Slavic Slavs. Polabian, Pomeranian and Vistula Slavs (Lechites) History of the Polabian or Baltic Slavs

Western Slavs — these are Croats, Czechs, Serbs, Obodrites, Lyutiches, Moravians, Slovenes, Slovaks, Slenzane, Pomeranians, Polyana, Kuyavy, Seradzyan, Lenchane, Duleby, Vislyane, Mazowshan, Prussians, Yatvyags, Volyanyans. The Slavs are a kind of community of different peoples.

The Slavs have never been a single entity in the full sense of the word. They, like every ethnic group, have always had somatological, cultural, linguistic and territorial differences. These initial differences were insignificant for a long time, then increased due to migration and interbreeding with other ethnic groups. After the initial impulses of resettlement, the Slavic united community broke up into a number of new formations that finally took shape over the following centuries. The settlement of the Slavs took place in three main directions: - to the south, to the Balkan Peninsula; - to the west, to the Middle Danube and the region between the Oder and the Elbe; - to the east and north along the East European Plain. The path to the north was blocked by the sea, as well as lakes and swamps. As a result of settlement, tribes of eastern, western and southern Slavs were formed, on the basis of which numerous Slavic peoples later arose. Their fate was different.
Part of the Slavs moved to the northeast, to the East European Plain, to the dense forest jungle, where there was no cultural heritage - this East Slavs. They left in two streams: one part of the Slavs went to Lake Ilmen, the other - to the middle and lower reaches of the Dnieper. Others stayed in Europe. Later they will be named southern Slavs . The southern Slavs, the ancestors of the Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, went south, to the Adriatic Sea and the Balkan Peninsula, fell into the sphere of influence of the Mediterranean civilization. And the third part of the Slavs - Western Slavs - these are Czechs, Poles, Slovaks moved further west to the Odra and Laba, and even further on this river - to the Saale, and in a southwestern direction - to the middle Danube up to present-day Bavaria.

The process of isolating the West Slavic branch began even before our era and ended in general terms in the first millennium of our era. The place of settlement of the Western Slavs was the eastern half of a vast region, which from the 1st century BC. e. It was called Germany and the border, which in the west was the Rhine, in the south - first the Main River and the Sudeten Mountains, and later the Danube, was established along the Vistula in the east. The Western Slavs, from ancient times subjected to different cultural influences than the Eastern Slavs, in the course of time found themselves in new, even more distinctive conditions and in a new environment. The delimitation of the Eastern and Western Slavs began in the 10th century, when two competing states arose - Kievan Rus and Poland. The alienation was deepened by the fact that in the countries there was Christianity of various rites (Catholicism and Orthodoxy). The connection with the eastern branch of the Slavs was weakened also because between it and the western branch stretched on the one hand the endless and impenetrable Rokyten swamps, and on the other hand the Lithuanian Prussians and Yotvingians wedged in. So the western branch of the Slavs, its language, culture and foreign policy destinies began to develop further independently and independently of the southern and eastern Slavs.

A large group of West Slavic tribes at the end of the 1st beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. e. inhabited the territory from the Laba River and its tributary Sala River in the west to the Odra River in the east, from the Ore Mountains in the south to the Baltic Sea in the north. To the west of all, starting from the Kiel Bay, the obodrites settled, to the south and east along the Baltic coast lived the Lutichi, on the island of Rügen, adjacent to the territory of the Lutichi, the Ruyans lived. The Pomeranians related to them lived along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, approximately from the mouth of the Odra to the mouth of the Vistula, in the south along the Notech River, bordered on Polish tribes. Those Slavs who in past centuries occupied vast areas on the coast of the Baltic are usually called the Baltic Slavs. The groups were independent of each other. Only danger forced them for some time to unite with each other or with other West Slavic tribes in tribal unions:

• bodrichi (military-tribal union), vagrs, clays, drevanes;
• lyutichi (military-tribal union), ratari, ruyans, slovintsy, smolintsy;
• Lusatian Lusatian Serbs (military-tribal union), Milchane;
• Pomeranians, the ancestors of the current Kashubians, Slenzhane, Bohemians and others.

All these tribes are still called Polabian Slavs . They lived along the Laba, hence their name, which was collective for a number of small tribes. Each of these groups consisted of smaller tribes, to which belonged the Vetnichi, or Betenchi, Pyzhichans, Volinians, Vyzhychans, and others, who settled along the banks of small rivers. As a result of the lack of a reliable relationship, small tribes were not connected into an independent state association. In the second half of the 6th century, at least a third of the lands of the modern German state in the north and northeast were covered by the Polabian Slavs. The Slavs replaced the "Germanic" tribes of the Lombards, Rugs, Lugis, Hezobrads, Varins, Velets and others who lived here in ancient times and headed south from the coast of the Baltic Sea. The eastern half of Germany (up to the Elbe), which had become considerably empty with the departure of most of the Germanic tribes living there, was gradually occupied by the Slavs. Confirmation that the Slavs lived on the territory of Germany from the very first centuries of our era, there is a coincidence of the tribal names of the Polabian, Pomeranian and other Western Slavs with the oldest ethnic names known in this territory, mentioned in Roman sources. In total, about fifteen such paired, coinciding ancient and medieval Slavic names of the tribes that lived in the area are known. This is evidenced by the multiple toponyms that they left behind. "German" Berlin is a distorted name of the ancient city of the Polabian Slavs, founded in the 1st millennium BC. e., and in translation meaning (burlin) "dam".
Since the 10th century, the German feudal lords began a systematic offensive against the Polabian Slavs, first for the sake of receiving tribute, and then with the aim of spreading their power on their lands by founding military regions (marks). The German feudal lords managed to subjugate the Polabian Slavs, but as a result of powerful uprisings (983, 1002), most of them, with the exception of the Lusatian Serbs, became free again. Scattered Slavic tribes could not provide proper resistance to the conquerors. The rallying of individual tribes under a single princely authority was necessary for their joint protection from the aggression of the Saxon and Danish feudal lords. In 623, Polabian Serbs, together with Czechs, Slovaks, Moravians, Black Croats, Dulebs and Horutans, united under the leadership of the merchant Samo to resist the Avars. In 789 and 791, together with the Czechs, the Polabian Serbs again participate in the campaigns of Charlemagne against the Avar Khaganate. Under the successors of Charlemagne, the Polabian tribes several times got out of Saxon power and again fell into dependence.

In the 9th century, part of the Polabian Slavs submitted to the Germans, the other part became part of the Great Moravian state that arose in 818. In 928, the Polabian Slavs united to successfully resist the Saxon king Heinrich the Fowler, who seized the territory of the Polabian-Serbian tribe of the Glomachs and imposed tribute on the Lyutichs. However, under Otto I, the Lusatian Serbs were again completely enslaved by the Germans, and their lands were given into fief possession to knights and monasteries. In the Polabian lands, German feudal lords were appointed as petty princes. In 983, the Polabian Slavs revolted. Their detachments destroyed the fortresses built by the Germans, devastated the border areas. The Slavs regained their freedom for another century and a half.
The Slavic world, both evolutionarily and under the pressure of the Roman Empire, has long passed the stage of tribal organization. It was, although not clearly organized, but a system of proto-states. Prolonged wars with the German feudal lords had a detrimental effect on the economic development of the Polabian Slavs, and hindered the formation of relatively large early feudal states among them. Vendian power - the early feudal state of the Polabian Slavs: Bodrichi, Lutichi and Pomeranians, existed from the 1040s to 1129 on the coast of the Baltic Sea between the mouths of the Laba and Odra rivers. At the head was Gottschalk (1044-1066) - the prince of the Bodrichs. In an attempt to rally the emerging alliance of the Polabian Slavs in the struggle against the Billungs and their allies, Gottschalk chose Christianity as the dominant religion for the Obodrites and Luticians. As a result of his reign, churches and monasteries were again revived on the lands of the Obodrite tribes, the chairs were restored: in Stargard among the Vagrians, in Veligrad (Mecklenburg) among the Obodrites and in Ratibor among the Polabs. Liturgical books began to be translated into Vendian. The process of Christianization undermined the local power of the Polabian tribal nobility, which was actually removed from government on the lands of the Vendian state. Against the policy of Gottschalk, a conspiracy arose among members of his family, representatives of the tribal nobility, pagan priests, and Luticians who had been conquered by him. At the head of the conspiracy of the tribal nobility stood Bluss, whose wife was Gottschalk's own sister. In 1066, simultaneously with the removal of Archbishop Adalbert from power and his loss of political influence, an uprising against Gottschalk began in Slavonia, the center of which was the city of Retra, located in the land of the Luticians. "Because of fidelity to God" the prince was captured and killed in the church by pagans. They also killed the Bishop of Mecklenburg John, who "cut off his arms and legs, and stuck his head on a spear as a sign of victory and offered it as a sacrifice to the gods." The rebels ravaged and destroyed Hamburg, as well as the Danish border lands in the Hed region. The popular uprising was suppressed by Prince Heinrich (son of Gottschalk), he called back the German bishops and ruled as a vassal of the Saxon Billungs. Some tribes, such as the wounds, did not recognize Henry and, together with the Polish princes, continued to fight against German aggression. Weakened by territorial losses and internal dynastic turmoil, the Vendian Empire finally disintegrated around 1129. In the XII century. the final stage of the struggle of the Polabian Slavs, led by the Bodrich prince Niklot, against the German aggression began, the organizers of which were Henry the Lion and Albrecht Medved, who sought to finally enslave the Slavs beyond Laboya with the forces of the original crusaders.

Bishops took part in the campaign, and above all the bishops of the Slavic regions, forced after the Slavic uprisings of the late 10th and early 11th centuries. leave their dioceses. These bishops, led by the bishop of Havelberg, who was appointed papal legate under the crusaders, dreamed of returning the lost tithes and other incomes and lands once granted to them by Otto I. The Danes, who suffered from Slavic raids, and even Burgundian, Czech and Polish feudal lords. After the failure in the first Crusade against the Slavs in 1147, Henry the Lion succeeded, as a result of subsequent campaigns to the east, to seize almost the entire territory of the Bodrichi and become the owner of a vast territory east of the Elbe. Thus, from 1160, the possessions of the Slavic princes in Mecklenburg became dependent on the Germans. In 1167, the lands of the Bodrichians, with the exception of the County of Schwerin, were returned to the son of Niklot Pribislav, who converted to Christianity and recognized himself as a vassal of Henry the Lion. In 1171 he founded the Doberan Monastery, provided funds for the Bishopric of Schwerin, and accompanied Henry to Jerusalem in 1172. Christianization was for the German feudal lords only a plausible pretext for theft in the Slavic lands beyond Laba.

The Slavs did not have an organizing policy, which the Germans met in the south - in the former Rome, having adopted Christianity, and in fact assimilating many of the principles by which the Roman Empire was built. Since the second half of the 12th century, the Polabian-Baltic Slavs have been under German citizenship. This meant for them not only the loss of political freedom, their faith and culture, but also their nationality, since those who were not destroyed began to be subjected to increased Germanization, reinforced by the return colonization by the Germans of those areas in which they once lived in the beginning. ad.

From the Oder to the Vistula, those who were named according to their coastal place of residence settled, occupying the territory east of the Oder and up to the border of the Prussian region: Pomeranians.

The exact boundaries of the settlement of the Pomeranians are unknown. The border between the Lyutichs and the Pomeranians ran along the Oder and separated these hostile tribes. After the collapse of the Lutician union, some of the lands of the Luticians west of the Oder passed to the Pomeranians, and the territory of their settlement changed. From the east there were other neighbors - the Prussians. The Prussians crossed the borders of this region only in the 12th century, having conquered the so-called Pomesania, located between the Vistula and the Drwence. In the 13th century, the lands of the Prussians were captured by the Teutonic Order. A massive influx of Lithuanian and Polish population into the region began. As a result, at the beginningXVIII century there was a complete disappearance of the Prussians as a separate nationality. In the south, the border between the Pomeranian and Polish regions was the rivers Warta and Notec, but this is only in name, since the actual border was a vast impenetrable virgin forest. Only along the lower reaches of the Vistula, the Poles advanced in the areas of Kotsev and Chelmno, and soon they began to move towards the sea ...

Pomeranians - this is an alliance of tribes, which included tribes that were significantly different from each other - these are the Kashubians, who occupied the area from the mouth of the Vistula to Zharnovsky Lake, extending to the line of Bytov, Lenbork, Miastko, Ferstnovo, Kamen, and the Slovenes, who settled near Lake Lebskoe. In the west, their lands border on Germany. In the Middle Ages, the Kashubians settled in the western regions of Pomerania, in the basin of the Parsenta River near the town of Kołobrzeg. In the 13th century, western Pomerania was called Kashubia. The Kashubians, descendants of the ancient Pomeranians, currently live on the coast of the Baltic Sea, in the northeastern regions of Poland.

The only Pomeranian language that has survived to this day is Kashubian, the speakers of other Pomeranian languages ​​switched to German. The preservation of the Kashubian language was facilitated by the fact that the part of Pomerania to the west of Gdansk maintained ties with the Polish state and was part of it for a long time. With regard to the language of the Pomeranian Slavs, there is still a dispute whether to attribute it to the Polish language and consider it only as a dialect of the Polish language, or to classify it as a group of independent languages.

Each region included in Pomerania had its own political center - a city, with the territory surrounding it. Further, there were other, smaller, castles.

In the 9th century, some Slavic settlements near the mouth of the Odra, such as Szczecin and Wolin, as well as Kołobrzeg, were transformed into densely built-up settlements surrounded by fortifications, with trading centers in which auctions were held, for example, in Szczecin twice a week. The population - these are artisans, fishermen, merchants, was for the most part free, weighed down only by appropriate tributes and duties in favor of public power. In some places, aliens settled, who enjoyed considerable freedom of action.

Already in the X century. from the fortified points around which many Slavic villages were originally located, cities grew that were the military-administrative centers of individual tribes or their unions: Branibor - the center of the Gavolyan tribe, Retra - the main point of the four Luticic tribes, Mikelin or Mecklenburg - in the land of Obodrites. These cities in the X-XI centuries. conducted a lively trade with Saxony, Denmark, Sweden and Russia, exporting bread, salt and fish. Gradually, handicraft production also developed in the Slavic cities: weaving, pottery, jewelry and construction. Buildings in Slavic cities were distinguished by their beauty, which amazed contemporaries. Numerous cities of the Western Slavs were built of wood, as later in Rus'. The very word "city" meant "enclosed space". Most often, the fence consisted of ditches filled with water, from a stream with a changed course, and ramparts. Shafts are logs sprinkled with earth, into which powerful stakes pointed outwards were inserted.

Such protective structures reached a height of five (and more) meters, the same number - in width. It was these settlements that were excavated by German archaeologists. For example, Thornov on the banks of the Spree. In total, to the west of the Oder, in the lands of the Polabian Slavs, a dozen and a half settlements of the IX-XI centuries were excavated, but this is only an insignificant part of the cities that once existed here.

In the 40s - 60s of the XII century, Pomerania was a federation of Slavic principalities, headed by the Slavic city of Szczecin, whose decisions were significant for other principalities and cities. Szczecin represented the interests of Pomerania before the Polish prince, seeking a reduction in tribute. The supreme body - the People's Assembly - VECHE met in the city, but the Slavic population also participated in it from the rural district of the city. The will of the prince was adamant for all the Pomorians: when the prince of the Pomorians in the winter of 1107-1108, upon meeting with the Polish prince Boleslav Krivousty, approached Boleslav, bowed before him and declared himself a knight and servant loyal to him, the Polish prince, without a single battle, was able to annex almost the whole Principality of Pomerania.

The accession of Pomerania and the Serbo-Lusatian lands contributed to the strengthening of the Slavs in these lands and their further opposition to Germanization. In the 11th-12th centuries, the princes of Pomerania made campaigns against Poland.

Like all Slavs, the basis of the Pomeranian economy was agriculture and cattle breeding, supplemented by forestry, hunting and fishing. Pomeranians sowed millet, rye, wheat, barley, and at the beginning of the Middle Ages - oats. In the 7th-8th centuries, beef dominated the diet, but in the following centuries it was almost completely replaced by pork. Forest and hunting trades were well developed in spacious forests. Many rivers and lakes and the sea contributed to the development of fisheries. In Kołobrzeg, since the 6th-7th centuries, the Pomeranians have been making salt.

Around 1000, the Pomeranian salt pans became famous far beyond the borders of Pomerania. Salt was one of the most important items of trade, both import and export, depending on its availability in a particular Slavic region. There were areas inhabited by the Slavs where there was no salt, but there were areas rich in this mineral, where the salt trade developed. Salt was known to the Indo-Europeans, who had a common name for it, and hence it follows that the Slavs knew and used salt already in the prehistoric era. In what way it was mined in those days, we do not know, since there are no reports about this; perhaps it was obtained, like other northern peoples, by pouring salt water on burning firewood, from which they then collected ashes mixed with salt.

The first reports about the use of salt by the Slavs in food and as an object of trade appear only in the 9th century AD. e.; At that time, the Slavs already used several methods for extracting salt, depending on the conditions of its location. On the coast of the Adriatic, Aegean and Black Seas, ancient salt pans dominated, where water was evaporated in the sun. Water was also evaporated in large iron pans, called sartago in Latin sources, and cheren, cheren in Slavic sources. So far, salt has been produced in this way in Bosnia or in Galicia, where salt-bearing raw materials are dug out of pits. Pieces of salt were removed from the pans like loaves of bread, then these pieces were divided into parts, for which several ancient terms were preserved, for example: head, pile. Boiled salt was an expensive commodity, so the Varangian salt makers were well armed and united to protect their product on the road, which they traded everywhere. Initially, the Varangians were entirely from the Slavs, and later passionate youth from Scandinavia began to be included in their number. The very word "Varangian" meant "salt maker" from the word variti, that is, evaporate-cook salt. Hence the name of the mitten - varega, which was used by salt workers to protect hands from burns, and later the mitten came in handy in the northern regions in winter to protect hands from frost. There is another interpretation of the word "Varangian" - from the meaning in Sanskrit of the word water - "var". In this case, "Varangians" means people living near the water, Pomors.

In the 10th century, long-distance trade flourished there. Free tribes of the Pomeranians by the 10th century A.D. e. gradually merged into larger unions. Pomorie has contacts with almost all European countries. From here, grain was exported to barren Scandinavia, and salted herring was exported to the hinterland of Poland. In addition to ties with Scandinavia, which were supported by the cities of Wolin, Szczecin, Kamen, Kolobrzeg, Gdansk, stable relations are being established with Russia and other Slavic lands, among which the interior Polish regions should be highlighted. In addition, relations are being established with the Prussians, Byzantium, some Arab countries, England and Western Europe. Ties with the Prussians were manifested not only in the appearance of imported Prussian products, but also in the formation of some new cultural features, for example, the spread of metal sheaths of knives, and also, perhaps, in the form of some pagan idols. On the other hand, the Prussians adopted the forms of Pomeranian pottery. The influence of Pomeranian ceramic production also spread to Scandinavia. Large shopping centers Szczecin and Wolin appeared, in which auctions were held, for example, in Szczecin twice a week.

There is a flourishing of local production. Quite early here they began to make amber beads on a lathe. By the 6th or 7th century A find in Tolishchek relates: in an earthenware vessel there were silver rings and beads made of glass, amber and clay, a necklace made of glass beads, and another one made of amber, including polished ones. Excavation materials, for example, in Kołobrzeg-Budzistowa indicate that in the following centuries, work on amber, bone and horn was carried out by the same artisans or in the same workshops.

Metallurgy and blacksmith crafts are developing. The basis for the growth of metallurgy was created by marsh, meadow and partially lacustrine ores. The main centers of iron mining were located mainly in the villages. krytsy (a bloom is a loose, spongy, slag-impregnated iron mass, from which, through various treatments, bloom iron or steel is obtained) were smelted in blast furnaces. Charcoal was used for heating. Raw materials were processed in Gorodishche centers; forges also sprang up there. In the cities of Radashche in Kendrzyno, Wolin, Szczecin, Kolobrzeg and Gdansk, production workshops appeared that produced tin and lead. In the lands of the Slavs, rich deposits of silver were discovered. Among the silver jewelry there are molds that were undoubtedly made in Pomorie.

The territory of free Pomerania passed several times into the power of Poland or Germany, which at that time was part of the Roman Empire. Only in 995 did Pomorie recognize dependence on the Polish prince Boleslav the Brave. At the beginning of the 11th century (1018), Boleslav the Brave annexed Lusitia to Poland, but already in 1034 it again fell under the rule of the Germans. In the same period, for some time, the lands of the Pomeranians again acquire independence. In 1110, the Polish king Boleslaw Krivousty again annexed the Pomeranians, who retained Slavic paganism, to Poland, while the princes of the Pomeranians did not lose their inheritances.

Polish rule over Pomerania did not last long. The Pomeranians resisted the Polish authorities and raised uprisings over and over again, especially since the Poles not only tried to have political power over the Pomeranians, but also to Christianize them, which aroused particular indignation among the latter. In 1005 Volin rebelled, but by 1008 Boleslav managed to restore his power over Pomerania. But as a result of a new uprising of the Volynians after 1014, Poland's position in Pomorie again weakened. The previously founded bishopric in Kolobrzeg was liquidated and the process of Christianization of Pomerania was interrupted.

The accession of Pomerania to Poland in the second half of the 10th century had far-reaching socio-political consequences for these lands. Many castles were destroyed, and some of them, which served as castellan centers in the 12th century, were expanded. In Kołobrzeg, Boleslav the Brave located his main church center. In the 12th century, Bolesław Krivousty managed to subjugate eastern Pomerania with the city of Gdansk to his power, and put the princes of western Pomerania under political dependence. The emerging Pomeranian Principality of Wartislava largely imitated the structure of the Polish Piast monarchy, borrowed many elements of its system, which was manifested in the functioning of the system of tributes and duties, the organization of the court, administration, courts, etc.

From the end of the 13th century, the German feudal lords resumed the consistent seizure of the lands of the Polabian and Pomeranian Slavs, accompanied by their Germanization. In the cities it is forbidden to speak the Slavic language, all office work is translated into German, schools are taught in German, and you can engage in any privileged craft only if you speak German. Such conditions forced the Serbian population to learn the language and culture of the Germans. Slavic dialects are preserved almost exclusively in rural areas. Because of the devastating wars with the Danes, the Pomeranian feudal lords welcomed the settlement of the devastated lands by the Germans. The most active process of Germanization took place in the western lands of the Polabian Slavs. During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), more than 50% of the Serbs died here, as a result of which the distribution area of ​​the Slavs in Germany was significantly reduced. The language of the Slavs and their customs were retained the longest in the Duchy of Mecklenburg and the Hanoverian Wendland.

Western Slavs have long preserved the pagan tradition. It received special development among the inhabitants of the Polish Pomerania. The new king of Poland, Bolesław Wrymouth, realized that in order to join Pomerania to Poland, it was necessary to eliminate religious differences. Bishop Otton of Bamberg volunteered to preach in Pomerania after Boleslav addressed him with this request. The pagans initially show some resistance, but the planting of a new cult is carried out very aggressively, with the use of cruel measures in relation to the adherents of antiquity. After passing through several cities, Otto arrived in Wolin in 1127. Before that, he visited Shchetin. To discuss the issue of accepting Christianity in Szczecin, countless people were convened - pagans from villages and cities. Some of the noble people of the city, who had previously been inclined towards Christianity, decided to expel the pagan priests “from the borders of the fatherland” and follow Otto’s leadership in religion. After that, in Wolin, Otto did not meet any resistance. The city followed the example of Shchetin, as was customary there, and Otto continued on his way. This was the beginning of the Christianization of Pomerania. Among the Pomeranians, it spread along with the adoption of Christianity by Great Moravia and Poland, among the Slavic Slavs - along with the spread of German (Saxon) power. Among the Pomeranians, their dissatisfaction with the Poles was weakened - now they had one religion.

The main sanctuary of the Pomeranians was in Szczecin. There were four continas in the city of Szczecin, but one of them, the main one, was built with amazing diligence and skill. Inside and outside, it had sculptures, images of people, birds and animals protruding from the walls, rendered so appropriately to their appearance that they seemed to be breathing and living. There was also a triple statue here, which had three heads on one body, called Triglav.

Triglav is a three-headed statue whose eyes and mouth are covered with a golden bandage. As the priests of idols explain, the main god has three heads, because he oversees the three kingdoms, that is, heaven, earth and the underworld, and covers his face with a bandage, since he hides the sins of people, as if not seeing or talking about them. They also had other gods. They worshiped Svyatovit, Triglav, Chernobog, Radigost, Zhiva, Yarovit. Temples and groves were dedicated to the gods. Until now, in the lands inhabited by Polabian and Pomeranian Slavs, evidence of pagan culture is found. One of them is the Zbruch idol, as well as the microjin runic stones.

The inhabitants of Kolobreg worshiped the sea as the home of some gods. Like other pagans, the Pomeranians brought sacrifices to the gods. But they did not practice human sacrifice.

All Baltic Slavs had priests. But unlike the Lyutichs and Ruyans, the power and influence of the priests among the Pomeranians were not significant. Important information about the level of medicine of that time is provided by Slavic bodily burials of the 10th-12th centuries. Of greatest interest are the most complex operations on the skull - trepanations. They are also known in much earlier times - for example, skulls with trepanations are also known from the culture of megaliths in the same Mecklenburg. And if their purpose is not completely clear, and it is assumed that they were of a mystical and cult nature, then it is unnecessary to talk about the complexity of such operations. The end of Slavic paganism in Polabye was the destruction of the sanctuary of Svyatovit in Arkona.

In addition to trepanation itself, the Baltic Slavs also know symbolic trepanation. In this case, a part of the skull was not completely removed for the patient, but only the top layer of the bone was cut or scraped off.

It is believed that head wounds could be “treated” in this way. It is most likely that the operations were carried out by pagan priests. There is no direct medieval evidence of such practices among the Slavic priests, but it is known that the priests of the Celts were skilled in such healing. The technique of performing such complex operations as trepanation disappeared immediately with the adoption of Christianity - when the priesthood was destroyed. The Slavs kept the belief that pagan idols could cure diseases. As soon as a plague epidemic broke out in the Pomeranian city of Szczecin, which had just adopted Christianity, the inhabitants of the city perceived it as the revenge of Triglav, whose idol was, shortly before, overthrown by Christians. The wholesale epidemics that have tormented Europe since the Middle Ages are directly connected with the fact that, along with the destruction of paganism in Europe, the medical knowledge of priests accumulated over thousands of years was lost.

The Polabian and Pomeranian Slavs are by now almost completely assimilated by the German and Polish peoples. Of the numerous tribes that inhabited the vast territories of Polabya ​​in the 6th - 11th centuries AD, now only Lusatians (Federal Republic of Germany) and Kashubians (Polish Republic) associate themselves with the Slavs. Currently, Western Pomerania is part of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the rest is Polish territory.

The Pomeranians are Polabian Slavs, Brezhane, Pomeranians, Kashubians, Kabatki, Lebsky Slovintsy, Ruyan (Rugi) - residents of the island of Ruyan-Ryugen (epic Buyan) and the southern coast of the Baltic. Ruyan Island is known to us from Russian fairy tales as the epic Buyan Island - “... past the Buyan Island to the kingdom of the glorious Saltan ...”. The Pomeranians, as a Slavic ethnic group, formed on the territory of Pomerania (the Germans, distorting the Slavic name of the land of Pomerania, say “Pomerania”), extending from the mouth of the Vistula River in the east and further west beyond the mouth of the Vodra (Odra) River, including the lands south of the island of Ruyan- Rügen and the island itself, to the former lands of the Bodrichi Slavs.

Today, 500,000 people in Poland call themselves Pomeranians-Kashubians (according to the newspaper "Slavyane", Viktor Yunak, 1993), who have preserved the Slavic language of the Pomeranians and the Catholic faith in conditions of total Germanization.

The ethnonym “Kashubians” has an ancient origin, in the Middle Ages the residence of the Kashubians extended to the more western regions of Pomerania, including the basin of the Parsenta River near the town of Kolobrzeg. In the 13th century, western Pomerania was also called Kashubia, and the Pomeranian princes titled themselves princes of Kashubia.

Perhaps the Pomeranians themselves called themselves Kashubians from ancient times, it is also very likely that the Kashubians are the ancient name of one of the Pomeranian tribes, whose name spread to other Pomeranian tribes as a common ethnonym at an early stage of their consolidation.

In the 6th-10th centuries in Pomorie among the Slavs there were numerous small tribes Pyzhichan, Volinyan, Vyzhychan, etc. The preservation of small tribes was due to the property of the Slavs to settle and live along the banks of rivers. And the rivers are mostly shallow in Pomorie and flow into the Baltic Sea, which determined the preservation of small tribes that did not unite into large tribal unions as a result of the lack of a reliable relationship. The settlements of the Pomeranians were concentrated mainly in the low-lying coastal zone, on fertile soils, in some places black earth.

In the second half of the 11th - early 12th centuries, the Pomeranians reached the swampy wide Notetsi valley. But gradually the Pomeranians began to unite into larger tribal unions, one is the basins of the rivers Reg and Parsenta - the union of seven tribes. The settlement unit in it were large settlements. The second alliance of tribes - between the rivers Vepzha and the lower Vistula, which consisted of 8 tribes, the main form of defensive settlements of which were small settlements. The Pomeranians did not differ from the Slavic inhabitants of the hinterland of Poland in the main ways of obtaining food.

Like all Slavs, the basis of the Pomeranian economy was agriculture and cattle breeding, supplemented by forestry, hunting and fishing. The Pomeranians sowed primarily millet, rye, wheat, barley, and at the beginning of the Middle Ages, oats as well. In the 7th and 8th centuries, beef dominated the diet, but in the following centuries it was almost completely replaced by pork.

Forest and hunting trades were well developed in spacious forests. In the 11th and 12th centuries, game began to occupy a significant place in the diet in some places. The presence of many rivers and lakes, the proximity of the sea, contributed to the development of fishing. In Kołobrzeg, already from the 6th-7th centuries, the Pomeranians were engaged in the preparation of salt; around the year 1000, the Pomeranian salt pans became famous far beyond the borders of Pomerania.

Starting from the turn of the 8th-9th centuries, the specificity of Pomorie favored the broad development of commodity exchange, which contributed to the dynamic development of local production. From here, grain was exported to barren Scandinavia, and salted herring was exported to the hinterland of Poland. The development of the local market is evidenced by the relatively dense network of auctions in the 12th century, which were held, for example, in Szczecin twice a week.

During the 9th century, some Slavic settlements near the mouth of the Odra, such as Szczecin and Wolin, as well as Kolobrzeg, were transformed into regular, densely built-up settlements surrounded by fortifications, inhabited by artisans, fishermen and merchants. This population was for the most part free, weighed down only by tributes and duties in favor of public authority. In some places, newcomers settled, who enjoyed considerable freedom.

Some territorial unions eventually acquired a more "urban" than "tribal" character (Wolin, Szczecin, and others). This allows us to call the political unions of the Pomeranians at the mouth of the Odra (Vodra) “urban republics”. The resistance of the Pomeranians to the Polish state of the Piasts can be explained by the presence of a strong power of their nobility, who were engaged in trade and sea robbery.

The Polish state was formed on the banks of the Vodra-Odra River (from the word “water”) and its tributaries, and therefore the Polish princes were concerned about mastering the mouth of the Vodra River. Due to the geographical position of the young Polish state, this was of significant economic and political importance for obtaining a reliable outlet to the sea. Therefore, Prince Meshko I in 972 began the struggle for mastering the mouth of the Odra.

In 990-992, the borders of the Polish state reached the shores of the Baltic (Vendian) Sea through Vodra. But already in the 30s of the 11th century, during the crisis of the Piast monarchy, the Pomeranians gained independence. Boleslav the Bold lost dominion over the Pomeranians. Due to resistance from the inhabitants of the Pomeranian cities, the Polish princes began to look for access to the sea elsewhere, for this the territory of Gdansk was increased in the area of ​​the mouth of the Vistula at the end of the 10th century.

The accession of Pomerania to Poland in the second half of the 10th century had far-reaching socio-political consequences for these lands. Many castles were destroyed, and some of them, which served as castellan centers in the 12th century, were expanded. In Kołobrzeg, Boleslav the Brave located his main church center. In the 12th century, Bolesław Krivousty managed to subjugate eastern Pomerania with the city of Gdansk to his power, and put the princes of western Pomerania in political dependence. The emerging Pomeranian Principality of Wartislava largely imitated the structure of the Polish Piast monarchy, borrowed many elements of its system, which was manifested in the functioning of the system of tributes and duties, the organization of the court, administration, courts, etc.

The settlement of the lands of Northern (Novgorod) Rus' by the Slavs did not proceed, as historians had previously believed, from the lower Dnieper region, but from the western Slavic lands, from the southern coast of the Baltic Sea: from the lands of the Pomeranians - Pomerania, and from the lands of the obodrites - Wendland (lands of the Veneds).

Two waves of Slavs moved from the southern shores of the Baltic Sea to the east: the Krivichi, who founded Smolensk, Polotsk, Vitebsk, Pskov, and the Slovenes, who founded Novgorod (as a continuation of Stargorod-Oldenburg) and settled in the Upper Volga region. The Slovene-Slovenes who settled in Northern Rus' are known as the Ilmenian Slovenes. They brought with them from Pomorie the system of democracy - the people's veche (Veche Novgorod) and the system of the city republic. At that time, Scandinavian Vikings called the Novgorod Lands the country of cities - Gradarika. Radimichi and Vyatichi, according to archaeological and other data, "came from the Poles." As it is now established, many tribes of the Slavs were not natives of Eastern Europe, but penetrated into it by the 8th century, populating the basin of the rivers of Lake Ilmen and the Dnieper region.

Baltic Pomorania was a union of aristocratic republics of the Slavs. The basis of the pagan folk religion of the Polabian Slavs was the belief in the main heavenly god - the Lord of the World, as well as other gods - his children and grandchildren. The Byzantine historian Procopius wrote in the 6th century about Slavic beliefs: “The Slavs recognize one God, the creator of lightning, as the only Lord of everything and sacrifice bulls and all sorts of gifts to him ... They also worship rivers and nymphs and some other deities ... ".

Temples and groves were dedicated to the gods. The eldest of the gods-children of the Lord of the World was called Svyatovit. Svyatovit was depicted with three heads - Triglav. There was also a god of hell - Chernobog. The goddess of life Zhiva, the god of fertility Radigost and the patron saint of warriors Yarovit were revered. Radigost was worshiped in Radigoshcha - the city of rotaries. A temple in Velegoshcha was dedicated to Yarovit. All these deities were common to most Slavic tribes.

In addition to them, there were other idols, which were worshiped only by individual tribes, clans and families. The complex areopagus of the gods of the Baltic Slavs included Svarog, Dazhdbog - the son of Svarog, Stribog, Zhiva, Radigost, Yarovit, Shakes, Ruevit, Morena, Ranovit, Prano - Perun, Chernobog, Belbog. However, Svetovit was considered the supreme deity of all Slavic tribes (Svyatovit - “Holy Light” or “Holy Light”).

The magnificent temple of Svetovit was located on the island of Ruyan (Ryugen) in the city of Arkona. Svyatovit was a statue of an idol larger than human growth with four heads.

On the coast, in the cities of Szczecin and Wolin, there were Triglavs - idols with three heads, there was an idol and five-headed. Later, with the intensification of the German-Scandinavian expansion, Svejatovit became the main god of war, a mythological symbol of resistance - with a goblet and a hunting bow in his hands and a later saddle, a bridle and a fighting sword beside him.

In addition to the stone four-faced Zbruch idol, there were also many-headed gods among the Slavs who lived on the island of Ruyan (Rügen) and on the Baltic coast. Svetovit in the city of Arkona is a large idol, surpassing human height, with four heads. In another city of Ruyan - Korenitsa - there were 3 temples, of which in one there was a huge idol of the god Runevit, with seven faces, seven swords in a sheath were tied to his side on one belt. In another temple there was an idol of Porevit with five heads, and in the third one there was an idol of Porenut with four faces, and the fifth face was on the chest.

The most important in Pomorie was Triglav, whose idols were in Szczecin, Wolin and other places. In Branibor (Brandenburg) there was also a three-headed idol. All this shows how close the ancient Slavic religion was to the religion of the Aryans, who migrated from European Russia to India. The ethnonym of the Aryans many millennia ago meant "PAHARI", and then became the name of the ruling people of India. The word ARIA-plowman has a similar meaning for all Balto-Slavic peoples: in Lithuanian plow - arti, ariu, plowman - arijas, Latvian art, ar'u, Serbo-Croatian - orati, Polish - orac, Czech - orati, Old Russian - orati , in modern Russian there is an expression “let's beat swords into plowshares”, a tool for tillage, etc. In India, the word aryia acquired the meaning of noble, faithful.

In the 9th century, large fortified settlements existed in Pomerania (Szczecin, Wolin, Kolobrzeg) with dense regular buildings, as centers of political associations. Trade and craft activities were developed, and the name of the island of Usedom indicates that the Pomeranians actively mastered the Baltic - Vendian Sea in their navigation and, sailing, they said ALREADY HOME.

Since the 10th century, there has been a political association with the center in the city of Volyn, whose inhabitants are called Volynians. In 1046, together with the rulers of Poland - Prince Casimir and the Czech Republic - Prince Bzhetislav, Prince Zemuzil of Pomerania, came to Emperor Henry III. It is assumed that the Pomeranian Slavs and their land - Pomerania - were called by their southern neighbors the Slavs of Poland, this name was adopted by the Pomeranians themselves, while retaining another ethnonym - the Kashubians.

In the 11-12 centuries, the princes of Pomerania made campaigns against Poland, by the 20s of the 12th century, the vast Slavic lands of the Lyutichs beyond Odra (Vodra) became part of Pomerania. The will of the prince was adamant for all the Pomorians, when the prince of the Pomorians in the winter of 1107-1108, upon meeting with the Polish prince Boleslav Krivousty, approaching Boleslav, bowed before him and declared himself a knight and servant loyal to him, then the Polish prince was then able to annex within 5 weeks almost the entire principality - Pomerania - without a single battle.

In 1110, the Polish king Boleslav Krivousty annexed the Pomeranians, who retained Slavic paganism, to Poland, while the Pomeranian princes did not lose their inheritances.

In the 40-60s of the 12th century, Pomerania was a federation of Slavic principalities, headed by the Slavic city of Szczecin, whose decisions were significant for other principalities and cities. The inhabitants of Wolin said that they would accept Christianity if Szczecin did so. Szczecin also represented the interests of Pomerania before the Polish prince, seeking a reduction in tribute.

Each region included in Pomorie had its own political center - a city, with the territory surrounding it, on which other, smaller cities were located. The supreme body - the People's Assembly VECHE - met in the city, but the Slavic population from the rural district of the city also participated in it. So, to discuss the issue of accepting Christianity in Szczecin, countless people were convened - pagans from villages and towns.

In the 12th century, the Pomeranians developed their own nobility from people who had their own squads, who owned ships on which they were engaged in trade and piracy, who had rich estates where prisoners and debtors worked. The nobility constituted a special body - a council, at which she decided some issues, and discussed others beforehand before taking them to the assembly.

The priests were part of the council even when the issue of changing religion was discussed. In Szczecin, pagan temples were the place where the nobility arranged their feasts, here the nobles drank from goblets kept in the temple treasury. Priests became members of noble families, which ensured the unity of interests of the nobility and the priesthood. Here the cult of the main deity - the patron of the earth - occupied a central place in public life. The temples kept the treasury, which consisted of offerings and spoils of war and was a common property.

The society of the Pomeranians can be described as an "urban republic", but still the VECHE remained the supreme body of the Pomeranians. Veche was convened spontaneously, and its decisions were carried out by everyone. And in 1126, during the epidemic, and in 1128 in Vologosh, where the inhabitants decided to preserve paganism, although the nobility agreed to the introduction of Christianity. The nobility did not have sufficient military power to subordinate the participants to the veche to their will, when the entire free population of the city and the surrounding area could participate in the veche.

The Principality of the Pomeranians - Pomorania - was a federation of lands - small principalities, each of which did not exceed the size necessary for participation in the activities of the veche of the entire population. The supreme prince of the Pomeranians had at his disposal a significant squad: in 1124, Prince Vartislav met missionaries, accompanied by several hundred soldiers, as the missionaries wrote about.

The princely center was located in the city of Kamen, the prince's wife and his concubines lived there permanently, combatants were baptized, the princely possessions and their managers were also located there. Although there was a veche in Kamen, it was ruled by princely power: the decision to adopt a new cult was made here at the suggestion of the prince's wife, even before the arrival of the missionaries.

A similar center of the prince was in Uznam (Usedom). The prince acted as a military leader and supreme head of Pomerania in relations with neighboring Slavic states: his “kiss of peace” with Boleslav Krivousty sealed the peace treaty between Poland and Pomerania. In the princely courts, the Pomeranians who committed offenses could find refuge from their persecutors. The prince could perform these functions only insofar as his policy coincided with the interests of the nobility.

In 1124, during the first trip of Otto of Bamberg to Pomerania, the prince supported the Christian mission, but the main Pomeranian cities of Szczecin and Wolin refused to accept the new religion. The prince was not even able to ensure the safety of the missionaries stationed in the prince's courts, let alone influence the decisions of the people's assemblies in the largest cities. In 1128, during the war between Szczecin and Prince Vartislav, Szczecin's troops ravaged the prince's possessions. The Supreme Prince of the Pomorians was only a military, and to some extent political, head of the federation in Pomorie, but by no means its ruler. The structure of Pomeranian society is fundamentally similar to the political structure of the Swedish lands in the 9th-11th centuries.

The situation was different on the lands to the west of the Vodra (Odra) River, the lands of the Lutich Slavs: through the penyans, dolenzyans, redares, since here the power of the prince was stronger, since these lands were annexed as a result of military expansion, which was led by princely power. The question of the adoption of Christianity in the new lands was decided at a general meeting of the nobility (former Lutiches) and governors of the cities, convened by the prince in his possession - Uznoim (Usedom). The Veche of Vologoshcha, a large city, decided to preserve paganism and not let Christian missionaries in, but the decision had to be changed when the prince approached the city with soldiers.

In the 50-60s of the 12th century, Ratibor, brother of Vartislav, and his successors granted the first monasteries in Pomerania in Stolp and Grobe small land holdings, income from various travel duties and fees from trading in taverns, salt pans, as well as the right to fish in different parts of Pomerania. The papal bull of 1140 to the bishopric of Pomerania confirmed its rights to property and income. In Pomorie, the most important source of income for the ruling class was the centralized exploitation of the free Slavic population. An innovation in the second half of the 12th century was the right of princes to mint coins.

The prince of Pomerania was officially named as the prince of the Pomorians and Luticians, and in the princely charters of the 13th century, Pomerania is referred to as SLAVIA, this indicates the consolidation of the Pomeranians and Luticians on the basis of the recognition of a common Slavic origin and the need to oppose Pomerania, as a special Slavic state, to neighboring principalities that were subjected to Scandinavian German expansion.

An extract from the letter of 1159 on the income of Prince Ratibor in Pomerania and his wife Pribyslava speaks of the lands subject to the prince: “In the Vanclav region, the village of Grobno, the fortress of Uznoima, the fortress of Szczecin; on the Odra River, the village of Chelekhova, the fortress of Vydukhov, the rivers Tekmenitsa and Kremenitsa, the village of Dozhbyagora; Slovinskaya region: Kamena fortress, Pustikhova village; Kolobrezh region: the villages of Poblota and Svelyuba, the town of Radov, the Persanta river, the fortress of Belgrade”.

In 1168, the Danish king Valdemar I, who received the name in honor of his great-grandfather Vladimir Monomakh, and who made about twenty campaigns against the Baltic Slavs, broke into the fortress of the Slavic island of Ruyan (Rügen) the city of Arkona, destroyed the temple - the sanctuary of the Slavic god Svyatovit, and destroyed his statue. Later, the Swedes came to the island of Ruyan, followed by the Germans. In 1177, the Danes and Saxons subjugate the lands of the Slavs of Pomerania.

But still, echoes of the former Slavic-speaking of the local population of the island of Ruyan-Ryugen, traces of ancient beliefs that deified nature, have survived to this day. For example, at Cape Gergen (Mountain) there is a huge granite cliff Buskahm - God's Stone, there is the tract Swantegara - the Holy Mountain, at the mouth of the Divenova River the village of Swantust - the Holy Mouth; and today on Rügen-Ruyan, Slavic concepts sound in the names of the towns - Poseritz - Poozeritz, Gustov, Medov ... - all this says that the local population gradually became German-speaking, retaining their former native names, and if there was a complete change of the population, then the former names not preserved - there would be no one to remember them.

The memory of the Slavic character of the island of Ruyan-Rügen-Buyan and the former hegemony of the Slavs in the Baltic-Vendian Sea was also preserved in the legends of the Slavs who moved to Novgorod-Kiev Rus', and every Russian remembers the words of A.S. Pushkin: “And the path lies far for us, past the island of Buyan to the kingdom of the glorious Saltan ... ". The island of Ruyan (Rügen) occupies an area of ​​almost 1000 square kilometers, its chalk cliffs look out to the sea, its entire coast is indented with deep and secluded bays and coves, in which it was so convenient to hide the boats of the Slavic Varangians.

The very word “Varangian” meant “salt maker” from the word variti, that is, to evaporate-cook salt. Hence the name of the mitten - varega, which was used by salt workers to protect hands from burns, and later the mitten came in handy in the northern regions in winter to protect hands from frost. There is another interpretation of the word "Varangian" - from the meaning in Sanskrit of the word water - "var". In this case, "Varangians" means people living near the water, Pomors. One does not contradict the other, since the concept of “cook” is to boil in water, and the word “var” itself is water, words of the same root.

Boiled salt was an expensive commodity, so the Varangian salt makers were well armed and united to protect their product on the road, which they traded everywhere. Initially, the Varangians were entirely from the Slavs, and later passionate youth from Scandinavia began to be included in their number, later the close-knit Varangians joined the struggle for hegemony in the lands of the Eastern Slavs.

The Varangians-Slavs often had mixed naval squads with the Scandinavian Vikings and made joint long-distance sea voyages to Britain, France, Arab Spain and other lands. The same thing often happened in the lands of Novgorod-Kievan Rus, where the Varangians and Vikings organized joint campaigns against Constantinople and made up the military elite of the princely squad.

As long as the Slavic ethnic group KASHUBI-Pomeranians exists in Poland, no one can present Poland with a claim to a part of this Slavic land - Pomerania. But there is danger, in the German constitution there is Article 116, according to which it is supposed to annex the Slavic lands to Germany: Pomerania, Silesia and Prussia, as already happened on October 3, 1990 with the land of the Lusatian Serbs-Lusatians Lusatia (Lausitz). Slavic land - Puddle - is not recognized as a territory that has the right to preserve integrity, at least as part of one of the lands of Germany. After all, Lusatia was included in Germany as the Lusatian mark. So that one could say to the journalist E. Wiibe from the radio station "Deutsche Welle" (DW) that "the Lusatians have their own statehood and administrative unit within Germany."

The Polabian-Pomeranian (or Baltic) Slavs once lived in the northern parts of modern central Europe - along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea and along the rivers Laba, Solava, Odra, Hobol, as well as along the lower reaches of the Vistula. Here you can find rare, sometimes unique, and I hope really interesting materials about these peoples. Many of the data presented on the site for someone can be a real revelation. However, they are absolutely true and correct. And we see one of our goals - so that you, personally, can be convinced of this. Among other things, our resource contains information about the very close relationship of the Baltic Slavs with the Russian people, especially with the northern Russians. To some, this may come as a surprise, but it's also true nonetheless.

In addition, we publish, apparently one of the first, almost unexplored, but nevertheless extremely eloquent (even in the very first approximation) toponymic (comparing geographical names) arguments of the close relationship of Russian and Baltic Slavs. The coincidences between the names of the Polabsko-Pomeranian lands and Russia are often truly stunning! The site also presents some thoughts and observations about why such vivid, important and key information about our history is so disastrously little known, not only to the general public, but also to "professionals". Although, in recent years, there has been a tendency to disseminate this information in the widest circles. It can no longer be simply denied or hushed up. Which, of course, is very encouraging. We invite you to familiarize yourself with these data. It is very possible that you will learn something completely new for yourself! Before you is something that, through the efforts of some unscrupulous and biased historians of past times, was completely artificially kept secret! This is our ancient history!

The Baltic, Polabian-Pomeranian Slavs in antiquity and the Middle Ages lived in the lands located along the southern coast of the Baltic - which are currently divided between Poland and Germany. In the illustration, the dotted line roughly indicates the area inhabited by these tribes. And also the modern German federal lands and Polish voivodeships, partially or completely located in their lands, are indicated.

At one time, the Slavic peoples lived along the entire southern coast of the Baltic - approximately from the modern German city of Kiel to the very mouth of the Vistula River. And also along the banks of the Odra (Vodra, Oder) and Elbe (Laba) rivers with their tributaries - such as the Saale (Solava), Pree (Spreva), Havel (Khobola or Gavola), Iker (Ukra), Neisse (Nysa or Nizha ), Pene (Foam), etc. A large Slavic population, in the early Middle Ages, also lived in Scandinavia - and in Norway, and in Sweden, and in Denmark. Composing there, at least, a very significant diaspora. But the center of their lands was precisely the southern coast of the Baltic Sea.

Politically, the Pomeranian and Polabian Slavs represented several rather large military-tribal unions - Obodrites, Lyutichs, Lusatians and Pomeranians. According to German chroniclers and Catholic preachers who visited their lands, some of them were ruled by their own kings (who had full power and inherited rulers - in contrast to the "leaders", "princes" or "dukes", who had relatively limited power and received it from kings or emperors, or were elected for a time by the people themselves). In particular, Obodrites and the inhabitants of the island of Rugen - Ruyan had their own kings.

The most western of these unions was the union of the Obodrites - it included the tribes of the Obodrites themselves, as well as the Vagrs, or Varnas, Drevans, Linyans (or Clayans), Smolyans and Polabs. Their lands stretched from modern Kiel and Lübeck (Lubica) to Schwerin (Zwerin), Wismar and Rostock. Their capitals were Starigard (Oldenburg), Rerik and Velegard.

Ramparts of Starigard, the capital of one of the Obodrite tribes, which the Germans called "Varnas", "Vagpy", apparently, in fact, simply, the same "Varangians". Now the city is called Oldenburg, literally "Old Fortress" - this name is a German tracing paper from the Slavic original version. The city is located on the Wagria peninsula, in the land of Schleswig-Holstein. This is the same city that was mentioned by one of the famous German descriptions of the Pomeranian Slavs, Adam of Bremensky, as the capital of the Wagris, "Aldinburg" (which literally also means "Old Fortress").

A little to the east and south of them lived the Lutichi (they are also Wilts). The composition of their union included the tribes of Chezhepenyan, Rezan, Dolechan, Redar, and sometimes Sprevan, Stodoryan, Morichan and Gavolyan. Their lands were located on the territory from modern Rostock and Neubrandenburg to the Oder, and in the south - to modern Berlin and Brandenburg on the Havel (Branibor). One of the capitals of the Lyutichs was the famous Retra, also known as Radegoshch, or Radogoshch, located in the lands of the Redars, in the area of ​​Dolenskoye Lake (now Tollensee), in which the temple of Radegast was located.

"Arkona, Retra, Vineta". Medieval German sources report that Retra was the most famous and glorious fortress in the land of the Redari. It housed the temple of Radegast, one of the most revered Slavic gods. It is known that it was 3 days from her to Hamburg. The fortress was also called "Three-horned Radegast". (Translation of the name mentioned in the German source. The original Slavic version, most likely, looked like "Three-horned Radegogsh".) She bore such a name because of her three towers. Retra was a typical medieval northern European wooden fortress. The figure shows two rows of walls on a hill, on the lake, three towers and a temple. According to one version, Retra stood on Castle Hill near the modern village of Prillwitz (Prillwitz, the Slavic name for Prilojtse).

In the 17th century, a treasure was found in this village, consisting of many cast figurines, as well as other items, apparently, of a cult purpose. True, a little later, all of them were proclaimed by some German officials who “investigated” the circumstances of the find as “fake”. At present, these figurines are still officially considered fake, although this “conclusion” was very harshly criticized by some researchers, even at the time of the very “investigation” that led to this kind of “conclusion”. A truly scientific study of these figurines, including radiocarbon analysis, has never been done. To date, the Castle Hill in Prilwitz has not been preserved; it was demolished by order of the German authorities. At the same time, according to another version, Retra was located in the same place, not far from Prilwitz, but a little to the east - in the town of Feldberg. On the shore of Lake Lutsin (Luzino). Schuhardt mentions both options in his book. Moreover, near Feldberg, he discovered a large settlement, described and photographed its ramparts, the stone foundations of the walls, and also drew up a detailed diagram.

Even further south lived Lusatians (they are also Lusatian Serbs). Their union included the tribes of the Lusatians, Serbs, Milchans, Nishans, Glomachs, Susuls, Plonyas and Zharovyans, and sometimes also the Sprevans and Gavolians (Khobolyans) bordering on the Lyutichs. They lived south of modern Berlin, through Leipzig (Lipsk), Dresden (Drezhdzhany) and Erfurt (Yarobrod), to the north of modern Bavaria. In the east, the Lusatians occupied the banks of the Odra and the Neisse (Nizha), bordering there with the Slensians, Beavers and Lubushans - western Slavic tribes, which later formed the population of the Duchy of Silesia. From the south, the Lusatian Serbs bordered on the Czechs. Another union of the Polabian-Pomeranian Slavs were the Pomeranians themselves, who lived in Pomerania - from the mouth of the Odra and the modern city of Szczecin to Gdansk, standing at the mouth of the Vistula. Their union, in addition to the Pomeranians themselves, included the tribes of the Ukrainians, Slovintsy, Volhynians and Pyrychans. Their cities were Wolgast (Vologoshch), Kolobrzeg (Kolobreg), Bialogard (Belgard), Gdansk, Szczecin (Shtetyno), Stargard, Slavno, Kamen and the famous Wolin (during an earthquake at the beginning of the 14th century, unfortunately, it went to the bottom of the sea) . On the borders of their lands there was also a small settlement of Bydgoszcz, which later became a large and famous city. In the south, the Pomeranians bordered on the Polish tribes, and later on the Polish kingdom.

Standing apart among the Polabian-Pomeranian Slavs were the inhabitants of the sacred island of Ruyany (modern Rügen) - the Ruyans (they are wound, rugii, rens, rutens, or, apparently, just Russ). They did not obey anyone and, sometimes, they themselves dictated their will to the surrounding tribes. It was in their lands, in the north of the island of Rügen, that one of the most important Slavic pagan shrines was located - the fortress of Arkona with the temple of Sventovita.

Arkona. The remains of the outer ramparts of the ancient Slavic fortress are visible. A significant part of the chalk cape on which the fortress stands (including the inner ramparts, as well as the territory enclosed by them) unfortunately, over the past centuries, as a result of landslides and earthquakes, has collapsed into the water. Only in the XX century there were 2 serious landslides.

There, on the island, was the capital of the Ruyans - the city of Korenitsa. In addition to this island, the Ruyans also owned lands on the mainland - in the neighborhood of Rügen, including the lands of the Khizhan tribe. The Ruyans, in particular, belonged, at one time, to the city of Stralsund (Strelovo).

Neighboring with the Polabian and Pomeranian Slavs, the Germans, for a long time, since the Middle Ages, called them all, in a generalized way, "Wends". The same word, the Germans now, sometimes, use in relation to the descendants of the Pomeranian and Polabian Slavs. The Germans used it in relation to almost all the Slavs of central and western Europe, including the tribes living in Austria, Bavaria, as well as to the Slavic peoples of Silesia, moreover, they sometimes even called the Slovaks that way. In general, with this word, the Germans called all the Slavs neighboring them, except, perhaps, the Czechs and Poles. In the Middle Ages, the word "Vendi" was also used to refer to the Western and Northern Slavs by the British, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians and some other non-Slavic peoples neighboring them.

At present, of all these tribes and peoples, only a handful of Lusatian Serbs (in modern Germany) and the rest of the Pomors - Kashubians (in Poland) continue to exist, without completely dissolving among their neighbors. All the rest of their brethren over the past centuries, unfortunately, either became Germanized or became Polonized. However, many of them, having once moved to the territory corresponding to the current northwestern Russia, played a very significant role in the formation of the modern Russian people.

Modern Lusatians (or in other words, Serbs, Lusatian Serbs) live in the east of modern Germany in Lusatia - a small area that remains from their original range. It is located in the lands of "Saxony" and "Brandenburg", and "sandwiched" between Dresden and Berlin on the one hand, and Poland on the other. This region itself is divided into Gornaya and Dolnaya Puddles. Dolnaya is located within the modern "Brandenburg", mountainous within the limits of "Saxony".

The Lusatians are unique in that they are the last original inhabitants of Germany who still remember that they are Slavs. And, albeit in a very small area, they retained their own identity and culture. And this despite the centuries of military and political domination of the Germans and the policy of assimilation often carried out against them. (Which the Germans sometimes tried to do even by force). The current remnants of the Lusatian Serbs are, in fact, the last inhabitants of our original, once purely Slavic, lands in the center of Europe, who still have not agreed to become Germans. Although modern Lusatians are people who are very strongly integrated into the German people. However, they remember their origin and are proud of it.

In the VIII-XIII centuries of the new era, in the northern and eastern - previously purely Slavic, lands of modern Germany, as well as in other, neighboring territories, wars were constantly going on. The fact is that the German Empire, created in the south according to a new, at first simply Western Christian, and then actually Catholic model, was trying to gain a foothold in the Slavic lands of Polabye and Pomerania by military means. In total, the local Slavs resisted it with weapons in their hands, for about 500 years! Apparently, these were the longest in the history of mankind, on the one hand, the conquest, and on the other, the defense of any land.

Charlemagne began attempts at a German invasion, who intended to annex all neighboring tribes to his state - both German (such as the Saxons and Thuringians) and Slavic. It was he who founded the city of Hamburg on the borders with the Obodrites. Charles made an alliance with the Obodrites, who at first collaborated with the German Empire, hoping for help in the fight against the Lutichs. Karl, protecting them, really sent his troops against the Luticians. He first tried to seize the lands of the Lusatian Serbs. It began at the end of the 8th century. Although wars, border skirmishes and clashes between the Polabian tribes and the German early state formations, of course, happened before that. For example, at the beginning of the 7th century, or rather, in 631, the prince of the Lusatian Serbs, Dervan, defeated the troops of the Frankish king Dagobert. But the centralized imperial policy of conquering and annexing these lands begins precisely from the era of Charles. Interestingly, the army sent by him to conquer the Lusatians was defeated by the German tribe of the Saxons, who, at that time, together with the Slavs, fought against joining the empire of Charles and against forced baptism.

However, in the end, all independent German tribes in the region were defeated and enslaved. Including the Saxons. By order of Charles, their sacred groves were cut down. And they themselves were baptized by Western priests. The same thing happened with Turings. Thus, the lands of the Slavs in this region remained the only unsubdued territory, the only target for the organized offensive of the young Christian German Empire. Which began to wage constant wars with them.

At first they went with varying degrees of success. The Germans attacked and, if they won some kind of local victory in some kind of battle, they declared some land conquered, established their own special administrative imperial unit there - the “mark” (from the word “mark” - “sign”). For example, Iker Mark (Ukrian Mark) or Lauzitzer Mark (Lusatian Mark), Meissen Mark (Meissen Mark), Nord Mark (Northern Mark), Slaven Mark (Slavic Mark), etc. Well, different “Ostmark” or “Ostermark” (Eastern marks), as well as all kinds of Neumarks (New marks) in different places and at different times, in the Slavic, including Polabian and Pomeranian lands, quite a lot was founded. Some of these stamps were rather small - not more than a district (like the Ukrian stamp), some quite large (like the brand, and later the Margraviate of Brandenburg). In total, there were (or still exist) several dozens of such areas, called "marks". And by the way, even the future Austria itself, although a little to the south of the region of interest to us, but all the same, on the lands of the Slavs (Horutan-Slovenes) at one time, under Charlemagne, was founded exactly as "Ostmark" - "Eastern brand". It was one of the first "Oriental stamps".

The Germans also taxed the local residents of the "subjugated" regions with a tax (tribute). In addition, they usually established a bishopric, or other ecclesiastical authority. Then a Slavic uprising took place, or Slavic detachments came, and the Germans were expelled from the captured place, and their garrisons and Latin preachers were destroyed. The independence that followed this liberation could last fifty, seventy, one hundred, and even more, years. But in the end it all happened again. The Germans, having accumulated strength, attacked again. It happened that they were again, and immediately, rebuffed, but if they captured some kind of fortress, town, or region, then again they “founded” some kind of German settlement in its place (for example, on the site of Ratibor - “Ratzeburg”, on in the place of Drezdzhan - "Dresden", in the place of Branibor - "Brandenburg", in the place of Lipsk - Leipzig, in the place of Ljubica - "Lübeck"). Further, they again “called” the district “the mark of such and such”, or “the bishopric of such and such” - they established the central imperial and church authorities, and set up a church there. There are a lot of such examples in the history of wars for the Polabian lands. This was repeated everywhere - among the Obodrites, and among the Lusatian Serbs, and among the Ruyans, and among the Lyutichs.

Some German cities, marks and bishoprics were thus, in fact, "founded" in the Slavic lands several times. At the same time, in the future, already in modern times, when writing German history, the date of foundation of a particular German administrative unit in the Slavic lands, by German historians, was often announced precisely the first surviving date - when the Germans managed to gain a foothold in some area for some time . Although, in fact, after that, they could lose control over this territory several times, and for a very long time. But German laudatory texts written in modern times often do not take into account and do not mention this.

Slavic rati also, at first, often went on retaliatory campaigns against the Germans. The German documents recorded numerous attacks by the Slavs on German cities and monasteries, the looting and destruction of German settlements and churches, and the hijacking of German prisoners. For example, the city of Hamburg alone, in the course of these wars, was burned down by obodrites more than fifteen times. In this form, the situation has developed for more than one century. But, in the end, the Slavic armed resistance is gradually fading away and, moreover, is changing, transforming into only intra-imperial feudal skirmishes between various landlords, dukes, margraves, princes, bishops and other vassals of the German emperor - when a significant part of the nobility of the Slavs of Pomerania and Polabya ​​accepts the citizenship of the German emperor, receives imperial titles from him, and gradually turns into an ordinary nobility of the medieval German empire.

The fact is that the Germans went to these lands all the same with a certain, new policy for those times, trying to create de facto provinces of their empire there. The Slavs, in spite of the fact that they sometimes acted militarily very successfully, fought in the old fashioned way, at the level of conflicts and wars usual for those places - for booty or tribute.

The Slavs did not have an organizing policy, which the Germans met in the south - in the former Rome, having adopted Christianity, and actually assimilating many of the principles by which the Roman Empire was built (it was not for nothing that the founder of the German Empire Otto I - during whose time the Germans also fought in Pomorie and Polabier, called his state "Holy Roman Empire" and with this name, it lasted about a thousand years). In fact, the medieval Germans, after the adoption of Christianity, directly regarded themselves as the successors of the cause of Rome. The Slavs then fought at the level of inter-tribal conflicts - just as they fought during previous centuries, without a unifying ideology aimed at expanding and without using the rich Roman experience in creating large empires.

Map of the settlement of the Slavs and their neighbors at the end of the 8th century.

Polaby, Polabian Slavs(N.-Lud. Połobske Słowjany, Polish. Słowianie polabscy, Kashubian Pòłabsczi Słowiónie) - a large group of West Slavic tribes, according to a common theory, inhabited from about the end of the 6th century. until the middle of the 13th century. n. e. east, north and northwest of modern Germany. These Slavs occupied a vast territory from the mouth of the river. Laby (Elbe) and its tributary river. Sala (Zale) in the West, up to the river. Odry (Vodry, Oder) in the east, from the Ore Mountains in the south to the Baltic Sea in the north. Thus, the lands of the Polabian Slavs covered at least a third of the modern German state. The Polabian Slavs were united in three tribal unions: Lusatians, Lutiches (velets or Wilts) and Bodrichi (encouraged, reregs). They were also related to the Pomeranian tribes who lived along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, approximately from the mouth of the Odra to the mouth of the Vistula, and in the south, along the Notechi River, bordering on Polish tribes. The Germans have traditionally called and still call the primordial, indigenous Slavic population of Germany Wends.

History of the Polabian or Baltic Slavs

Polabsky or Baltic Slavs - a code name for various branches of the Slavic tribe that occupied the southern coast of the Baltic Sea and the river basin. Labs (Elbe) and crushed into a mass of small tribes. Of these, the Bodrichi (encouraging, reregs) in the northwest, the Lutichi (Vilts, Velets) in the central regions, and the Lusatian Serbs (Serbs, Lusatians) in the south are of particular importance. Various local conditions left a peculiar imprint on the history of the Bodrichi, Lutichi and Lusatians: for example, the Bodrichi, due to their proximity to the Franks, at first often acted in concert with the latter, who supported the Bodrichi princes in their desire to increase power. Among the Luticians, on the contrary, the princely power was abolished and dominance passed into the hands of the aristocracy. Lusatians, neighbors of the Czechs, shared a common history with them for a long time. However, there are many similarities in the history of the Polabian Slavs.

Starting from the 9th and even the 8th century AD. e. their lives were spent in a bitter struggle against the constant attempts of the German invasion. The beginning of these endless attempts at conquest was laid by Charlemagne, who tried to unite under the rule of his empire all the neighboring tribes, both German by ethnicity and others - in particular Slavic. It should be noted that at first, when not all neighboring Slavic Slavs, the Germanic tribes were conquered and Christianized, often they acted together with the Slavs. For example, the army sent by Charlemagne to conquer the Sorbs (Lusatian Serbs) was destroyed by the Saxons, who at that time, like the Slavs, fought against Christianization and against joining the empire of Charles. But, gradually, as the subjugation and Christianization of the actual German tribes of Germany, the lands of the Polabian Slavs, in this region, become the only target of the organized offensive of the German Empire, encouraged and initiated by the Roman Catholic Church. X-XIII centuries characterized by frequent and bloody wars between the Polabian Slavs and the advancing Germans and Danes. These wars are accompanied by attempts to Christianize the Slavs. During these wars, certain lands of the P. Slavs for some time fall under the rule of the Germans, then the Slavs are freed from them and exist independently for some time, then everything repeats again. Often, the Slavs go on the counteroffensive. At this time, the German chronicles recorded frequent retaliatory campaigns of the Slavs on the lands of the Germans, during which they ravaged German settlements, burned cities and monasteries, robbed and killed inhabitants, and took away prisoners. For a long time, before King Valdemar I, Denmark paid tribute to the city of Arkona, the capital of the Ruyan tribe, which was part of the obodrite union. But King Valdemar I the Great finally destroyed Arkona. The irony lies in the fact that Valdemar was maternally the great-grandson of Vladimir Monomakh, after whom he received his name. In the end, approximately by the XII-XIII centuries, all the Slavic lands of Polabya ​​merge into one or another state German formation as part of the Holy Roman Empire and accept Christianity according to the Roman model.

After that, a gradual process of Germanization of the local population began, which lasted several centuries. Huge masses of people were subjected to it. Germanization occurred in several ways, including through the influx of German settlers to the lands of Poland, thanks to the legislative rooting of the German language, the assignment of German or “German-like” surnames to the Slavs, interethnic marriages, the influence of the church, etc.

The internal policy of the Polabian Slavs was characterized by frequent mutual strife, to some extent kindled and initiated by the Germans, the lack of constant, long-term coordination and organization. They never fully created their strong, centralized state, following the example of their neighbors, who adopted Christianity and established the central government of the Slavic and German peoples. This was one of the reasons for the defeat of the Polabian Slavs in the confrontation with the German feudal system.

The only part of the modern German population that still retains its Slavic language and culture are the Lusatians.

The rest of the Polabian Slavs, although Germanized, but not without a trace. From them, modern Germany inherited a huge number of topographic names (see - Slavic toponymy of Germany). In addition, having gradually become Germanized, the Polabian Slavs handed over to modern Germans a lot of Slavic surnames in origin (see - Slavic surnames of modern Germans in origin).

Description of the Polabian Slavs left by contemporaries

• Titmar of Merseburg (earlier 1018) “Chronicle”: “There is a certain city on the land of the rataries, named Radigoshch, it is triangular in shape and has three gates, it is surrounded on all sides by a large forest, inviolable and sacred in the eyes of local residents. The two gates of the city are open to all who come; the third, the smallest, are turned to the east, leading to the sea, which lies nearby and looks terrible. At this gate, there is nothing but a temple skillfully built of wood, in which the supporting pillars are replaced by the horns of various animals. From the outside, as anyone can see, its walls are decorated with wonderful carvings depicting various gods and goddesses, and inside there are handmade idols of gods, terrible in appearance, in full armor, in helmets and armor, each carved with his name. The main one, who is especially respected and revered by all pagans, is called Svarozhich.

• Geographer Adam of Bremen (c. 1066), "Acts of the Priests of the Hamburg Church":

“Slavia is ten times larger than our Saxony, if we count the Czechs and the Poles living on the other side of the Odra, who do not differ from the inhabitants of Slavia either in their appearance or language .... There are many Slavic peoples. Among them are the most western Wagris living on the border with the Transalbings. Their city, lying by the sea Aldinburg (Stargrad). Then follow obodrites, who are now called reregs, and their city is Magnopolis (Velegrad). To the east of us (from Hamburg) live the Polabings (polabs), whose city is called Racisburg). Behind them are lingons (clay) and warabs. This is followed by the Khizhans and through the Penyans, who are separated from the Dolechans and Ratarians by the Pena River and the city of Dymin. There is the limit of the Hamburg diocese. Khizhans and throughpenians live north of the Pena River, Dolenchans and Ratari live to the south. These four peoples, because of their courage, are called Vilians, or Lutiches. There are also other Slavic tribes that live between Laba and Odra .... of all of them, the most powerful are the ratari living in the center ... Their city - the world-famous Retra (Radigost, Radigoshch) - is the seat of idolatry, a huge temple was built there in honor of demons, the main of which is Radigost. His image is made of gold, the bed of purple. The city itself has nine gates and is surrounded on all sides by a deep lake, through which a log bridge was built to cross, but only those who go for the sake of sacrifice or questioning the oracle are allowed to cross it ... They say that from Hamburg to the Temple there are four days' journey.

• Helmold von Bosau (mid-12th century), Slavic Chronicle reported:

“... The essence of other Vendian clans, they live between the Elbe and Oder rivers and extend far by noon, like the Guruli, Gevelds, who exist near the Gibal River and Dox, Levbuzes, Ivilins, Storrelans with others. To the western side is the province of the Vinuls, by which the Lenchans and Redari are called. Their glorious city is Retra, there is a great temple and their main god is Radegast ... "" ... There are four tribes and they are called Lyutichs, or Wilts; of them, Khizhans and throughpenians, as you know, live on the other side of the Pena, but the ratari and Dolechans wanted to dominate due to the fact that they have the most ancient city and the most famous temple in which the idol of Radegast is exhibited, and they only ascribe to themselves the only right to primacy because all the Slavic peoples often visit them in order to receive answers and annual sacrifices ... "

• Saxo Grammaticus writes: “The city of Arkona lies on the top of a high rock; from the north, east and south it is protected by natural protection ... from the west side it is protected by a high embankment of 50 cubits ... In the middle of the city lies an open square on which rises a wooden temple, of excellent work, but venerable not so much for the splendor of architecture, but for the greatness of God, to whom an idol is erected here. The entire outer side of the building shone with skillfully made bas-reliefs of various figures, but ugly and crudely painted. Only one entrance was into the interior of the temple, surrounded by a double fence ... In the temple itself there was a large, exceeding human height, idol (Sventovita) with four heads, on the same number of necks, of which two came out of the chest and two - to the ridge, but so that of both front and both rear heads, one looked to the right, and the other to the left. Hair and beard were cut short, and in this, it seemed, the artist conformed to the habit of rouyan. In his right hand, the idol held a horn made of various metals, which was usually filled every year with wine from the hands of a priest for divination about the fertility of the next year; the left hand was likened to a bow. Outerwear went down to the berets, which were made up of various types of trees and were so skillfully connected to the knees that only a close examination could distinguish the fugues. The legs were level with the ground, their foundation was made under the floor. In a small distance, the bridle and saddle of the idol with other accessories were visible. The viewer was most struck by a huge sword, a scabbard, the black of which, in addition to beautiful carved forms, was distinguished by silver trim ... In addition, this god also had temples in many other places, ruled by priests of lesser importance. In addition, he had a horse, completely white, from which it was considered impiety to pull hair out of its mane or tail ... Svyatovit was symbolized by various signs, in particular, carved eagles and banners, the main of which was called the village ... The power of this small piece of canvas was stronger than the power of the prince. »

see also

Notes

Literature

• Venelin Yu. I. District inhabitants of the Baltic Sea, i.e. Lets and Slavs. - M .: In the University Printing House, 1846.
• Veselovsky A. N. Russians and Wiltins in the saga of Tidrik of Bern (Verona) (Russian) // Proceedings of the ORYaS of the Imperial Academy of Sciences: magazine. - 1906. - T. XI. - S. 1-190.
• Gilferding A.F. History of the Baltic Slavs // Collected Works of A. Hilferding. - St. Petersburg. : Ed. D. E. Kozhanchikova, 1874. - T. 4.
• Gilferding A.F. The remains of the Slavs on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea (Russian) // Imp. Russian Geographical Society"Ethnographic collection": magazine. - St. Petersburg. : Type. V. Bezobrazov and comp., 1862. - V. V.
• Ivanova-Buchatskaya Yu. V. PLATTES LAND: Symbols of Northern Germany (Slavic-Germanic ethnocultural synthesis between the Elbe and Oder rivers). SPb. : Nauka, 2006.
• Kotlyarevsky A. A."Legal Antiquities of P. Slavs" and "Tales of Otto of Bamberg" (1874)
• Lebedev N."The last struggle of the Baltic Slavs against Germanization" (in the 2nd part - a review of sources)
• Pavinsky"Polabian Slavs" (St. Petersburg, 1871)
• Pervolf I. N."Germanization of the Baltic Slavs" (St. Petersburg, 1876)
• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• Shafarik P. "Slavic Antiquities" (vol. II, book III. Russian translation Moscow, 1848)
• Shore T.W. Chapter VI. Roogs, Wends and native Slavic settlers // Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race = Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race: A Study of the Settlement of England and the Tribal Origin of the Old English People. - London, 1906. - S. 84-102.
• Bogusławski a Hórnik, "Historija serbskeho naroda" (1884)
• Giesebrecht L., "Wendische Geschichten" (Berl., 1843)
• Siemawski, "Pogląd na dzieje słowian zachodno-połniocnych" (1881)

Links

Slavic tribes
Oriental Slavs
Western Slavs	Polish tribes Pomeranians Polabian Slavs Czech tribes Decane Dudleby Ganaki Golasitsy Zlichane Lemuzy Litomerichi Luceane Moravane Pshovane Sedlichane (Dechane) moves Czechs Black Croats
Southern Slavs

Map of the settlement of the Slavs and their neighbors at the end of the 8th century.

Polaby, Polabian Slavs(N.-Lud. Połobske Słowjany, Polish. Słowianie polabscy, Kashubian Pòłabsczi Słowiónie) - a large group of West Slavic tribes, according to a common theory, inhabited from about the end of the 6th century. until the middle of the 13th century. n. e. east, north and northwest of modern Germany. These Slavs occupied a vast territory from the mouth of the river. Laby (Elbe) and its tributary river. Sala (Zale) in the West, up to the river. Odry (Vodry, Oder) in the east, from the Ore Mountains in the south to the Baltic Sea in the north. Thus, the lands of the Polabian Slavs covered at least a third of the modern German state. The Polabian Slavs were united in three tribal unions: Lusatians, Lutiches (velets or Wilts) and Bodrichi (encouraged, reregs). They were also related to the Pomeranian tribes who lived along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, approximately from the mouth of the Odra to the mouth of the Vistula, and in the south, along the Notechi River, bordering on Polish tribes. The Germans have traditionally called and still call the primordial, indigenous Slavic population of Germany Wends.

History of the Polabian or Baltic Slavs

Polabsky or Baltic Slavs - a code name for various branches of the Slavic tribe that occupied the southern coast of the Baltic Sea and the river basin. Labs (Elbe) and crushed into a mass of small tribes. Of these, the Bodrichi (encouraging, reregs) in the northwest, the Lutichi (Vilts, Velets) in the central regions, and the Lusatian Serbs (Serbs, Lusatians) in the south are of particular importance. Various local conditions left a peculiar imprint on the history of the Bodrichi, Lutichi and Lusatians: for example, the Bodrichi, due to their proximity to the Franks, at first often acted in concert with the latter, who supported the Bodrichi princes in their desire to increase power. Among the Luticians, on the contrary, the princely power was abolished and dominance passed into the hands of the aristocracy. Lusatians, neighbors of the Czechs, shared a common history with them for a long time. However, there are many similarities in the history of the Polabian Slavs.

Starting from the 9th and even the 8th century AD. e. their lives were spent in a bitter struggle against the constant attempts of the German invasion. The beginning of these endless attempts at conquest was laid by Charlemagne, who tried to unite under the rule of his empire all the neighboring tribes, both German by ethnicity and others - in particular Slavic. It should be noted that at first, when not all neighboring Slavic Slavs, the Germanic tribes were conquered and Christianized, often they acted together with the Slavs. For example, the army sent by Charlemagne to conquer the Sorbs (Lusatian Serbs) was destroyed by the Saxons, who at that time, like the Slavs, fought against Christianization and against joining the empire of Charles. But, gradually, as the subjugation and Christianization of the actual German tribes of Germany, the lands of the Polabian Slavs, in this region, become the only target of the organized offensive of the German Empire, encouraged and initiated by the Roman Catholic Church. X-XIII centuries characterized by frequent and bloody wars between the Polabian Slavs and the advancing Germans and Danes. These wars are accompanied by attempts to Christianize the Slavs. During these wars, certain lands of the P. Slavs for some time fall under the rule of the Germans, then the Slavs are freed from them and exist independently for some time, then everything repeats again. Often, the Slavs go on the counteroffensive. At this time, the German chronicles recorded frequent retaliatory campaigns of the Slavs on the lands of the Germans, during which they ravaged German settlements, burned cities and monasteries, robbed and killed inhabitants, and took away prisoners. For a long time, before King Valdemar I, Denmark paid tribute to the city of Arkona, the capital of the Ruyan tribe, which was part of the obodrite union. But King Valdemar I the Great finally destroyed Arkona. The irony lies in the fact that Valdemar was maternally the great-grandson of Vladimir Monomakh, after whom he received his name. In the end, approximately by the XII-XIII centuries, all the Slavic lands of Polabya ​​merge into one or another state German formation as part of the Holy Roman Empire and accept Christianity according to the Roman model.

After that, a gradual process of Germanization of the local population began, which lasted several centuries. Huge masses of people were subjected to it. Germanization occurred in several ways, including through the influx of German settlers to the lands of Poland, thanks to the legislative rooting of the German language, the assignment of German or “German-like” surnames to the Slavs, interethnic marriages, the influence of the church, etc.

The internal policy of the Polabian Slavs was characterized by frequent mutual strife, to some extent kindled and initiated by the Germans, the lack of constant, long-term coordination and organization. They never fully created their strong, centralized state, following the example of their neighbors, who adopted Christianity and established the central government of the Slavic and German peoples. This was one of the reasons for the defeat of the Polabian Slavs in the confrontation with the German feudal system.

The only part of the modern German population that still retains its Slavic language and culture are the Lusatians.

The rest of the Polabian Slavs, although Germanized, but not without a trace. From them, modern Germany inherited a huge number of topographic names (see - Slavic toponymy of Germany). In addition, having gradually become Germanized, the Polabian Slavs handed over to modern Germans a lot of Slavic surnames in origin (see - Slavic surnames of modern Germans in origin).

Description of the Polabian Slavs left by contemporaries

• Titmar of Merseburg (earlier 1018) “Chronicle”: “There is a certain city on the land of the rataries, named Radigoshch, it is triangular in shape and has three gates, it is surrounded on all sides by a large forest, inviolable and sacred in the eyes of local residents. The two gates of the city are open to all who come; the third, the smallest, are turned to the east, leading to the sea, which lies nearby and looks terrible. At this gate, there is nothing but a temple skillfully built of wood, in which the supporting pillars are replaced by the horns of various animals. From the outside, as anyone can see, its walls are decorated with wonderful carvings depicting various gods and goddesses, and inside there are handmade idols of gods, terrible in appearance, in full armor, in helmets and armor, each carved with his name. The main one, who is especially respected and revered by all pagans, is called Svarozhich.

• Geographer Adam of Bremen (c. 1066), "Acts of the Priests of the Hamburg Church":

“Slavia is ten times larger than our Saxony, if we count the Czechs and the Poles living on the other side of the Odra, who do not differ from the inhabitants of Slavia either in their appearance or language .... There are many Slavic peoples. Among them are the most western Wagris living on the border with the Transalbings. Their city, lying by the sea Aldinburg (Stargrad). Then follow obodrites, who are now called reregs, and their city is Magnopolis (Velegrad). To the east of us (from Hamburg) live the Polabings (polabs), whose city is called Racisburg). Behind them are lingons (clay) and warabs. This is followed by the Khizhans and through the Penyans, who are separated from the Dolechans and Ratarians by the Pena River and the city of Dymin. There is the limit of the Hamburg diocese. Khizhans and throughpenians live north of the Pena River, Dolenchans and Ratari live to the south. These four peoples, because of their courage, are called Vilians, or Lutiches. There are also other Slavic tribes that live between Laba and Odra .... of all of them, the most powerful are the ratari living in the center ... Their city - the world-famous Retra (Radigost, Radigoshch) - is the seat of idolatry, a huge temple was built there in honor of demons, the main of which is Radigost. His image is made of gold, the bed of purple. The city itself has nine gates and is surrounded on all sides by a deep lake, through which a log bridge was built to cross, but only those who go for the sake of sacrifice or questioning the oracle are allowed to cross it ... They say that from Hamburg to the Temple there are four days' journey.

• Helmold von Bosau (mid-12th century), Slavic Chronicle reported:

“... The essence of other Vendian clans, they live between the Elbe and Oder rivers and extend far by noon, like the Guruli, Gevelds, who exist near the Gibal River and Dox, Levbuzes, Ivilins, Storrelans with others. To the western side is the province of the Vinuls, by which the Lenchans and Redari are called. Their glorious city is Retra, there is a great temple and their main god is Radegast ... "" ... There are four tribes and they are called Lyutichs, or Wilts; of them, Khizhans and throughpenians, as you know, live on the other side of the Pena, but the ratari and Dolechans wanted to dominate due to the fact that they have the most ancient city and the most famous temple in which the idol of Radegast is exhibited, and they only ascribe to themselves the only right to primacy because all the Slavic peoples often visit them in order to receive answers and annual sacrifices ... "

• Saxo Grammaticus writes: “The city of Arkona lies on the top of a high rock; from the north, east and south it is protected by natural protection ... from the west side it is protected by a high embankment of 50 cubits ... In the middle of the city lies an open square on which rises a wooden temple, of excellent work, but venerable not so much for the splendor of architecture, but for the greatness of God, to whom an idol is erected here. The entire outer side of the building shone with skillfully made bas-reliefs of various figures, but ugly and crudely painted. Only one entrance was into the interior of the temple, surrounded by a double fence ... In the temple itself there was a large, exceeding human height, idol (Sventovita) with four heads, on the same number of necks, of which two came out of the chest and two - to the ridge, but so that of both front and both rear heads, one looked to the right, and the other to the left. Hair and beard were cut short, and in this, it seemed, the artist conformed to the habit of rouyan. In his right hand, the idol held a horn made of various metals, which was usually filled every year with wine from the hands of a priest for divination about the fertility of the next year; the left hand was likened to a bow. Outerwear went down to the berets, which were made up of various types of trees and were so skillfully connected to the knees that only a close examination could distinguish the fugues. The legs were level with the ground, their foundation was made under the floor. In a small distance, the bridle and saddle of the idol with other accessories were visible. The viewer was most struck by a huge sword, a scabbard, the black of which, in addition to beautiful carved forms, was distinguished by silver trim ... In addition, this god also had temples in many other places, ruled by priests of lesser importance. In addition, he had a horse, completely white, from which it was considered impiety to pull hair out of its mane or tail ... Svyatovit was symbolized by various signs, in particular, carved eagles and banners, the main of which was called the village ... The power of this small piece of canvas was stronger than the power of the prince. »

see also

Notes

Literature

• Venelin Yu. I. District inhabitants of the Baltic Sea, i.e. Lets and Slavs. - M .: In the University Printing House, 1846.
• Veselovsky A. N. Russians and Wiltins in the saga of Tidrik of Bern (Verona) (Russian) // Proceedings of the ORYaS of the Imperial Academy of Sciences: magazine. - 1906. - T. XI. - S. 1-190.
• Gilferding A.F. History of the Baltic Slavs // Collected Works of A. Hilferding. - St. Petersburg. : Ed. D. E. Kozhanchikova, 1874. - T. 4.
• Gilferding A.F. The remains of the Slavs on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea (Russian) // Imp. Russian Geographical Society"Ethnographic collection": magazine. - St. Petersburg. : Type. V. Bezobrazov and comp., 1862. - V. V.
• Ivanova-Buchatskaya Yu. V. PLATTES LAND: Symbols of Northern Germany (Slavic-Germanic ethnocultural synthesis between the Elbe and Oder rivers). SPb. : Nauka, 2006.
• Kotlyarevsky A. A."Legal Antiquities of P. Slavs" and "Tales of Otto of Bamberg" (1874)
• Lebedev N."The last struggle of the Baltic Slavs against Germanization" (in the 2nd part - a review of sources)
• Pavinsky"Polabian Slavs" (St. Petersburg, 1871)
• Pervolf I. N."Germanization of the Baltic Slavs" (St. Petersburg, 1876)
• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• Shafarik P. "Slavic Antiquities" (vol. II, book III. Russian translation Moscow, 1848)
• Shore T.W. Chapter VI. Roogs, Wends and native Slavic settlers // Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race = Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race: A Study of the Settlement of England and the Tribal Origin of the Old English People. - London, 1906. - S. 84-102.
• Bogusławski a Hórnik, "Historija serbskeho naroda" (1884)
• Giesebrecht L., "Wendische Geschichten" (Berl., 1843)
• Siemawski, "Pogląd na dzieje słowian zachodno-połniocnych" (1881)

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