How did the ancient Slavs live? How people lived in Russia before the arrival of Christians, or why the history of Russia before baptism was a big headache for Soviet historians. Occupations of the Eastern Slavs

How did the ancient Slavs live?

A long time ago, on the lands of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus lived tribes who called themselves Slavs. The Slavs considered themselves: glades, drevlyans, northerners, Krivichi, Vyatichi, etc. And one of the tribes that lived along the shores of Lake Ilmen and the Volkhov River called itself simply Slavs. They are our ancestors. The Slavs lived in families, i.e. were related to each other. The chief among the relatives was called the prince. All controversial issues and disagreements between the clans were resolved at a general meeting, which was called "veche".

To protect their own kind of raids by militant tribes, the Slavs, as a rule, settled in places surrounded by steep slopes or ravines, along rivers. The ancient Slavs surrounded their settlements with a palisade. The logs that were used to build the palisade were carefully hewn and burned on fire. When they were dug deep into the ground, the logs fit snugly against each other in such a way that there was not the slightest gap between them. Such a fence stood for a long time and was extremely strong. Therefore, such settlements were called "cities", from the word "to fence" i.e. fence off the settlements. The main occupation of the ancient Slavs was agriculture, beekeeping, fishing, fur trade and hunting.

The ancient beliefs of the Slavs are also interesting. The Slavs believed that God is one, but manifests himself in many faces. The three main essences of God, the three forces on which the universe rests, were called Yav, Nav and Rule. Rule is a stellar law, the same for the entire universe. This is the highest law of the Existence of the World and development. Yav is subordinated to the Law of Rule, i.e. the world revealed by the Almighty, born of Rod. And the world of Navi is a spiritual, posthumous, world of ancestors and gods. The Slavs themselves called themselves "Orthodox", i.e. glorifying the Right. On their temples (places of religious worship), they sang glory to the gods, i.e. sang hymns in praise of the gods. Even a round dance was a religious sacrament at that time. He personified the Great Colo - the Wheel of Genesis, which must necessarily revolve relentlessly. Until now, in the Russian language there is an expression "to live in truth", i.e. to live according to the laws of the Rule.

The cuisine of the ancient Slavs did not differ in variety. Basically, they prepared jelly, kvass, cabbage soup, porridge. Even the saying “shchi, yes porridge is our food” has come down to our times. At that time, our ancestors did not know potatoes, so the main ingredients of cabbage soup were cabbage and turnips. Pies were baked mainly on holidays, as were pancakes. The word "pancake" came from the more ancient word "mlyn", i.e. from milled grain. At that time, pancakes were mainly baked from buckwheat flour, and instead of yeast, hops were added to the dough. Pancakes made in this way were loose, porous. They absorbed butter and sour cream well. Therefore, they were served on the table together. As a rule, the first pancake was given to the birds, because. the ancient Slavs believed that the souls of ancestors sometimes flew to their descendants in the form of birds. The first baked pancake was a memorial one. Baking pancakes for a wake is still considered a Russian tradition.

After the adoption of Christianity in Russia, many thousand-year-old traditions were forgotten, but many are still alive. They remained in the form of proverbs and sayings, ancient holidays and fairy tales. Maybe that's why the Russian people still bake pancakes and tell fortunes at Christmas time. We still celebrate Maslenitsa and bake pancakes rather than fasting and celebrating Christmas. We still have Father Frost living in Veliky Ustyug, and Snegurochka, his granddaughter, amuses children at the New Year's holiday. In remote villages, some grandmothers, washing their great-grandchildren in the morning, still say: “Water, water, wash your granddaughter's face. So that the cheeks turn red, so that the eyes burn, so that the mouth laughs, so that the teeth bite. How we want our children to know about the cultural traditions of our ancestors.

This article was automatically added from the community

Our ancestors - the Slavs - lived in ancient times, when the world around us looked completely different than it does now. There were no cities or large settlements - the territory of modern Russia was completely covered with dense forests, in which there were many wild animals. We will find out, according to the presented plan, what was the life and life of the ancient Slavs.

Who are the Slavs

The Slavs represent a large group of different peoples and tribes that belong to the same language family. This means that they all speak, albeit in different, but very similar languages.

It was the language that became the sign by which all Slavs were conditionally divided into 3 main groups:

western;
oriental;
southern.

Consider the lifestyle of the ancient Slavs belonging to the eastern group. Currently, it includes Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians.

The settlements of the Eastern Slavs consisted of several tribes, and each tribe, in turn, included several large clans. A genus is several families that lived together and led a joint life.

Main occupations

The life of our ancestors was difficult and full of dangers. In difficult conditions, only the strongest, strongest people survived, who from childhood were accustomed to hard, unceasing work.

Women traditionally cooked food, spun yarn, sewed, and looked after the household. They also spent a lot of time in gardens, raising poultry and small cattle. Many of them knew a lot about medicinal herbs and were engaged in healing. Women and children also picked mushrooms, wild berries, and nuts.

In the spring, when food supplies were running out, people survived on young shoots and leaves of quinoa, which often replaced bread. In times of famine, bread was baked from this plant.

Men's work required remarkable physical strength and endurance. The main occupations of men were:

Hunting . There were many different animals in the forests, but it was not so easy to track down and kill them with ancient tools.
Fishing . The Slavs caught only large river fish, using harpoons for this purpose.
beekeeping - collection of wild honey, which was used as food and medicine. The name of this activity comes from the word "bort" - a hollow tree in which wild forest bees lived.

The main joint activity of the ancient Slavs was agriculture.

Since our ancestors lived in difficult times, when endless attacks and military clashes were commonplace, the safety of the home was in the first place.

Deep pits were dug around the settlements, earth embankments were erected, and palisades were thickly erected. To do this, it was necessary to cut down a tree, cut off all its branches and branches, trim, sharpen and burn on fire. And for the palisade, more than one hundred of such prepared trees were required. They were buried deep in the ground, and very tightly installed next to each other. Such a fence turned out to be very strong and could stand for a long time.

The floor in the houses was about one meter below ground level. The walls were made from the trunks of young trees. The roof was also made of such poles, on which layers of straw were laid. Small windows were cut through the walls, and in the cold season they were plugged with straw or branches. It is not surprising that in such a dwelling it was always cool, dark and damp.

Rice. 3. Dwellings of the ancient Slavs.

What have we learned?

When studying the report on the topic “The Life of the Ancient Slavs” under the 4th grade program of the world around us, we learned what kind of life our distant ancestors led. We found out who belonged to the Slavs, where and how they lived, how they dressed, ate, built their dwellings.

Topic quiz

Report Evaluation

Average rating: 4.5. Total ratings received: 1068.

Would you be able to live like the ancient Slavs? Plowing gardens, picking berries and fruits, raising livestock, hunting, fishing, living in rickety huts without a floor, washing with your hands in the river, raising more than six children and enduring the raids of neighboring tribes? Life in antiquity for us would have been real hard labor, but for our ancestors it was the norm and even better than it could be. How the ancient Slavs lived, what they ate, drank, how they dressed and how they built their life, read on.

Some of our modern society can be horrified to the core by the way of life of the ancient Slavs, but at that time everything suited people and everyone was practically happy. The Slavs did not strengthen their settlement, since they were practically not afraid of anyone. Their houses were significantly different from the dwellings of foreign contemporaries (Greeks, Germans, Turks, etc.).

Houses were built like dugouts or semi-dugouts, and an earthen stove was obligatory for everyone (otherwise how to cook food), and it was always built in the most remote corner of the room. As for the material for building a house, our ancestors believed that not every tree could suit them. As old signs say, some wood could bring trouble to the house, and some protection. Therefore, dwellings were built from pine, oak and larch. An interesting fact is that the aspen was considered an unclean tree.

In choosing a tree, our ancestors were very superstitious. A huge role was played by the place where the tree grew, the shape and even the side on which it fell after it was cut down. In no case was it possible to cut trees that grew in a cemetery or in a sacred place. Also, young or too old trees were often refused to be cut, and those who had a hollow, an unusual growth, or just a strange shape were considered the abode of evil spirits.

As for the site for the construction of the settlement, over time, the Slavs began to choose difficult places (swamps, high banks of a river or lake). Since the settlement itself was never fortified, nature served as a talisman against the raids of warring tribes. It is also worth noting that the ancient Slavic tribes were very resourceful, so in their dwellings (for some reason few people mention this) they often built several emergency exits in case of danger.

The life of the ancient Slavs in the settlements - the concept of "clan"

All Slavs built settlements where everyone lived with his family. Now the concept of "kind" has changed a bit. Now we say "relative", "relatives", "kinship". In those days, the family was considered not only close people by blood. No. Both the closest and the most distant lived there, since the word "genus" was used by the Slavs as a "tribesman", or in the sense of "people". At the head of the clan was the ancestor, the father of the whole family.

Many chroniclers described the habitation of the Slavs as an inaccessible building, elevated in an impassable place, with many escape routes, with valuables buried in the ground. Thus, they lived like bandits, hiding and fleeing at the first threat. One cannot but agree here, since the ancient Slavs really often fought with each other, because of which the tribe could be completely slaughtered in just a day.

The economy of the ancient Slavs

The main occupation of the ancient Slavs was agriculture. In this they succeeded as nowhere else. For LLP, in order to survive the cold winter and not die of hunger, people were very kind to the land, and tried to grow everything they could on it (recall that there were no potatoes then, and therefore the tribes ate porridge and bread). In order for the land to be fertile, it began to be cultivated even in winter. First, they cut down a section of the forest (the trees were not cut to the end so that they would dry out and could be easily felled), the stumps were uprooted and all the wood was burned. Such a month was called “cut”, from the word “cut”, “cut”. After that, in the spring, people sprinkled the area with ashes, loosened the ground with a special wooden plow and sowed the seeds. The main grain crops were millet, rye, wheat and barley. From vegetables turnip and peas. This type of processing was common only in forest areas, and in swamps and fields, fallow was used more.

Fallow is the second way to cultivate the soil for sowing. The land was first plowed and fertilized, and then sown. The following year, another site was taken, since this one was already depleted.

The second most important type of economy that the ancient Slavs were engaged in was cattle breeding. They raised sheep, cows, chickens and pigs. They often hunted wild animals in the forests and caught fish. In addition, beekeeping was still popular - collecting honey in wild hives.

The craft of the ancient Slavs

Forges were very common, where blacksmiths made plows for plowing the land, made weapons for the troops (squads), created the finest jewelry (bracelets, pendants and rings) from gold, bronze and silver, which were decorated with embossing, filigree and fading enamel. Kuznetsk business was not just popular, but necessary both for simple Slavic tribes and for the princes of the state. Sickles, coulters and scythes were made for farmers, and swords, spears and arrows for warriors. Needles, hooks, locks, keys, knives, awls, staples, etc. were often forged for women. If in our time blacksmiths create mostly works of art, then in ancient Russia their craft was necessary for survival.

Thanks to the yarn, the Slavs made fabric from flax, hemp and sheep wool, after which they could sew clothes and bedding. The fabric was made not only simple, but also patterned for the outfits of princes or secular people. The loom was considered the most difficult craft, but at the same time as necessary as the forges.

Weaving was very popular in Russia. Especially popular were bast shoes - natural shoes of the common people. In addition to bast shoes, they wanted shoes made of leather. It was not sewn, but simply laid in folds and tied with ropes on the leg. Leather was very popular, so horse harness, quivers and other household items of the ancient Slavs were often made from it.

They also could not live without pottery. Pottery appeared a little later than the blacksmith's craft, and it improved especially when the potter's wheel was invented. Dishes, children's toys, bricks, washstands, etc. were made from clay.

Faith of the ancient Slavs

Like all ancient peoples, the Slavs were pagans, with well-thought-out customs and norms. Their world was inhabited by various gods and goddesses, most of which were associated with natural phenomena. Among them were evil and kind, fair and vile, playful and weak. The most important of them are Perun - the god of lightning and thunder, Svarog - the god of fire, Mokosh - the goddess who protects women, Veles - the patron of cattle breeding, Simargl - the god of the underworld. The god of the sun, who was called by different names, was especially held in high esteem: Dazhdbog, Horos, Yarylo.

The life and way of life of the ancient Slavs has always been on the verge of peace and war. Constant quarrels with neighboring tribes, frequent migrations, barren lands, robber raids, difficult living conditions and harsh laws of the gods. It is not for nothing that foreign chroniclers wrote about the Russians as a strong, strong-willed and courageous people who could withstand everything and break any wall in their path. Such were the ancient Slavs, our ancestors.

A long time ago, on the lands of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus lived tribes who called themselves Slavs.

The Slavs considered themselves: Glade, Drevlyane, northerners, Krivichi, Vyatichi, etc. And one of the tribes that lived along the shores of Lake Ilmen and the Volkhov River called itself simply Slavs.They are our ancestors.

The Slavs lived in families, i.e. were related to each other. The chief among the relatives was called the prince. All controversial issues and disagreements between the clans were resolved at a general meeting, which was called "veche".

The ancient beliefs of the Slavs are also interesting.

The Slavs believed that God is one, but manifests himself in many faces. The three main essences of God, the three forces on which the universe rests, were called Yav, Nav and Rule. Rule is a stellar law, the same for the entire universe. This is the highest law of the Existence of the World and development. Yav is subordinated to the Law of Rule, i.e. the world revealed by the Almighty, born of Rod. And the world of Navi is a spiritual, posthumous, world of ancestors and gods. The Slavs themselves called themselves "Orthodox", i.e. glorifying the Right. On their temples (places of religious worship), they sang glory to the gods, i.e. sang hymns in praise of the gods. Even a round dance was a religious sacrament at that time. He personified the Great Colo - the Wheel of Genesis, which must necessarily revolve relentlessly. Until now, in the Russian language there is an expression "to live in truth", i.e. to live according to the laws of the Rule.

Cuisine of the ancient Slavs

How we want our children to know about the cultural traditions of our ancestors.

The life of the ancient Slavs was not at all boring, as it might seem at first glance. Our ancestors had enough to do. Let's try to briefly describe them.

Approximate outline of the article. The article consists of the following sections:

wars;
clean living conditions;
city building;
hunting;
gathering;
agriculture;
cattle breeding;
beekeeping.

Wars

All peoples at that time were at war, and the Slavs were no exception. The Slavs were not bloodthirsty and particularly cruel, unlike the ancient Romans, for example. Those wars waged by the Slavs began only for the sake of preserving statehood.

At first, the Slavs had nothing more than ordinary settlements, but then they grew into cities. Slavic cities were built along the banks of the rivers, which protected them from the enemy.

Gathering, cattle breeding, beekeeping and agriculture

The ancient Slavs were also engaged in hunting. They hunted both animals that were found in the forests and birds. The Slavs at that time already had a bow with arrows and spears. The forests were along the banks of the rivers, which gave Slavic life convenience.

The Slavs were engaged in fishing. Fish, of course, was included in the Slavic diet.

The Slavs were engaged in gathering. Berries, plants - everything was included in the diet. The Slavs also harvested medicinal herbs.

Agriculture is the main Slavic occupation. For a long time they have grown wheat, rye and other crops. It was hard work, because the land was cultivated with their own hands using a plow.

The Slavs were engaged in beekeeping. Honey played one of the main roles in their lives. Honey was a sweetener.

The Slavs were also engaged in cattle breeding - animal breeding, however, due to climatic conditions, it was not highly developed.

Feature of life - purity

Clean living conditions are a distinctive feature of the ancient Slavs. While the Europeans were drowning in mud, dying from the plague, the Slavs used the baths. They even had a bath day. Women, giving birth to children, arranged special rituals in the bathhouse. At many religious holidays, they were cleansed with water.

The ancient Slavs were engaged in hunting wild animals, fishing, farming, finding and collecting wild honey, extracting wax. They sowed cereal plants - millet and buckwheat, and for the manufacture of various clothes they grew flax and hemp. In addition, various livestock were bred - sheep, cows, pigs. The men hunted, extracted honey and wax, and fished. Women were engaged in weaving, cooking, gathering various berries and herbs. Together, men and women were engaged in agriculture.