such an insidious and bloody way, Oleg seized power in Kiev and thus united both parts of Russia.
Thanks to Rurik and his followers, Kiev became the center of Russia, which included numerous Slavic tribes.
“The end of the 9th and 10th centuries are characterized by the subordination of the Drevlyans, Northerners, Radimichs, Vyatichs, Ulitsy and other tribal unions to Kiev. As a result, under the hegemony of the Polyanskaya capital, a grandiose “union of unions” or super-union was formed, which geographically covered almost all of Europe.
Kiev nobility, the glade as a whole used this new political organization as a means to receive tribute …”- noted I. Ya. Froyanov.
The neighboring Ugrians-Hungarians once again moved through the Slavic lands towards the former Roman Empire and on the way tried to capture Kiev, but failed and, having concluded in 898. a treaty of alliance with the Kievites, moved west in search of military adventures and reached the Danube, where they founded Hungary, which has survived to this day.
And Oleg, repelling the attack of the Ugric Huns, decided to repeat Askold's famous campaign against the Byzantine Empire and began to prepare. And in 907, the famous second campaign of the Rus, led by Oleg, to Byzantium took place.
The huge Russian army marched again on boats and land to Constantinople - Constantinople. This time, the Byzantines, taught by the previous bitter experience, decided to be smarter - and managed to pull the entrance to the bay near the capital with a huge thick chain to prevent the entry of the Russian fleet. And they got in the way.
The Rus looked at this, landed on land, put the boats on wheels (rollers) and, under their cover from arrows and under sails, went on the attack. Shocked by the unusual sight and frightened, the Byzantine emperor with his entourage asked for peace and offered to be ransomed.
Perhaps, since then, there has been a popular expression about achieving the goal by any means: "not by washing, - by rolling."
Having loaded a huge indemnity on boats and carts, the Russians demanded and bargained for themselves an unimpeded access of Russian merchants to the Byzantine markets and a rare exclusive: a duty-free trade right for Russian merchants throughout the Byzantine Empire.
In 911, both parties confirmed and extended this agreement in writing. And the next year (912) Oleg handed over the rule of prosperous Russia to Igor, who married Olga from Pskov, who once transported him by boat across the river near Pskov.
Igor kept Russia intact and was able to repel the dangerous raid of the Pechenegs. And judging by the fact that in 941 Igor set off on the third military campaign against Byzantium, one can guess that Byzantium ceased to observe the treaty with Oleg.
This time, the Byzantines prepared thoroughly, did not hang up the chains, but thought of throwing the Russian boats with vessels with burning oil (“Greek fire”) from throwing weapons. The Russians did not expect this, they were confused, and, having lost many ships, they landed on land and staged a cruel slaughter. They did not take Constantinople, suffered serious damage and then within six months the evil ones returned home with various adventures.
And immediately they began to prepare more thoroughly for a new campaign. And in 944 they moved to Byzantium for the fourth time. This time the Byzantine emperor, anticipating trouble, halfway asked for peace on favorable terms for the Rus; they agreed and loaded with Byzantine gold and fabrics returned to Kiev.
In 945, during the collection of tribute by Igor and his squad, some kind of conflict occurred among the Drevlyans. The Slavs-Drevlyans, led by Prince Mal, decided that Igor and his squad had gone too far in demands and done injustice, and the Drevlyans killed Igor and killed his warriors. The widowed Olga sent a large army to the Drevlyans and fiercely took revenge. Princess Olga began to rule Russia.
From the second half of the 20th century, researchers began to receive new written sources - birch bark letters. The first birch bark letters were found in 1951 during archaeological excavations in Novgorod. About 1000 letters have already been discovered. The total volume of the dictionary of birch bark letters is more than 3200 words. The geography of finds covers 11 cities: Novgorod, Staraya Russa, Torzhok, Pskov, Smolensk, Vitebsk, Mstislavl, Tver, Moscow, Staraya Ryazan, Zvenigorod Galitsky.
The earliest letters date back to the 11th century (1020), when the indicated territory was not yet Christianized. Thirty letters found in Novgorod and one in Staraya Russa belong to this period. Until the 12th century, neither Novgorod nor Staraya Russa had yet been baptized, therefore the names of people found in the letters of the 11th century are pagan, that is, real Russian. By the beginning of the 11th century, the population of Novgorod corresponded not only with the addressees located inside the city, but also with those who were far beyond its borders - in villages, in other cities. Even the villagers from the most remote villages wrote on birch bark business orders and simple letters.
That is why the outstanding linguist and researcher of Novgorodian letters, the Academy A. A. Zaliznyak, claims that “this ancient writing system was very widespread. This writing was widespread throughout Russia. Reading the birch bark letters disproved the existing opinion that in Ancient Rus only noble people and clergy were literate. Among the authors and addressees of letters there are many representatives of the lower strata of the population, in the texts found there is evidence of the practice of teaching writing - alphabet, formulas, numerical tables, “pen tests”.
Six-year-old children wrote - “there is one letter, where, like, a certain year is designated. It was written by a six-year-old boy. Almost all Russian women wrote - “now we know for sure that a significant part of women could both read and write. 12th century letters in general, in various respects, they reflect a society that is more free, with greater development, in particular, of female participation, than a society closer to our time. This fact follows from the birch bark letters quite clearly”. Literacy in Russia is eloquently indicated by the fact that “the picture of Novgorod in the 14th century. and Florence of the 14th century, according to the degree of female literacy - in favor of Novgorod."
Experts know that Cyril and Methodius invented the verb for the Bulgarians and spent the rest of their lives in Bulgaria. The letter called "Cyrillic", although it has a similarity in its name, has nothing in common with Cyril. The name "Cyrillic" comes from the designation of the letter - Russian "doodles", or, for example, the French "ecrire". And the plaque found during the excavations of Novgorod, on which they wrote in antiquity, is called "kera" (sera).
In the "Tale of Bygone Years", a monument of the early 12th century, there is no information about the baptism of Novgorod. Consequently, Novgorodians and residents of neighboring villages wrote 100 years before the baptism of this city, and the writing of the Novgorodians did not come from Christians. Writing in Russia existed long before Christianity. The share of non-church texts at the very beginning of the 11th century is 95 percent of all found letters.
Nevertheless, for the academic falsifiers of history, for a long time there was a fundamental version that the Russian people learned to read and write from newcomer priests. Aliens! Remember, we have already discussed this topic: When our ancestors carved runes on the stone, the Slavs already wrote letters to each other"
But in his unique scientific work “The Craft of Ancient Rus”, published back in 1948, the archaeologist academician BA Rybakov published the following data: “There is an ingrained opinion that the church was a monopolist in the creation and distribution of books; this opinion was strongly supported by the churchmen themselves. It is only true here that monasteries and episcopal or metropolitan courts were the organizers and censors of book copying, often acting as intermediaries between the customer and the scribe, but the executors were often not monks, but people who had nothing to do with the church.
We have calculated the scribes according to their position. For the pre-Mongol era, the result was this: half of the book scribes were laymen; for the 14th - 15th centuries. the calculations gave the following results: metropolitans - 1; deacons - 8; monks - 28; clerks - 19; priests - 10; "Slaves of God" -35; priests-4; parobkov-5. Popovichs cannot be considered in the category of churchmen, since literacy, almost obligatory for them (“the priest's son does not know how to read, is an outcast”), has not predetermined their spiritual career. Under vague names like "servant of God", "sinner", "sad servant of God", "sinful and daring for evil, but lazy for good", etc., without specifying belonging to the church, we should understand secular artisans. Sometimes there are more definite indications "Eustathius wrote, a worldly man, and his nickname is Shepel", "Ovsey raspop", "Thomas the scribe". In such cases, we no longer have any doubts about the "worldly" character of the scribes.
In total, according to our count, there are 63 laymen and 47 clergymen, i.e. 57% of the artisan scribes did not belong to church organizations. The main forms in the studied era were the same as in the pre-Mongol era: work to order and work on the market; between them there were various intermediate stages that characterized the degree of development of a particular craft. Bespoke work is typical for some types of patrimonial craft and for industries associated with expensive raw materials, such as jewelry or bell casting."
The academician cited these figures for the 14th - 15th centuries, when, according to the stories of the church, she served almost as a helm for the multimillion Russian people. It would be interesting to look at the busy, one and only metropolitan who, together with an absolutely insignificant handful of literate deacons and monks, served the postal needs of the multimillion Russian people from several tens of thousands of Russian villages. In addition, this Metropolitan and Co. were supposed to possess many truly wonderful qualities: the lightning speed of writing and movement in space and time, the ability to simultaneously be in thousands of places at once, and so on.
But not a joke, but a real conclusion from the data given by B. A. Rybakov, it follows that the church has never been in Russia a place from which knowledge and enlightenment flowed. Therefore, we repeat, another academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. A. Zaliznyak states that “the picture of Novgorod in the 14th century. and Florence 14th century. according to the degree of female literacy - in favor of Novgorod. But the church by the 18th century led the Russian people into the bosom of illiterate darkness.
Let's consider the other side of the life of the ancient Russian society before the arrival of Christians to our lands. She touches the clothes. Historians are used to us drawing Russian people dressed exclusively in simple white shirts, sometimes, however, allowing themselves to say that these shirts were decorated with embroidery. The Russians seem to be such beggars, barely able to dress at all. This is another lie spread by historians about the life of our people.
To begin with, let us recall that the world's first clothing was created more than 40 thousand years ago in Russia, in Kostenki. And, for example, at the Sungir parking lot in Vladimir, already 30 thousand years ago, people wore a leather suede jacket trimmed with fur, a hat with earflaps, leather pants, and leather boots. Everything was decorated with various objects and several rows of beads. The ability to make clothes in Russia, of course, was preserved and developed to a high level. And silk became one of the important clothing materials for the ancient Rus.
Archaeological finds of silk in the territory of Ancient Russia of the 9th - 12th centuries were found in more than two hundred points. The maximum concentration of finds is in Moscow, Vladimir, Ivanovo and Yaroslavl regions. Just in those in which at this time there was an increase in population. But these territories were not part of Kievan Rus, on the territory of which, on the contrary, the finds of silk fabrics are very few. As the distance from Moscow - Vladimir - Yaroslavl increases, the density of silk finds generally decreases rapidly, and already in the European part they are sporadic.
At the end of the 1st millennium A. D. Vyatichi and Krivichi lived in the Moscow Territory, as evidenced by groups of mounds (at the Yauza station, in Tsaritsyn, Chertanovo, Konkov. Derealev, Zyuzin, Cheryomushki, Matveyevsky, Filyakh, Tushin, etc.). Vyatichi also made up the initial core of the population of Moscow.
According to various sources, Prince Vladimir baptized Rus, or rather, he began the baptism of Rus in 986 or 987. But Christians and Christian churches were in Russia, specifically in Kiev, long before 986. And it was not even about the tolerance of the pagan Slavs to other religions, but about one important principle - the principle of freedom and sovereignty of the decision of each Slav, for whom there were no masters, he was a king for himself and had the right to any decision that did not contradict customs community, so no one had the right to criticize him, reproach or condemn him, if the decision or deed of the Slav did not harm the community and its members. Well, then the history of Baptized Russia has already begun …
The research is based on the research of our modern scientist from St. Petersburg Igor Yakovlevich Froyanov, who, back in the USSR in 1974, published a monograph entitled “Kievan Rus. Essays on socio-economic history”, then many scientific articles were published and many books were published, and in 2007 his book“The Riddle of the Baptism of Rus”was published.
