The strongest among the Baltic Slavic states was the rug principality. The same people are known as the Rus. The sound "th" in the word "ruth" or "ruthen" in different pronunciations can be perceived as "g", and as "s", and as "t". Therefore, in the Roman and Western chronicles there are various forms of the same ethnonym - rus, ros, rogi, rosi, rutsi, ruthenes, rosomons (“people grew up”). The Rus owned the island of Ruyan (aka Buyan of Russian fairy tales, now Rügen) and the adjacent lands on the mainland.
Ships on inflated sails did not run past Ruyan Island, they were sure to turn to the island itself. Already from afar, the sailors saw how the crests of the walls and the jagged towers of the glorious city of Arkona rise on the horizon above the foam of the waves. As they approached, the harbor opened, filled with dozens of ships. They routinely looked to see if there were any relatives or acquaintances among them. And to the pier, noticing the approaching sail, the vigilantes were already heading - to ask who and where, to study the goods, to calculate the duties.
Coming ashore, the visitors stretched out their legs, unaccustomed from the ground on the shaky deck. Around them, near the port, the marketplace was rustling. Who was not here! Here are the owners, slender bearded Russians, casually thrown their cloaks over one shoulder. Here are vandals in smart kaftans with fur trim. Here are the Lombards with frightening braids of hair on their faces. Here are the silent Lithuanians in robes made of animal skins, with the signs of the tribe in the form of a boar's head. A Roman passes by. The Syrians with curled beards and gold hoops on their heads agree on something. The abundance of goods scatters eyes. Resonant swords, magnificent shields, horse harness, precious glass beads, jugs of wine, fabrics, bracelets, earrings, boots of different colors, heaps of amber …
The sailors involuntarily glanced at the women. And how could you not have looked at the stately townspeople in bright sundresses, walking about their business, proudly gleaming with rich decorations. And the best adornments of commoners and barefooted servants were their own ruddy faces, and the travelers winked merrily with them - well, smile, beauty, good fellows! However, while there was no time for goods and girls. Having passed the fortress gates, the visitors walked along the wooden flooring of the street to the main place of the city, the Sventovita temple. Thank God for a safe voyage, ask for good luck, and the duties in Arkona were paid not to the prince or the city, but to the sanctuary. It was also crowded near him. Locals, merchants, pilgrims. Someone came to make a sacrifice, several sheep are being dragged behind him. Someone wants to get a prediction about a planned enterprise,and the priest throws out black and white plaques with runes - which side will lie …
Sometimes it also happened that other warships were lined up near the berths. And the temple of Sventovit was filled with people in armor, with swords on their belts. Stern, tense eyes were drawn to the temple. From there appeared the high priest in long robes, with a gray beard and hair falling below his shoulders. Brought out the sacred white horse. Everyone knew that Sventovit himself drove it at night. The horse was led to the spears spread out on the ground, and the general breath stopped. How will he cross? Which leg? The hind ones rose on tiptoe, although they still couldn't see. And then it spread - from the right! The army hummed with joy, there will be a victory! The columns from the sanctuary marched with a firm step towards the harbor …
But one day alien ships loomed at sea. Gothic, from Scandinavia. The gate was locked. Guards were posted on the walls. The sentries from the towers peered anxiously into the leaden surface. Where will they go? On whom? From the merchant ships, briskly fluttering from the sea, like a flock of frightened birds, they learned that the squadrons of the Goths had moved somewhere to the east. News began to reach: they entered the mouth of the Vistula. Vandals were attacked. Then there were refugees. They told in horror, the vandals were defeated, the Goths were breaking uncontrollably. The wind blew a suffocating smoke, black smoke rose in the places of cities and villages. Closer and closer to the Russian border. The army gathered, rang out with weapons, women hurriedly hugged their husbands goodbye. Footmen and horsemen were lined up, set out to meet the enemy. With what foot did the sacred horse step over the spears this time? Who knows!.. The remnants of the army were scattered back. Exhaustedwounded, with faces blackened from misfortune. And then the Russian cities flared up. Steel clanged, sparks, arrows sang. The beauties who were dragged by the braids by the winners voted and resisted …
This was in the II century. The invasion of the Goths on the southern coast of the Baltic began the Great Migration of Peoples. The defeated retreated in all directions. Exactly - where? Someone also lived in neighboring countries. They left their homeland, so it was necessary to push them back. And from behind the Goths pressed on, urged on. Some tribes were divided, rolled back in different directions. To fight back, they entered into unions. In general, the same thing happened as in the past large-scale migrations, in the II-I centuries. BC e., but then the movements almost did not touch the Mediterranean countries, the Greeks and Romans did not attach much importance to them. And now one, then other tribes broke through to the borders of the Roman Empire. They tried to settle on its territory. Or simply, having lost all property, they tried to acquire a new one, plundered the Roman provinces. They did not have time to throw them away, new ones appeared.
Vandals and Rus first moved south to the Carpathians. But then they could not resist and went to the Danube valley. And part of the Rus separated and moved east. About 160 she came to the Dnieper. But the settlers did not end up in calm and peaceful lands. The situation in Eastern Europe was tense even without them. Local Slavs had a hard time. The Yazygs took tribute from them, they were harassed by raids by the Ugrians, who settled along the forest-steppe from the Dnieper to the Volga. The Romans threatened from the south. Their possessions surrounded the Crimean Scythia, undermined its trade. The Bosporus was strengthened under the auspices of Rome. He consolidated his power in the Azov region, defeated the Scythians in battles, and their kingdom completely decayed.
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In addition, the wars for Dacia quarreled the Black Sea peoples. The Yazygs, who went over to the side of the Romans, became blood enemies of the Roxolans and Scythians. They fought not on their stomachs, but to their deaths, horses and riders overturned each other in furious steppe attacks, spears broke, heavy swords rattled, breaking helmets and armor. In these battles, the Slavs were the natural friends of the Roxolans. The Yazygs also robbed them, and from the Romans they drank grief. But among the Roxolans, the situation was also difficult. Another enemy, the Alans, began to press them from the east. Having finally conquered the North Caucasus, they penetrated beyond the Don, reached the Dniester and Danube. And now a new danger has also arisen in the west. The Goths did not stop on the shores of the Baltic, they were moving towards the Black Sea …
There were not so many Russians who retreated from them - detachments of refugees, a fragment of a defeated tribe. But they were energetic, skillful warriors, and their princes behaved wisely and far-sighted. They began to collect and organize the Dnieper Slavs under their command. Provided them with protection, helped against the surrounding enemies. The squads of the Rus were overgrown with the militia of the Slavs and became the core of the general army. But the Roxolans were in dire need of allies. And they agreed to unite with the Russians. The first Russian state in history arose on the territory of our country. Some legends associate its creation with the legendary prince Kiy, the founder of Kiev. Although in fact there was not one such princes. Kiy is not a name, but a title, in Iranian languages "lord". And the direct meaning of this word entered the Russian language - cue, that is, a rod, a club. Among the Sarmatian peoples, the mace served as a sign of the power of the leaders.
The Romans did not mention the birth of Rus, for them the northern neighbors were still "Scythians", "Roxolans", "Dacians". But the Roman authors unanimously noted that the kingdom of the Roxolans suddenly increased dramatically, began to defeat all enemies. And the facts show that a new, multinational state has already been formed. Archeology shows that a different people came to the Dnieper from the west, with a different culture and burial rites. But he did not displace the indigenous people, but settled with them.
Other facts also speak about the unification. At the end of the II century. among the roxolans, not only Iranian, but also Slavic names appear - Ant, Horvat. Yes, and the Romans used to rank the Roxolans as purely Sarmatian peoples, and now they distinguished them from the Sarmatians. And in addition, in all documents on the situation on the Lower Danube, frequent reports of "carps" suddenly flashed. So frequent that it was clearly not about one tribe of carp. It's just that the Romans knew the Carpathian Slavs well, they encountered them in the wars against the Dacians, therefore they began to collectively call all the Eastern Slavs "carps". They have changed at this time, began to behave confidently and very actively.
This is not surprising. The formed alliance became a powerful force. The Rus and Slavs adopted the Roksolan type of weaponry. And the Slavic cities and villages provided a solid rear base. On the Don, bas-reliefs of the 2nd-3rd centuries have been found, depicting warriors of that time. They depict horsemen with long spears, in pointed helmets and chain mail, over which a basket-cloak was thrown over. In a word, even then they resembled the Russian knights we are accustomed to. In battles, the Sarmatian tactics, the frontal blow of the horse squads, began to be supplemented by the tactics of the Russians - the formation of heavy infantry, closing the shields, cut into the ranks of the enemies with battle axes and swords. The Goths were stopped in Polesie and were not allowed to enter the Dnieper. The Alans were forced to retreat to the Caucasus. The Ugric tribes were expelled to the east, to the Volga region and to the Urals. And the Yazygs were generally kicked out of the Black Sea region. They were beaten so seriouslythat they went to Pannonia and even began to build defensive ramparts, defending themselves against attacks from the north. The weakened Crimean Scythia also submitted to the Russian principality.
The formation and expansion of the Russian state was accompanied by a very high economic upsurge. On the Dnieper in the II century. a new archaeological culture appears, Chernyakhovskaya. After three hundred years of desolation and decline, numerous villages are being built here, fields are plowed up and cultivated, handicraft production is rapidly developing. As the Russian victories progressed, this culture spread in several directions - along the Desna and the Seim to the Seversky Donets, from where the Ugrians were driven out, to the Southern Bug and Dniester, from where the Yazygs were driven out. Large Slavic villages were no longer built in forests, but in open forest-steppe places. And again, as in the Scythian era, they were not fenced off. Friends lived in the steppe, there was no threat of raids from there.
In a short time, agriculture on the Dnieper and Bug reached such a level that grain was again widely exported. The Romans willingly bought it. Russia quickly defeated the Bosporus and other competitors, and became the second most important grain supplier for the Roman Empire after Egypt. Trade was also beneficial for the Slavs. During the excavation of their villages, many amphorae for wine and oil, imported dishes, jewelry and other products are found. And Roman silver coins flowed to the farmers in such quantities that the Slavs used them in settlements among themselves.
But relations between Russia and its neighbors were not at all cloudless. Clashes with the Goths and Alans continued. There were wars with the Bosporus, Chersonesos, and now they got it famously, only the help of the Romans allowed them to withstand the onslaught. Clashes also took place on the Danube border. Latin sources blamed the "barbarians" for this. But the Romans themselves were not harmless lambs, they broke contracts, hurt the Slavs. In response, raids followed. The business ended with negotiations, the previous agreements were confirmed, the emperors paid "subsidies", peace was restored and trade resumed.
However, the first Russian state did not last long. She was sewn "on a living thread" from different tribes. Friction arose for some reason. Rus princes ruled, and why others are worse, why should they obey? Tribal princes and nobles were eager for independence. And the Romans had solid experience in intelligence and diplomacy, they perfectly learned how to sow discord between the "barbarians". Somewhere they sympathized with the dissatisfied, bribed someone, seduced with their "culture", flattered - they say, you are "civilized", you can deal with, unlike your allies. At the beginning of the III century. the Crimean Scythia separated from Russia. It cost her dearly. The Romans captured Olbia from the Scythians, the last city on the Black Sea came under their rule. And Scythia itself was defeated and conquered by the Bosporus, its ruler Rheskuporid III took the title of "king of the entire Bosporus and Tavro-Scythians."
Rome did not abandon more decisive plans. In 214, the emperor Antonin Caracalla arrived in Dacia. He was the same berry field as Nero and Domitian, that is, a monster and a pathological lecher. He killed for political reasons, including his brother Getu, all his relatives and friends, along with their wives and children. Killed and just like that, in the mood. Sometimes for the sake of curiosity, wanting to look at an unfamiliar form of execution. And when he considered that the city of Alexandria was not fulfilling the orders of the emperor, he ordered the destruction of its entire population. Like many psychopaths, Caracalla yearned for military glory and marched with an army north beyond the Danube. He took with him a whole crowd of historians and poets to paint his exploits.
Although they did not have to write anything - the Romans were always silent about their defeats. Caracalla could not even go deeper into the territory of Russia. The Slavic army met him not far from the Trayanovy ramparts, in a stubborn battle the legions were defeated, and the emperor hastily fled. True, he still declared himself the winner and assigned himself the title of "Great Dacian." But even the subjects laughed at this, instead of "Daksky" they called him "Geth", hinting at the murder of Geta. And instead of annexing new lands, Caracalla had to build an additional strip of fortifications on the Danube - the invasion angered the Slavs, and their attacks fell on the Romans. New walls were also erected in Olbia, a large garrison was placed - the Slavs and Roxolans attempted to recapture the city. But they could not take it. Disagreements deepened between the tribes that were part of the Russian state,and in the late 220s - early 230s. it split into several principalities.