The idea, widespread in bourgeois science, of the ancient Fishu-Ugric and Letto-Lithuanian (Baltic) tribes as wild hunters and fishermen roaming the northern forests does not at all correspond to the truth. These tribes said goodbye to hunting and fishing life a long time ago, back in the II millennium BC. NS. In the 1st millennium BC. NS. the level of their culture and social relations only slightly differed from that which was observed at that time among the early Slavic tribes.

The eastern, northeastern and northern neighbors of the Slavic tribes of the Dnieper region were at that time a large group of tribes that occupied the Upper Volga region, the banks of the Oka and the region of the Valdai Upland. The fortified settlements of these tribes are called Dyakovsky, after the settlement near the village. Dyakovo near Moscow. The Dyakovo tribes are the ancient Finno-Ugric tribes of the Volga region and the North, the direct ancestors of Vesi, Meri and Murom known from the annals.

Dyakovsky settlements are usually very small in size, rarely exceeding 2000 square meters in area. m. Despite this, they are all skillfully fortified with ramparts and ditches. There are settlements with two or three ramparts and the same number of ditches. Sometimes the shafts were coated with clay, which was burned with the help of fires. A wooden tyn was built along the crest of the ramparts, and often around the entire site of the village. Among the lakes of the Valdai Upland, there are so-called "swamp settlements" located on islands among swamps.

One of the most ancient settlements in the Oka and Volga basin, dating back to the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e., is the Elder Kashirskoye, explored in 1925-1926. V.A.Gorodtsov.

The place of the settlement was the promontory of the high bank of the Oka, surrounded by ravines with steep slopes. A rampart and a ditch were built on a narrow isthmus connecting the cape to the plateau of the high bank; along the edge of the platform of this small fortress, a tyn of massive oak logs towered. On the square of the settlement, the remains of several dwellings deepened into the ground, round in plan, with a diameter of 4-6 m, were discovered. In the center of each of them there was a hearth, and a conical roof was erected above the dwelling. Dwellings of this type existed in the Oka basin already in the Neolithic era.

During the study of the Senior Kashir settlement, a large number of various household and industrial items were discovered: iron Celtic axes, knives, all kinds of points, etc.

However, iron was still a rare metal at that time. The inhabitants of the village made many tools from bone and horn, for example, needles, various points, arrowheads, harpoons, spears, chisels, etc. Very interesting are the bone handles of knives of various shapes, decorated with sculptural ornaments. One bone tool had a sharpened bronze plate inserted in place of the blade, which also indicates that the population of the village has not yet fully entered the Iron Age. On the settlements of a later time, iron items already completely dominate. Iron then began to be mined everywhere from swamp and other ores using the raw-blown method.

The earthenware of the Senior Kashir settlement, typical of all other ancient clergy settlements, had the appearance of flat-bottomed pots, decorated on the outer surface with prints of coarse fabrics and braids. Archaeologists call such an ornament "mesh" or "textile".

Spinning wheels for spindles and the so-called "Dyakov's type weights" were made of clay - clay products of unknown purpose, possibly weights for a vertical loom.

Cattle breeding and primitive agriculture played an important role in the economy of the ancient inhabitants of the Oka and Volga basin. The herd consisted of horses, pigs, cattle and small ruminants. There were especially many horses and pigs, and mainly young individuals were fed. Horses were used for riding, as evidenced by the cheekpieces from bits found on the site. Fragments of an iron sickle and hand millstones testify to agriculture.

Similar finds were made in the study of many other settlements of the Oka basin (Kondrakovskoe and others) and the Upper Volga (Gorodishchenskoe, "Gorodok", etc.)

No special places of worship of the 1st millennium BC. NS. in the area of ​​distribution of these settlements were not found. Only within the limits of some settlements were small clay areas considered by some archaeologists as altars. Apparently, religious rites were of a different nature here than among the Slavic tribes. This is evidenced by the absence of burial grounds. Based on folklore data, it can be assumed that the rite of surface burial was widespread here, for example, in trees, which until recently was practiced by some peoples of the north of Siberia.

In terms of the degree of socio-economic development and the nature of culture, the West Finnish tribes had much in common with the Dyak tribes - the ancestors of the Estonians and Livonians who inhabited the territory of Estonia and northern Latvia. The material culture of the Western Finnish tribes of the Baltic region differed from the Dyakian culture in that it absorbed a significant number of Baltic, Lusatian and other Western elements.

Fortified settlements are also known here (Asva on the island of Sarema, Iru near Tallinn, Klandyukalns on the Western Dvina, etc.) with a thick cultural layer, a significant number of hearths and remnants of dwellings. Along with semi-dugouts with a rounded shape (Ira, Klandyukalns), there apparently also existed rectangular log houses. The significant predominance of domestic animal bones among kitchen scraps indicates the importance of animal husbandry in the economy of these tribes. In addition to animal husbandry, the population was also engaged in agriculture, as evidenced by the finds of grain graters and sickles. In addition to grain crops, flax was grown. The remains of casting molds and crucibles indicate the local processing of bronze. In the second half of the 1st millennium BC. NS. some iron products also appeared among the Baltic tribes. The earthenware had a shaded surface or was covered with a mesh (textile) ornament. Clay weights characteristic of the Dyakovo tribes are not found on Estonian settlements.

One of the most interesting monuments of these tribes is the settlement of Asva on the island of Sarema, Estonian SSR, which existed from the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. NS. until the first centuries of our era. Located on a narrow moraine hill 5 km from the sea coast, this settlement occupied an area of ​​over 4000 sq. m. It was surrounded by a stone fence, parallel to which the buildings were located. The central part of the village was allotted, apparently, for keeping livestock.

Remains of two types of buildings have survived at the Asva settlement: log houses with clay coating, which served as dwellings, and lightweight buildings in the form of awnings on pillars. The latter could play the role of utility rooms.

The main occupation of the inhabitants of the Asva settlement was cattle breeding; the herd included a horse, a bull, a pig, a goat and a sheep.

A large place in the economy belonged to fishing and seal hunting, as evidenced by the numerous bones of fish and seals, as well as harpoons, fish hooks, etc. At the same time, the inhabitants of Asva were familiar with agriculture. Preserved grains of wheat and barley; from industrial crops flax. Among the finds were grain grinders, bone and iron sickles, horn hoe and bone tools for processing flax.

The dishes of the Asva settlement are decorated with mesh patterns. It is in many ways similar to the ceramics of the Dyakovo settlements. Along with this, there are fragments of vessels, reminiscent of the ceramics of the settlements of the Lusatian culture of the Hanging.

Unlike the Dyak tribes, the Livonian-Estonian tribes also left us with grave structures. These are stone mounds containing up to 10-12 burials in stone boxes. The scarce inventory of the early stone mounds consists of simple bone pins, the later ones of iron pins; bronze objects are found in small numbers. Bronze and bronze items were imported mainly from the south, through the mediation of the Lithuanian tribes, and the earliest iron items (eye axes, pins) indicate the presence of links with the Upper Dnieper. Among the bronze objects, there are items of Scandinavian origin - neck torcs, razors, pins, etc., apparently temporary stay of the Scandinavian tribes in the coastal strip of the territory of the Estonian-Livonian tribes is evidenced by scandinavian-type stone burial grounds on the island of Sarema and on the south-western coast of the Gulf of Riga ...

The tribes of the Middle Volga region, which lived below the mouth of the river along the Volga, Sura, Tsna and Moksha, and reached the border of the steppes in the south, were very close in culture to the Dyak tribes. In the archaeological literature, they are usually called Gorodetsky by the name of the settlement near the village. Gorodets on the Oka, exploration-Gorodets settlements, bath by V.A.Gorodtsov. It is believed that the inhabitants of Gorodets settlements were the ancestors of the Mordovian group of tribes. Archaeologists distinguish them by earthenware covered with a continuous pattern, reminiscent of the imprint of matting and therefore called "matting ornamentation." If those historians are right who place the Budins of Herodotus to the east of the Dnieper, then in this case the Budins were most likely those who lived north of the nomad Savromats.

The culture of the more eastern Trans-Volga and Ural tribes of the 1st millennium Don had a different character. NS. These were the ancestors of the Komi, Udmurts, Meri, as well as the Ugric tribes - Khanty and Mansi (Ostyaks and Voguls).

A number of settlements and burial grounds of the 1st millennium BC are known on the Kama, Vyatka, Belaya and other rivers of the Urals. e., usually called Anan-in by the name of the burial ground near the village. Ananyino on the Kama, excavated in 1853 by P.V. Alabin. Later, the Anan'insky burial grounds and settlements were investigated by A.A. Spitsyn and F.D. Nefedov, and in Soviet times by A.V.Shmidt, N.A.Prokoshev and A.V. Zbrueva. Thanks to the finds of things of southern origin, the time of the Ananyin antiquities is established quite accurately. The oldest of them belong to the 7th - 6th century. BC e., most - by the middle and second half of the 1st millennium BC. NS.

The dimensions of the Ananyin settlements are usually very small. Their length rarely exceeded 120-150 m, the width was 50-60 m. Only a few dozen people could live within them. At the settlement near the village. Pig Mountains, at the mouth of the river. Vyatka, and at the Galkinsky settlement, at the mouth of the river. Chusovoy, the earthen ramparts were overlaid with limestone slabs. Along with the fortified settlements, in the Kama region, there are remains of settlements of the Ananyin era without traces of earthen fortifications. It is possible, however, that they were surrounded by wooden fences.

At the settlement near the village. The end of the Mountains on the Kama, at the mouth of the river. Chusovoy, on the settlement Kara-Abyz on the river. In Belaya and in a number of other places, traces of several dwellings deepened into the ground with hearths made of stones were found.

During excavations at the Ananyinsky settlements, fragments of round-bottomed clay vessels with an ornament in the upper part, consisting of imprints of a comb embossing or cord, are found. Finds of bronze and iron items are not uncommon. Most of all were found objects made of tin, as well as bones of animals, mainly domestic ones: horses, cows, pigs, sheep and goats. Due to the abundance of bones, the settlements of the Kama and Ural regions are sometimes called "bone-bearing".

Primitive stone grain grinders are often found on settlements. Several bronze sickles were found at the site of Sorochy Gory. From the settlement near the village. Grohan and other settlements, bone hoes, attached to wooden handles, occur. Bronze hoes were also in use. The land was cultivated in a primitive way. It was apparently slash farming. To prepare the field, a section of the forest was burned out, and the sowing was carried out into ash and scorched soil, only slightly loosened with a hoe. What plants were grown remains unknown. On the lower Kama, millet grains were found during the study of the dwelling of the Pre-Ananyin time.

Hunting and fishing in the Ananyin era played a secondary role in the economy. The bones of wild animals are usually only a small percentage of the waste of food. On the other hand, hunting for fur-bearing animals acquired special significance in this era: sables, martens, foxes, otters and beavers, that is, the best fur-bearing animals of the Urals.

In the study of the Ananyin burial grounds, of particular interest are male burials containing weapons and tools: bronze Celtic axes, spearheads of a special type, bronze and iron, bronze and iron daggers, sometimes somewhat reminiscent of daggers with figured handles of the Bronze Age. One of the types of weapons in the Ananyin era was klevtsy, or chasing, - a kind of battle ax, characteristic of the weapon of the South Siberian tribes at that time. They were sometimes decorated with sculptural images of animals or birds. Arrowheads are common in male burials, sometimes flint and iron, more often bronze and bone, as well as iron knives; occasionally there were fishing hooks, belt ornaments, etc. Finds of a bit indicate that loptadi were used for riding.

In women's burials, there are items of clothing and ornaments, various bronze plaques, neck torcs, and occasionally bronze mirrors. The tools and weapons of the Ananyin era are striking in the uniformity of shapes and ornaments, which indicates the presence of mass production, calculated for exchange. Tools originating from the Kama region are found far in the northwest, up to Finland and even Norway, as well as in Western Siberia. Obviously, the tribes of the Urals, who owned the places where copper ore was mined, supplied their neighbors with metal products, as in the Bronze Age.

During the study of the settlements and burial grounds of the Kama region, things of Scythian origin were found: triangular arrowheads, iron weapons and bronze jewelry, confirming the messages of Herodotus about the trade of the Scythians with the distant tribes of the Fissagets and Iirks. At der. Ananyino discovered a Scythian plaque in the form of a coiled beast. In the Zuevsky burial ground, a cruciform pendant was found, similar to the decorations from Olbia and the Scythian burial mounds. Among the finds in the Kama region there were also some things originating from the cities of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean region and having got to the north, undoubtedly, through the Scythians. In the burial ground near the village. A bronze plaque was found with the image, apparently, of the head of Helios. In the village near the village. End of the Mountains a miniature statuette of the Egyptian god Ammon was found in the burial ground near the village. Anagnino found beads made of Egyptian paste, probably made in Alexandria.

Herodotus reports that otters, beavers and other animals were found in the northern forests, whose furs were used on the edge of caftans.

Obviously, for these furs, as well as for forest products, primarily for honey and wax, the Scythians came to the Kama region.

In the burial grounds, attention is drawn to the rich burials of elderly men, apparently, tribal leaders. Three such burials were found in the Ananyinsky burial ground. In one grave, near the skull of the deceased, there was a silver spiral, and a bronze torch was worn around his neck. An iron dagger, a bronze plaque, a celt and arrows were laid with the dead. The second grave, with a masonry of stone slabs at the top, contained three bronze celts, an emboss, a dagger, an iron spear, some other tools, a bronze torch and a silver spiral. The third grave was especially interesting. There were found an iron spear and an embossing, a bronze plaque, a neck torch, a silver spiral and an earthen bowl. On the surface of the earth, above the grave, there was a masonry of a triple row of slabs and a stone with the image of the deceased. The leader is depicted on a stone in full height, dressed in a short caftan, long pants and a pointed hat. A massive hryvnia is worn around the neck. The dress is belted with a belt, to which are hung a short sword and a poleaxe. On the left side is, apparently, a quiver.

Along with rich burials and burials of a common nature, in the Ananyin burial grounds there are extremely poor burials, sometimes completely devoid of things. There are especially many of them in the Zuevsky burial ground. Often they are considered as burials of slaves, which, however, is only an assumption. Here we mean, of course, domestic slavery, observed everywhere among the tribes that have reached the patriarchal system.

A number of interesting sacrificial sites ascend to the Ananyino era in the Kama and Ural regions, throwing some light on the religious ideas of this era. Their remnants differ little in appearance from ordinary settlements. But on the site of the sacrificial sites, there are thick layers of ash, coal and animal bones.

The most interesting sacrificial site is located on the river. Lower Mulyanka, not far from its confluence with the Kama, near the village. Glyadenova. Among the ash, coal and animal bones, about 19,000 items were found there, among which beads predominate, various small bronze figurines of animals, birds, snakes, insects and people. Also found were earthen vessels, arrowheads, including Scythian ones, and some other things. Of these items, however, only a part belongs to the Ananyin time, others belong to the first centuries of our era.

In the Urals, there are sacrificial sites in caves. On the river Chusovoy, in the Kamen Dyrovaty cave, located high in a steep rock, several thousand arrowheads of flint, bone and bronze were found, and they were found not only on the floor, but also on the ceiling of the cave, in cracks. N.A.Prokoshev, who explored this cave, found that arrows could enter the cave only one way: they shot at it from a bow from the bank of the river. Chusovoy. This is a sacrificial place

arose in the Bronze Age and continued to exist until the 1st millennium AD. NS.

A special tribal group lived in the 1st millennium BC. NS. in the southeastern Baltic - along the Western Dvina, Neman and some tributaries of these rivers. These were the ancient Letto-Lithuanian, or Baltic tribes - the ancestors of the Lithuanian and Latvian peoples, as well as the ancient tribe of the Prussians. In the east, the settlements of these tribes spread along the Berezina to the Dnieper, and in some places they entered the left bank of the Dnieper, interspersed with the settlements of the Upper Dnieper Early Slavic tribes.

In terms of the level and nature of their culture, the Letto-Lithuanian tribes were close to the Upper Dnieper Slavs. Cattle breeding and agriculture played an important role in their economy. They were familiar with bronze, and starting from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e., and with iron metallurgy.

On the territory occupied by the Letto-Lithuanian tribes, a number of local groups of archaeological monuments can be distinguished, apparently corresponding to tribal divisions.

The western, coastal parts of Latvia and Lithuania are characterized by mounds with stone structures under the embankment in the center of the mound and one or more stone crowns at the base (Darznieki in the Latvian SSR; Kurmaichiai, Egliski and others in the Lithuanian SSR). Mounds contain cremations in earthen urns, less often corpses. The area of ​​distribution of these kurgans and the successive connection between them and later monuments gives reason to ascribe them to the ancestors of the Curonian tribe (Correspondence of the Russian chronicles).

The grave monuments of southern Latvia are large mounds with mass burials (Reznes, Kalnieshi) and earthen burial grounds. The massacre mounds are located on a former island in the floodplain of the Western Dvina, which was a good pasture for animal husbandry. In one of these mounds, 310 burials were uncovered, both corpses - usually in stone boxes, and cremations. Items found in the burial mound (bronze razors and awls, tweezers, eye-shaped stone axes, amber pendants, etc.) show that this burial ground was used from about the 11th to the 6th century. BC NS. Mounds with mass burials have parallels among the burial monuments of the Bronze Age among the ancient Prussian tribes.

Ground burials located in the southern part of the Western Dvina basin and in the basin of the river. Lielupe, they conclude several hundred graves, often lined with stones and containing both corpses and cremations. Sometimes burial grounds were located directly next to open settlements. Both are characterized by special ceramics in the form of large jar-shaped vessels made of dough with an admixture of grit, with an uneven surface. Mounds with mass graves and earthen burial grounds with adjacent settlements should, in all likelihood, be attributed to the ancestors of the Latvian Semigallian and Latgalian tribes.

For eastern parts The Latvian and especially the Lithuanian SSR are characterized by numerous fortified settlements, or, rather, fortified settlements (Mukukalne on the Western Dvina, Petrashunskoye, Velikushskoye, Zarasayskoye on the territory of Lithuania, etc.) - They were built on isolated hills or promontories protruding in the river valley with steep slopes and reinforced from the floor side with a moat and a shaft. In Lithuania, ramparts and ditches also strengthened the foothills of fortifications ("pilskalnis"), built on isolated hills, which achieved a significant steepness of the slopes. In the powerful cultural layer of these settlements, which testifies to their long-term habitability, there are animal bones, mainly domestic ones, fragments of pottery, bone products (pins, awls, etc.), bronze and iron tools. We should especially note the stone grain grinders, which indicate the presence of agriculture.

In terms of their general character, these settlements are close to those of Dyakov's and differ from them mainly in the originality of their ceramics. Among the latter, in addition to the hatched one, there is a ceramic with a pinch on the surface. The connections with the Dyakovo culture are evidenced by the clay “weights of the Dyakovo type”, which are often found on Lithuanian settlements. The more northern of these settlements must have belonged to the ancestors of the Latgalians, and the southern ones - to the ancient East Lithuanian tribes.

Tribes began to form in the Bronze Age based on the Corded Ware tribes. In the 1st century BC. NS. and in the first half of the 1st century A.D. NS. future area lithuania was part of the vast territory of the hatched pottery culture left by one of the ancient tribal formations of the Balts. A number of researchers note the movement of the population in the western part of the area in the 4th century AD. NS. , fortified settlements of this culture cease to exist (they perish in the fire of conflagrations).

It is generally accepted in archeology that Lithuania belonged to the so-called East Lithuanian barrows, which are characterized by burials with horses. In the second half of the 1st century A.D. NS. with the development of agriculture and cattle breeding and crafts, tribal unions collapsed, they were replaced by territorial communities.

Territory lithuania stands out clearly among the neighboring Baltic tribes. It includes such historical Lithuanian territories as Dzukia, Aukštaitija and, in part, Sudavia (Yatvyagia), as well as part of the northwestern territory of Belarus (Black Russia). The main territory of the tribe's settlement was the Viliya (Nyaris) basin with its right tributaries Sventoya, Zheimena. In the lower reaches of the Nyaris (Viliya) and on the right bank of Sventoji Lithuania neighbors with aukstayt. Northwest neighbors lithuania there were Samogitians and Semigallians, in the north - Latgalians, their border roughly corresponded to the modern border between Lithuania and Latvia.

In the east, the area lithuania reached the upper reaches of the Disna (left tributary of the Western Dvina), Lake. Naroch, the upper reaches of the river. Viliya (Nyaris). Here Lithuania came into contact with the Slavic Krivichs. Further south, the settlement border lithuania, covering the basin of the Merkis, reached the Neman and ascended along its course to the lower reaches of the Nyaris (Viliya). The southern and southwestern neighbors were the Yatvyazh tribes, whose eastern outskirts were increasingly penetrated by representatives of the East Slavic tribes.

Lithuania in historical sources

The first mention of Lithuania was preserved in the Quedlinburg annals under 1009, when the missionary Brunon Boniface was killed on the border between Russia and Lithuania:

It's 6721. In Petrovo's retreat izzehash Lithuania godless Plskov and pozhgosha: plskovitsi bobyah at that time expelled Prince Volodymyr from themselves, and plskovitsi byahu to the lake; and a lot of elimination of evil and elimination.

About Litvin ( Lethones, Litowini) Henry Latysh first mentioned in the Chronicle in connection with the events of February 1185, when

Back in the 14th century, a legendary version of the origin of the Lithuanians and Lithuania was formed. According to the version of the Krakow canon Jan Dlugosz, the Lithuanians descended, if not from the Romans, then from the Italians, who moved from Italy to northern country... After the final annexation of Samogitia to Lithuania (the Peace of Meln in 1422), Dlugosh's version was used by the Gashtolds and developed in the legendary Chronicles:

“And at the time where Kernus ruled, on the Zavileiskaya side, his people settled behind Viliya and played the trumpets. And he called that Kernos shore with his Roman language, in Latin Litus, where people multiply themselves, and the pipes that are played on them, tuba, and gave the name to those people in Latin, folding the bank with the pipe, Listubania. And ordinary people did not know how to speak Latin and began to call it simply Lithuania. And from that time the people began to call themselves Lithuanian and multiply from Zhomoitia. "

In these Chronicles, the importance of Novogrudok was emphasized, which in the first half of the 16th century was ruled by the Gashtolds, who were interested in the glorification of their kind.

Parts or variations of these legends were reflected in the works of Matsey Stryjkovsky, V. N. Tatishchev, M. V. Lomonosov and were developed by subsequent historiographers.

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Notes (edit)

2. // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
13. Alfredas Bumblauskas. ... - Cited 2011-09-14
14. Henryk Lettysh. Chronicle of Livonia. I, 5

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Passage characterizing Lithuania (tribes)

- How, how, how is Marina's poetry, how is poetry, how? That on Gerakova he wrote: "You will be a teacher in the building ... Tell me, tell me," said Kutuzov, obviously intending to laugh. Kaisarov read ... Kutuzov, smiling, nodded his head to the beat of the poetry.
When Pierre walked away from Kutuzov, Dolokhov, moving up to him, took his hand.
“I am very glad to meet you here, Count,” he said to him loudly and not embarrassed by the presence of strangers, with particular decisiveness and solemnity. - On the eve of the day on which God knows which of us is destined to stay alive, I am glad to have the opportunity to tell you that I regret the misunderstandings that were between us, and I wish you had nothing against me. I ask you to forgive me.
Pierre, smiling, looked at Dolokhov, not knowing what to say to him. Dolokhov, with tears coming into his eyes, hugged and kissed Pierre.
Boris said something to his general, and Count Bennigsen turned to Pierre and offered to go with him along the line.
“It will be interesting for you,” he said.
“Yes, very interesting,” said Pierre.
Half an hour later, Kutuzov left for Tatarinova, and Bennigsen and his retinue, including Pierre, drove along the line.

From Gorki, Bennigsen went down the high road to the bridge, which the officer from the mound had pointed out to Pierre as the center of the position, and on which there were rows of mown grass that smelled of hay on the bank. They drove across the bridge to the village of Borodino, from there they turned to the left and past a huge number of troops and cannons they drove to a high mound, on which the militiamen were digging the ground. It was a redoubt that did not yet have a name, later called the Raevsky redoubt, or the kurgan battery.
Pierre did not pay much attention to this redoubt. He did not know that this place would be more memorable for him than all the places in the Borodino field. Then they drove through the ravine to Semyonovsky, in which the soldiers were pulling the last logs of huts and barns. Then downhill and uphill, they drove forward through broken rye knocked out like hail, along the newly laid artillery road along the thrusts of arable land to the flush [a kind of fortification. (Note. Leo Tolstoy.)], Also then still digging.
Bennigsen stopped at flushes and began to look ahead at the (formerly ours yesterday) Shevardinsky redoubt, on which several horsemen could be seen. The officers said that Napoleon or Murat was there. And everyone looked eagerly at this bunch of horsemen. Pierre also looked there, trying to guess which of these barely visible people was Napoleon. Finally the horsemen left the mound and disappeared.
Bennigsen turned to the general who approached him and began to explain the entire situation of our troops. Pierre listened to Bennigsen's words, straining all his mental powers to understand the essence of the upcoming battle, but with grief felt that his mental abilities were not sufficient for this. He didn't understand anything. Bennigsen stopped talking, and noticing the figure of Pierre listening, he suddenly said, addressing him:
- You, I think, are not interested?
“Oh, on the contrary, it’s very interesting,” Pierre repeated, not entirely truthfully.
With a flush, they drove even farther to the left along a road winding through a dense, low birch forest. In the middle of this
forest, a brown hare with white legs jumped into the road in front of them and, frightened by the stomp of a large number of horses, was so confused that it jumped along the road in front of them for a long time, arousing general attention and laughter, and only when they shouted at him in several voices, he rushed to the side and disappeared into the thicket. After driving two versts through the forest, they drove into a clearing where troops of Tuchkov's corps were stationed, which was supposed to defend the left flank.
Here, on the far left flank, Bennigsen talked a lot and fervently and made, as it seemed to Pierre, an important military order. In front of the location of Tuchkov's troops was an elevation. This elevation was not occupied by troops. Bennigsen loudly criticized this mistake, saying that it was insane to leave the commander-in-chief of the hill unoccupied and place troops under it. Some generals expressed the same opinion. One in particular spoke with military fervor that they had been put here for slaughter. Bennigsen ordered in his own name to move the troops to the heights.
This order on the left flank made Pierre even more doubtful about his ability to understand military affairs. Listening to Bennigsen and the generals condemning the position of the troops under the mountain, Pierre fully understood them and shared their opinion; but precisely because of this, he could not understand how the one who placed them here under the mountain could have made such an obvious and gross mistake.
Pierre did not know that these troops were not deployed to defend the position, as Bennigsen thought, but were placed in a hidden place for an ambush, that is, in order to be unnoticed and suddenly strike the advancing enemy. Bennigsen did not know this and moved the troops forward for special reasons, without telling the commander-in-chief about it.

Prince Andrey on this clear August evening on the 25th was lying with his elbows on his arm in a broken shed in the village of Knyazkov, on the edge of the location of his regiment. Through the hole in the broken wall, he looked at the strip of thirty-year-old birches with chopped-off lower branches going along the fence, at the arable land with heaps of oats smashed on it, and at the bushes, over which the smoke of the fires of soldiers' kitchens could be seen.
No matter how cramped and not needed by anyone, and no matter how hard his life now seemed to Prince Andrey, he, just like seven years ago in Austerlitz on the eve of the battle, felt agitated and irritated.
Orders for tomorrow's battle were given and received by him. There was nothing more for him to do. But his thoughts were the simplest, clearest and therefore terrible thoughts did not leave him alone. He knew that tomorrow's battle should have been the most terrible of all those in which he participated, and the possibility of death for the first time in his life, without any relation to everyday life, without considerations of how it would affect others, but only because attitude towards him, towards his soul, with liveliness, almost certainty, simply and horribly, presented itself to him. And from the height of this performance, everything that previously tormented and occupied him suddenly lit up with a cold white light, without shadows, without perspective, without distinction of outlines. His whole life seemed to him like a magic lantern, into which he looked for a long time through glass and under artificial lighting. Now he suddenly saw, without glass, in the bright daylight, these ill-painted pictures. “Yes, yes, these are those false images that excited and admired and tormented me,” he said to himself, going over in his imagination the main pictures of his magic lantern of life, now looking at them in this cold white light of the day - the clear thought of death. - Here they are, these roughly painted figures, which seemed to be something beautiful and mysterious. Glory, the public good, love for a woman, the fatherland itself - how great these pictures seemed to me, what a deep meaning they seemed to be fulfilled! And all this is so simple, pale and rough in the cold white light of that morning, which, I feel, is rising for me. " The three main griefs of his life in particular held his attention. His love for a woman, the death of his father and the French invasion that captured half of Russia. “Love! .. This girl, who seemed to me full of mysterious powers. How I loved her! I made poetic plans about love, about happiness with her. Oh dear boy! He said aloud angrily. - How! I believed in some kind of ideal love, which should have kept it faithful to me for a whole year of my absence! Like the tender dove of a fable, she should have wither away in separation from me. And all this is much simpler ... All this is terribly simple, disgusting!
My father also built in Bald Hills and thought that this was his place, his land, his air, his peasants; but Napoleon came and, not knowing about his existence, like a splinter from the road, pushed him, and his Bald Mountains and his whole life collapsed. And Princess Marya says that this is a test sent from above. What is the test for when it is no longer and will not be? never again! He's not there! So who is this test? Fatherland, death of Moscow! And tomorrow he will kill me - and not even a Frenchman, but his own, as yesterday a soldier unloaded a gun near my ear, and the French will come, take me by the legs and by the head and throw me into a hole so that I do not stink under their noses, and new conditions will arise. lives that will also be familiar to others, and I will not know about them, and I will not be. "
He looked at the strip of birches with their motionless yellowness, greenery and white bark, glistening in the sun. "To die, so that they would kill me tomorrow, so that I would not be ... so that all this would be, but I would not be." He vividly imagined the absence of himself in this life. And these birches with their light and shadow, and these curly clouds, and this smoke of fires - everything around him was transformed and seemed to be something terrible and threatening. Frost ran down his back. Getting up quickly, he left the barn and began to walk.
Voices were heard from behind the barn.
- Who's there? - Prince Andrew called out.
The red-nosed captain Timokhin, the former company commander of Dolokhov, now, after the loss of officers, the battalion commander, timidly entered the barn. Behind him came the adjutant and the treasurer of the regiment.
Prince Andrew hastily got up, listened to what the officers had to convey to him, gave them some more orders and was about to let them go when a familiar, whispering voice was heard from behind the shed.
- Que diable! [Damn it!] - said the voice of a man banging on something.
Prince Andrew, looking out of the shed, saw Pierre approaching him, who stumbled on a lying pole and almost fell. Prince Andrew was generally unpleasant to see people from his world, especially Pierre, who reminded him of all those difficult moments that he experienced on his last visit to Moscow.
- That's how! - he said. - What are the fates? I didn’t wait.
While he was saying this, there was more than dryness in his eyes and the expression on his whole face - there was hostility, which Pierre immediately noticed. He approached the barn in the most animated state of mind, but seeing the expression on Prince Andrey's face, he felt embarrassed and awkward.
- I came ... so ... you know ... I came ... I'm interested, - said Pierre, already so many times that day that day it was meaningless to repeat this word "interesting." - I wanted to see the battle.
- Yes, yes, but what do the freemasons say about the war? How can you prevent it? - said Prince Andrey mockingly. - Well, what about Moscow? What are mine? Have you finally arrived in Moscow? He asked seriously.
- We've arrived. Julie Drubetskaya told me. I went to see them and did not find them. They left for the Moscow region.

The officers wanted to take their leave, but Prince Andrey, as if not wanting to remain face to face with his friend, invited them to sit and drink tea. Benches and tea were served. The officers, not without surprise, looked at the fat, huge figure of Pierre and listened to his stories about Moscow and the disposition of our troops, which he had managed to drive around. Prince Andrey was silent, and his face was so unpleasant that Pierre turned to the good-natured battalion commander Timokhin than to Bolkonsky.
- So you understand the whole disposition of the troops? - Prince Andrey interrupted him.
- Yes, that is how? - said Pierre. - As a non-military person, I cannot say that completely, but I still understood the general disposition.
- Eh bien, vous etes plus avance que qui cela soit, [Well, you know more than anyone else.] - said Prince Andrew.
- A! - said Pierre with bewilderment, looking through his glasses at Prince Andrey. - Well, how do you say about the appointment of Kutuzov? - he said.
“I was very happy about this appointment, that's all I know,” said Prince Andrey.
- Well, tell me, what is your opinion about Barclay de Tolly? In Moscow, God knows what they said about him. How do you judge him?
“Just ask them,” said Prince Andrey, pointing to the officers.
Pierre, with a condescending questioning smile, with which everyone involuntarily turned to Timokhin, looked at him.
“They saw the light, your Excellency, as the Most Serene One did,” Timokhin said timidly and incessantly looking back at his regimental commander.
- Why is it so? Pierre asked.
- Yes, here at least about firewood or feed, I will report to you. After all, we were retreating from Sventsian, don't you dare touch a twig, or a senz there, or something. After all, we are leaving, he gets it, isn't it, Your Excellency? - he turned to his prince, - don't you dare. In our regiment, two officers were put on trial for such cases. Well, as His Serene Highness did, it just became about it. They saw the light ...
- So why did he forbid?
Timokhin looked around in embarrassment, not understanding how and what to answer such a question. Pierre turned to Prince Andrew with the same question.
“And so as not to ruin the land that we left to the enemy,” said Prince Andrew, maliciously mockingly. - It's very basic; you must not allow to plunder the region and to accustom the troops to looting. Well, in Smolensk, he also correctly judged that the French could bypass us and that they had more strength. But he could not understand that, - suddenly, as if in a thin voice that had escaped, Prince Andrey cried out, - but he could not understand that for the first time we fought there for the Russian land, that there was such a spirit in the troops that I had never seen before, that we fought off the French for two days in a row, and that this success multiplied our strength tenfold. He ordered to retreat, and all efforts and losses were wasted. He did not think about treason, he tried to do everything as best as possible, he thought it over; but from this it does not work. He is no good now precisely because he thinks everything over very thoroughly and carefully, as every German should. How can I tell you ... Well, your father has a German lackey, and he is an excellent lackey and will satisfy all his needs better than you, and let him serve; but if your father is sick at death, you will chase the lackey away and, with your unfamiliar, awkward hands, begin to follow your father and calm him down better than a skillful but stranger. And so they did with Barclay. As long as Russia was healthy, a stranger could serve her, and there was an excellent minister, but as soon as she was in danger; you need your own, dear person. And in your club they thought he was a traitor! By slandering him as a traitor, they will only do what, later, ashamed of their false reproach, they will suddenly turn the traitors into a hero or a genius, which will still be more unfair. He is an honest and very neat German ...

History of Lithuania from Ancient Times to 1569 Gudavičius Edwardas

3. Tribal ethnos of Lithuanians

3. Tribal ethnos of Lithuanians

a. The approach of civilization to the Balts

In the first centuries A.D. NS. the Balts, mainly through intermediaries, establish trade contacts with the provinces of the Roman Empire. The influence of the ancient civilization on the life of the Balts began to appear, albeit insignificant. The great migration of peoples nullified this influence, however, at the end of the early Middle Ages (X-XI centuries), the emerging and expanding Latin Western European and Byzantine Eastern European civilizations began to directly collide with the Balts. This changed the living conditions and existence of the Balts.

The Late Iron Age in Lithuania falls on the first half of the 1st millennium. Its defining feature: the Balts themselves learned to extract iron from the local bog ore. Local iron was supplemented by a multiply increased import of metal. Iron tools helped to speed up and facilitate the work: the ax made it possible to significantly expand forest clearings, the sickle and scythe - to clear forest areas and prepare hay for the winter. The quantitatively and qualitatively grown agriculture has noticeably brought the farmed livestock closer to individual clan farms, stationary camps and corrals. The obtained food supplies and the multiplying tools of labor in some cases made it possible to make long-term savings; these accumulations began to turn into property with all the ensuing social consequences. Comparatively large quantities of accumulated bronze and silver that became widespread determined the transformation of property into wealth. The known availability of iron stimulated the production of weapons designed to protect or seize property and wealth. In the first centuries A.D. NS. the Balts have achieved what Western Europe came to almost a millennium earlier; this indicates a large lag, but one should not forget how quickly it was decreasing.

The first of the sources known to us describing the Balts ("Germany" by the Roman historian Tacitus), characterizing their life at the end of the 1st century AD. e., notes the predominance of a wooden club in armament and a lack of interest in Roman money, however, he calls the Balts good farmers. Tacitus 'information was somewhat belated: the rapidly growing agriculture led to an urgent need for metal implements already at the turn of the 1st-2nd centuries (then Tacitus' Germany was written). It was customary to bury the dead along with a large number of weapons, weapons and /22/ decorations, Roman coins became widespread in the western lands of the Balts, and money savings soon began to appear.

The accumulation of property predetermined differentiation, the separation of wealthy families. The rise in labor productivity led to the emergence of patriarchal slaves. Slaves fed a special layer of the tribal aristocracy. The fortified settlements could no longer accommodate the expanded clan households. Open settlements, family estates and hidden shelters appeared, which were used only in times of danger. By the middle of the 1st millennium, the ever more numerous fortifications, at first small, indicate the possibility of accumulating wealth and strengthening power. The growing tribal aristocracy contributed to the unification of the most permanent and large territorial units, and the very existence of such units contributed to the selection of the most persistent individual Baltic ethnic structures. Sources mention the first Baltic tribal formations in relation to the II-III centuries (Galind, Suduv, or Sudava, villages). True, all these are tribes of the area of ​​the Kurgan culture. It is somewhat more difficult to characterize the area of ​​the hatched pottery culture: written sources of the 1st millennium do not mention it, only recently the first burials dating back to the beginning of this millennium were discovered.

It is not easy to talk about the ethnic processes that took place in the 1st millennium AD. NS. One thing is clear: in the first centuries A.D. NS. Goths lived near Lithuania, in the middle of the 1st millennium the raids of the Huns and Alans reached the present-day central Lithuania. Thus, the great migration of peoples partly affected the inhabitants of Lithuania. Od- /23/ However, the greatest changes were brought about by the invasion of the Slavs from the south into the lands of the Dnieper Balts, which began in the 5th-7th centuries. Many things also changed on the territory of Lithuania at that time.

The Eastern Balts were the ancestors of the Lithuanians and Latgalians ( letgola). Lithuanian and Latvian languages ​​emerged from the Baltic proto-language approximately in the 6th – 7th centuries. In addition, the Balts, united by the culture of hatched ceramics, in the middle of the 1st millennium began to break through to the territory of Central and later Western Lithuania, assimilating local residents. Thus, the Lithuanian tribes expanded their territory and increased in number. Written sources reflect the structure of the settlement of the Lithuanian ethnos only from the 13th century, but it can be judged from it how the ethnos grew, starting from the middle of the 1st millennium.

The cradle of the Lithuanian tribes should be considered the Lithuanian land (only in the narrow sense). This is the area between the middle course of the Nemunas, the rivers Neris and Merkis. For a long time it expanded southward to the upper reaches of the Neman (absorbing the lands of the Yatvingians) and northward, covering the right bank of the Neris to the confluence of the Sventoji River. Very early Lithuanian tribes settled the Nalsiai land ( Nalpia, Nalsha, Nalsia), - modern northeastern Lithuania. Like the Lithuanian land, this territory belonged to the culture of hatched ceramics. Dyaltuvskaya land ( Dyaltuva, Deltuva) spreads around the modern city of Ukmerge. It is also one of the oldest Lithuanian tribal areas. Quite early, the Lithuanians mastered the area around modern Kaunas. Part of the mentioned area was the land of Neris along the left bank of the lower reaches of this river. From this area, the Lithuanians moved to /24/ north and west. The northern stream reached the border of the Semigallian lands (along the Lavuo and Musha rivers), the largest isolated territory here was the land of Upite (an area near modern Panevezys). So the Lithuanians gradually surrounded the lands of the villages (the vicinity of the modern cities of Anyksciai, Kupiskis and Rokiskis) from the west (Upite), south (Dyaltuva) and east (Nalsha). The western stream from the vicinity of Kaunas spread up to the southern habitats of modern Samogitians ( dunininkov, dunininkai). After the assimilation of the Curonians ( corsa, kurons) or the Western Balts close to them, the Lithuanian ethnos of Samogitians (Zhmudin) was formed here. As the Lithuanian ethnos grew, the tribal organization could no longer operate effectively in the expanded territory. Lithuanians split into at least two tribes: Eastern Lithuanians (called directly Lithuanians) in the lands of Nalsha and Dyaltuva, and Lithuanians-Samogitians in the lands of modern South Samogitia. It is unclear whether the Lithuanians of Central Lithuania (in the lands of Upite and Neris) were a separate tribe, or whether they belonged to the Eastern Lithuanian tribe. The origin of the ethnonym “Aukštaitians” (Aukštaity) is also unclear: if the Lithuanians of Central Lithuania were a separate tribe, then the Aukštaitians should have been called by his name, if not, then the ethnonym Aukštaity is applicable to Lithuanians of both Central and Eastern Lithuania, i.e. corresponds to the modern understanding. The boundaries of the dialects only partially coincided with the structure of these lands. On the Lithuanian land (in the narrow sense), dialects prevailed, now ranked among the dialects of the southern Aukštaits; on the lands of Nalsha, Dyaltuva and Upite - eastern aukshtaits; on the Neris land in the eastern part of the Samogit territory (Siauliai, Aryogaly and Batigaly lands) - western aukstaits; in the western half of the territory /25/ Mayts (lands of Raseiniai, Kraziai, Laukuva and Karshuva) - Samogitians.

In addition to the villages, other Baltic tribes also lived on the modern territory of Lithuania. Almost all of Zanemanye belonged to the Yatvingians (Suduvas, Dainavs), the vicinity of Yoniskis, Pakruojis and Pasvalis belonged to the Semigallians ( jamgaly, semigola), Kriatingi, Mazeikiai, Klaipeda, Skuodasa, Plunge - Curonian, Silute - Skalvam. Meanwhile, the southern borders of the lands of eastern Nalsha and Lithuania at the beginning of the II millennium stretched far beyond the current borders.

It is quite possible that the aspiration of the Lithuanian tribes to the west was caused by the invasion of the Slavs into the northern part of the Dnieper basin, which "made the Dnieper Balts" "Slavic" in the 7th – 9th centuries. The penetration of the Prussians along the Neman in the second half of the 1st millennium is also noteworthy.

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the author

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III. PENATAL AND COMMUNITY-BREEDING PERIOD

We offer an overview, prepared on the basis of the materials of several official and semi-official Lithuanian publications for foreign countries, about the early Lithuanian history, including the period of pagan Lithuania and the question of the origin of Lithuanians.

Continuation of the publication on the origin of Lithuania and Lithuanian peculiarities. See the beginning at

A little about Lithuanian ethnography and geography

Baltic tribes in the XII century.

During the indicated period, they were still pagans.

These tribes later formed two kindred peoples - Lithuanians and Latvians.

(Fig. From the official Lithuanian publication for foreign countries for the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Grundwald (2010).

On the territory of the Baltic States (i.e., an area roughly corresponding to modern Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, as well as the former East Prussia, - the German territory, which is now in Russia) during the period of the beginning of the formation of the Lithuanian statehood in the XI-XII centuries. inhabited by two Finno-Ugric tribes: the Ests (the ancestors of modern Estonians) and their kindred Livs (nowadays there are only a few hundred Livs, living mainly in the territory of Latvia); as well as the peoples of the Baltic group, which included the tribal formations of Lithuania, Samogitians, Yatvingians, Curonians, Latgalians and Prussians.

The knightly orders, which we talked about above, conquered that part of the Baltic region, which became known as Livonia (modern Estonia and Latvia), i.e. the territory of the Estonians, the Livs, related to them, as well as part of the Balts - Latgalians and a number of Curonians. Also, the entire area of ​​residence of the Prussians was gradually conquered, who later completely assimilated with the German population of the newly formed German East Prussia.

From the peoples of the Baltic group that survived in the Baltics, two related peoples were formed - the Lithuanians (they included the Lithuanian tribe itself and its offshoot of the Samogitians, as well as the Yatvagians and part of the Curonians) and the Latvians (include the Latgalians and partly the Curonians tribe).

Thus, in our time, on the territory of the three Baltic republics, there are three titular nations: one of Finno-Ugric origin - Estonians, who have common roots with the Finns; and the Baltic group distinct from the Estonians - Lithuanians and Latvians, related to each other.

Of the three currently existing titular peoples of the Baltic republics, only Lithuanians were able to maintain their statehood from ancient times for almost a millennium until the onset of modern times (Lithuanians lost their statehood only about 350 years ago, having restored it in the 20th century). In turn, Estonians and Latvians acquired their statehood only in the 20th century.

The state of Lithuania is a medieval superpower - from sea to sea (marked under the number 1 on the map).

The Lithuanian-Polish state in 1466 (shortly after the unification of the Lithuanian and Polish crown and during the reign of the Lithuanian prince and the Polish king Casimir IV) and adjacent state formations:

So, under the number 1 is the Grand Duchy of Lithuania;

Number 2 - Kingdom of Poland;

Adjacent state formations: 3 - Order of the Knights of the Sword (in Polish Zakon Kawalerów Mieczowych);

4, 5 and 6 - the Pskov, Novgorod republics and the Tver principality, respectively;

7 - The Golden Horde; 8 - Muscovy;

9 - Czech Republic; 10 - Hungary; 11 - Denmark;

12 - Crimean Khanate under the vassalage of the Ottoman Empire;

13 - Austria;

14 - the lands of the German knights in East Prussia under the vassalage of the Lithuanian-Polish state;

15 Polish principality of Mazovia under the vassalage of the Lithuanian-Polish state;

16 - Brandenburg;

17 and 18 - Pomeranian principalities (states with Polish and German populations, during the period under the influence of the Polish crown);

19 - Sweden;

Interesting facts about Lithuania

The state of Lithuania is a medieval superpower"After the Pact (Union) was concluded with neighboring Poland in 1387, by 1430 the possessions and power of Lithuania stretched from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea" (The Lithuanian-Polish state directly bordered with. Prim. Site). (

Modern Lithuania (2012) is the largest of the three Baltic states... Its territory is 65300 sq. km. (which is roughly equal to two Belgiums). The area is a fertile lowland dotted with many lakes. The greatest length of the border with Belarus - 502 km; The length of the Lithuanian coast of the Baltic Sea is 99 km; ( From the directory "Vilnius in Russian" published by the Vilnius Municipal Government approx. 2007 g.).

Note that at present Lithuania happily does not have a common border with the main massif of Russia, with the exception of the border with the Russian enclave region in the former East Prussia (227 km).

The geographical center of Europe is located in Lithuania... In 1989, the National Geographical Institute of France established that the geographical center of Europe is located 24 km northwest of Vilnius. ( From the reference book “Lithuania. New and unexpected ”. Published by the State Department of Tourism of Lithuania, 2005). (The geographical center of Europe means the Lithuanian village of Giria. Note site)

Lithuania is the only one of the three Baltic states that has a thousand-year history, and in 2009 the millennium of Lithuania was celebrated. (From the reference book "Lithuania. Millennium in the center of Europe." Published by the State Department of Tourism of Lithuania, 2005)... This means that among the three currently existing Baltic states, only Lithuanians managed to preserve their statehood from pagan times to the historical period of modern times (when in 1569 Lithuania was completely merged with Poland). At the same time, the neighbors of the Lithuanians - Estonians and Latvians from the time of the conquest of Livonia by the knights-crusaders (the territory of present-day Latvia and Estonia) approx. 1200 was continuously under the control of the Germans, the Poles, the Swedes, the Danes, the Russians.

The nuns were the first to point out the fact of the existence of Lithuania, describing the attempts to baptize pagans... As the above referenced writes "Vilnius in Russian": “The history of Lithuania can be traced back to the centuries at least from the 7th century, when the first Baltic tribes settled on the banks of its many rivers. The word Lithuania, or rather the Latin name Lituae, was first mentioned in the Quedlinburg Chronicle of 1009. The text of the chronicle read: that the archbishop "in Lithuania, the pagans stunned with a blow to the head, and he went to heaven." (So ​​in the text of the modern Lithuanian reference book "Vilnius in Russian." It is interesting that the abbey complex still exists, but since the period of the Reformation it is not a monastery, but just a parish that belongs to the Lutheran Church, which, as you know, did not approve of monasteries. Bruno, who appears in the text of the Annals of Quedlinburg with the first mention of Lithuania, was associated with an unsuccessful attempt at baptizing the local leader Netimer, who ruled the Baltic tribe of Prussians (about them in the main text of the review).

Pagan priest Lizdeika interprets the dream of Prince Gediminas associated with the founding of Vilnius.

“Settlements on the territory of modern Vilnius existed as early as the 7th century. BC, however, in written sources (which means its official recognition by historical science), the city was first mentioned only in the XIV century, during the reign of the Grand Duke Gediminas.

According to legend, after a successful hunt, the prince camped for the night not far from the place where the rivers Vilnia and Neris merge. Tired, he went to bed. And the prince dreamed of an iron wolf, whose howl was like the howl of a hundred wolves. What does that mean?

Gediminas asked Krivu Krivaitis (High Priest of Lithuania) Lizdeika to interpret the meaning of the dream. The priest said that the wolf is a symbol of a large and strong city, and his howl is rumor, glory that will spread throughout the world. The dream turned out to be prophetic. Vilnius appeared in this place. 1323 is recognized as the year of the foundation of the city. Gediminas began to invite European traders, artisans and religious figures to the new capital. In the next two hundred years, Vilnius flourished, attracting foreigners: Slavs, Germans, Tatars and Jews (the city is still called Northern Jerusalem). At the beginning of the 16th century, Vilnius was surrounded by a defensive wall, a small fragment of which has survived to this day. (From the reference book "Vilnius in Russian" published by the Vilnius Municipal Government around 2007)

Compiling a website

In the geography of Lithuania, the official directory "Lithuania" (Publication of the State Department of Tourism of Lithuania, 2005) highlights the following among the most important:

« And although there are no mountains or dense forests in Lithuania, its beauty lies in the diversity of the landscape. Between the hills, gently growing out of the smooth surface of the plains, rivers slowly flow and lakes turn blue. The largest river, the Nemunas, carries with it the waters of all other rivers all the way to the Baltic Sea, where one of the most wonderful places in the whole is located. « amber coast» ... This is the Curonian Spit, a narrow strip of sand dunes and pines, with a total length of about 100 km, which starts in the south-west and reaches almost to the port of Klaipeda, skirting the huge Curonian Lagoon. For centuries, the sea has carried its precious gift, amber, to these golden sands. The Curonian Spit is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Lithuania through the centuries

“Before the onset of the Middle Ages, the population of the Baltic coast, consisting of Samogitians, Yatvingians, Latgalians and Prussians (samogitians, yatvingians, curonians, latgalians prussians), the ancestors of modern Lithuanians and Latvians, flourished in the amber trade. (The official publication "Lithuania. New and Unexpected" of 2005 also calls the Baltic tribe of the Aistians, who traded amber with the ancient Romans, as the most ancient ancestors of the Lithuanians.

The first mention of Lithuania and Lithuanians is contained in the annals XI-th century. Further evolution of the Lithuanian state took place due to the need to fight the "religious" fervor of the German knights who began the crusades. Lithuania was the last pagan state in Europe to be converted to Christianity.

XIII century. Local leaders united under the leadership of the first and only king of Lithuania, Mindaugas, to resist the invasions of the Teutonic and Livonian orders. The united Lithuanian army inflicted a heavy defeat on the Livonian knights of the Order of the Swordsmen at the Battle of Saul (1236). (Saul is a modern Lithuanian city of Shauliai. Approx. Site). Mindaugas was baptized and crowned in 1253, receiving Papal recognition. However, Mindaugas was soon overthrown (1261), and Catholicism was abandoned in Lithuania. At the same time, the reign of Mindaugas completed the transformation of the Lithuanian lands into a powerful Grand Duchy.

The XIV century witnessed the founding of Vilnius (under the name of Vilna, Vilna - Vilna, Wilno) in 1323 under the auspices of the Grand Duke Gediminas (Gediminas - 1316-1341). Gediminas built this fortified settlement at the confluence of the rivers Viliya (Neris) and Vilnia, where he invited merchants, artisans and monks.

According to legend, when Gediminas dreamed of a new fortified city-fortress on the top of the hill at the mouth of the Vilnia, he heard the howl of a wolf. This howl of the wolf was interpreted as an auspicious sign to found a magnificent city and fort - the future capital of the kingdom. The mythological wolf (lit. vilkas), symbolizing power, greatness and glory, left its name in the name of the city (Vilnius, Vilnius).

The conquests of Gediminas in the East led to the subordination of the Smolensk principality. However, the intensification of fighting in the West, combined with the growing threat of Muscovite forces in the East, drew the Lithuanians in search of a dynastic union with Poland. In accordance with the provisions ZAkona Krevo (Krevo Act 1385) - ( ... Approx. site), Grand Duke Jagiello (or otherwise Jagiello, Jogaila - Jagiello) married the Polish princess Jadyyga, also known as Jadwiga of Anjou, and converted to Catholicism. The signing of the union ended the political and cultural isolation of Lithuania. In 1387, Vilnius adopted the Magdeburg Law (Magdeburg Law is a medieval system of city self-government, which came from the German city of the same name, Note site).

The Jagiellonian dynasty ruled the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom for two centuries (1386 −1572).

XV century. The beginning of the century was marked by the defeat of the Teutonic knights at the Battle of Grunwald / Griinwald (lit. Zalgiris) in 1410 by Polish-Lithuanian troops under the joint leadership of Ladislas Jagiellon and Grand Duke Vytautas. (In other words, Jagailo and Vitovt, respectively).

Vytautas the Great, one of the most prominent medieval Lithuanian politicians, who centralized the Grand Duchy and successfully waged a war against Muscovy. By the time of his death in 1430, Lithuanian hegemony had reached its zenith, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Seas. His death, however, also put an end to the independent state of Lithuania. In 1440 the Polish and Lithuanian crowns were united.

According to the terms of the Brest Union (1565) Orthodox Church Lithuania comes under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church as Uniate Catholics. (The Brest union was adopted after the congress of the Orthodox clergy of the Lithuanian-Polish state in Brest. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of the believers in the territory where modern Lithuania is located, after the adoption of Christianity and to this day remained Catholics. Note site).

Under the tutelage of Jagiellonian benefactors - Zygmunt the Old and Zygmunt August, the ideas of humanism are introduced and the reformation spread in Lithuania. (Zygmunt the Old and Zygmunt August, who successively ruled from 1507 to 1572 as kings of Poland and grand dukes of Lithuania, father and son, were the last representatives of the Lithuanian Jagiellonian dynasty on the throne of the Lithuanian-Polish state. Although these two rulers professed Catholicism, they did not lead At the same time, in 1563, Zygmunt Augustus equalized the rights of the Orthodox and Catholics, which was reflected in the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1566. Note site).

Significant cultural achievements of that time include the printing of books, the publication of the statute of Lithuania, and the founding of Vilnius University (1579) by the Jesuits.

The conclusion of the Union of Lublin (1569), marked the final transformation of the Polish-Lithuanian union into a single state Commonwealth - Rzeczpospolita (in Polish Rzeczpospolita (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) can be translated as "Commonwealth". Note ..

The end of the Jagiellonian dynasty (1572) and the beginning of the election of non-local kings to the Rzeczpospolita throne led to the political marginalization of Lithuania. Polish became the state language.

XVII / XVIII century. Constant wars with Russia and Sweden over Livonia, Belarus and Ukraine weakened Rzeczpospolita... Vilnius was repeatedly ravaged by fires, epidemics and plundered by Swedes and Cossacks. The triple alliance between Russia, Austria and Prussia led to the division of Rzeczpospolita (in 1772, 1793 and 1795). According to the results of the partitions, Lithuania was attributed to the tsarist provincial administrative system (Russia). The tsarist power brought intensive Russification and strict censorship to Lithuania ", (From the reference book" Vilnius in your pocket ", published in the first year after the restoration of Lithuanian independence, 1992.

This review is a website based on several official and semi-official Lithuanian publications, namely: the directory “Lithuania” (Publication of the State Department of Tourism of Lithuania, 2005, Russian); the official illustrated Lithuanian edition published jointly by the Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs of Lithuania to 600th anniversary Battle of Grunwald (2010, Russian); the guide to the Lithuanian capital and Lithuania “Vilnius in your pocket” (1992 and the latest editions, English), the guide “Get to know Vilnius” (Vilnius Tourist Center, circa 2007, Russian); other materials.

The Baltic tribes that inhabited the southeastern regions of the Baltic in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. NS. culturally, they differed little from the Krivichi and Slovenians. They lived mainly in settlements, engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. Researchers believe that arable farming here supplanted slash-and-burn agriculture in the first centuries of our era. The main agricultural implements were plow, ralo, hoe, sickle and scythe. In the IX-XII centuries. rye, wheat, barley, oats, peas, turnips, flax and hemp were grown.

From the VII-VIII centuries. Fortified settlements began to be built, where handicraft production and tribal nobility were concentrated. One of these settlements - Kenteskalns - was protected by an earthen rampart up to 5 m high, which had a log base inside. Dwellings were ground log buildings with stoves or hearths.

In the X-XII centuries. fortified settlements turned into feudal castles. Such are Tervete, Mezotne, Koknese, Asote - in Latvia, Apuole, Veluona, Medvechalis - in Lithuania. These were the settlements of feudal lords and artisans and merchants dependent on them. Some of them are surrounded by settlements. This is how the cities of Trakai, Kernavė and others appeared.

In the second half of the 1st millennium A.D. NS. Latgalians, Semigallians, villages, Samogitians, Curonians and Skalvians were characterized by burials on burial grounds without burials according to the rite of corpses. On the Curonian burial grounds, burials were sometimes indicated by a ring-shaped crown of stones. In emaitic cemeteries, large stones were placed at the bottom of the grave pits, more often at the head and feet of the buried. A characteristic Baltic ritual was the position in the graves of men and women in the opposite direction. So, the male corpses of the Latgalians were oriented with their heads to the east, female ones - to the west. The Aukštaits buried the dead under the mounds according to the rite of cremations. Until the 8th-9th centuries. the mounds were covered with stones at the base. The number of burials in the embankments ranges from 2-4 to 9-10.

In the last centuries of the 1st millennium A.D. NS. the rite of cremation from eastern Lithuania gradually spreads among the Samogitians and Curonians, and at the beginning of the 2nd millennium finally displaces corpses. Among the Latvian tribes, even at the beginning of the 2nd millennium, the inhumation rite was dominant 15.

The Baltic burials are characterized by a large number of bronze and silver adornments, often accompanied by weapons and tools. The Balts achieved high skill in bronze casting and processing of silver and iron. Silver jewelry was made with great taste. The folk art of the Balts goes back centuries. The striving for beauty was reflected in various areas of material culture, and above all in clothing and jewelry - head wreaths, neck bracelets, bracelets, brooches, pins 16.

Women's clothing consisted of a shirt, a belt (skirt) and a shoulder cover. Shirts were fastened with horseshoe-shaped or other fibulae. The skirt at the waist was pulled together by a fabric or woven belt, and along the bottom edge it was sometimes decorated with bronze spirals or beads. The shoulder coverlet (skeeta for Lithuanians, villaine for Latvians) was made of woolen or semi-woolen fabric, made using the twill weaving technique in three or four heddlers and dyed dark blue. Some shoulder bedspreads were decorated with a woven belt or fringe around the edges. But more often they were richly decorated with bronze spirals and rings, diamond-shaped plaques and pendants. Shoulder covers were fastened with pins, brooches or horseshoe buckles. Men's clothing consisted of a shirt, pants, caftan, belt, hat and cloak. Shoes were mostly made of leather 17.

Casting was widely used for the manufacture of bronze jewelry. At the same time, starting from the middle of the 1st millennium A.D. NS. metal forging is increasingly used. In the IX-XI centuries. silver-plated bronze ornaments were often made. Two methods were used: 1) silvering by the method of burning out; 2) coating of bronze items with sheet silver. Silver leaves were often used to decorate some brooches, pendants, pins, and belt accessories. They were glued to bronze with glue, the composition of which has not yet been studied 18.

Many decorations and other products were richly ornamented. For this purpose, chasing, engraving, inlaying, etc. were used. The most common were geometric patterns.

Headdresses of married women and girls differ. The women covered their heads with linen cloths, which were fastened with pins on the right side. Pins with a triangular, wheel-shaped or plate-like head were widespread. Girls wore metal wreaths, which, according to funeral traditions, were also worn by older women. The most common among the Semigallians, Latgalians, Selonians and Aukstaits were wreaths, consisting of several rows of spirals interspersed with plates. Along with them, the Latgallians and Semigallians also have metal cord wreaths, often supplemented by various pendants. In Western Lithuanian lands, girls wore elegant round hats, richly decorated with bronze spirals and pendants.

A very common group of jewelry is made up of neck torcs. In rich Latgalian burials there are up to six hryvnias. Torques with a torched bow and torcs with thickened or widening ends overlapping each other were very fashionable. Torques with flared lamellar ends are often decorated with trapezoidal pendants. From the IX century. twisted hryvnia spread.

Luxurious necklaces made of amber beads, ribbed beads of dark blue glass and barrel-shaped bronze beads are characteristic of Western Lithuanian regions. Sometimes necklaces were composed of bronze spirals or spiral beads and ring-like appendages.

The Latvian tribes almost did not wear necklaces. But bronze breast chains were popular among women. They were usually hung in several rows from a plate, openwork or wire chain-holder. At the ends of the chains, as a rule, there were various bronze pendants - trapezoidal, bells, in the form of double-sided ridges, lamellar and openwork zoomorphic ones.

Another group of breast and shoulder ornaments are brooches, horseshoe clasps and pins. Crossbow brooches - annular, with poppy-shaped capsules at the ends, cruciform and stepped - are characteristic of western and central Lithuania. On the territory of the Curonians and Latgalians, men wore expensive owl brooches - luxurious bronze objects with silver plating, sometimes inlaid with colored glass.

The horseshoe-shaped fasteners of the Lithuanian-Latvian lands are quite diverse. The most common clasps were with spiral or tube ends. Horseshoe clasps with multi-faceted, star-shaped and poppy-shaped heads are also common. Some examples of horseshoe-shaped fasteners have a complex structure of several twisted plaits. Fasteners with zoomorphic ends are also widespread.

Pins were used by the Curonians and Samogitians and were used to fasten clothes and fasten a headdress. Among them stand out pins with ring-shaped heads, pins with bell-shaped, triangular and cruciform heads. The cruciform heads of the pins, which were prevalent in western Lithuania, were covered with sheet silver and decorated with dark blue glass inserts.

Bracelets and rings were worn on both hands, often several at once. One of the most widespread types was spiral bracelets, which, apparently, is due to the widespread existence of the cult of the snake among the Baltic tribes. Spiral bracelets resemble a snake in their shape, entwined around the arm. The prevalence of bracelets and horseshoe-shaped fasteners with snake-headed ends is also associated with this cult. A numerous and very characteristic group is made up of the so-called massive bracelets, semicircular, triangular or multifaceted in cross-section, with thickened ends. Bracelets of other shapes decorated with geometric patterns were also widespread.

Spiral rings and rings with a widened middle part, decorated with geometric motifs or imitation of twisting and spiral ends, are widespread.

The amber found near the Baltic Sea contributed to the widespread manufacture of various decorations from it.

Among the Lithuanian and Prussian-Yatvingian tribes, from the first centuries of our era, the custom was widespread to bury a horse together with a dead or dead rider. This ritual is associated with the pagan ideas of the Balts 19. Due to this, the equipment of the rider and the riding horse is well represented in the Lithuanian materials.

The horse's equipment consisted of a bridle, bit, blanket, saddle. The most luxurious was, as a rule, the bridle. It was made of leather belts, crossed in various ways. The crossing points were fastened with bronze or iron plaques, forgings, often inlaid or completely covered with silver. The bridle belts were decorated with two or three rows of silver cones. Sometimes the bridles were supplemented with plaques and bells. Ornamental motives on the plaques: chased dots, circles, rhombuses and double braids. On upper part the bridles were also worn with bronze spirals or chains with trapezoidal pendants.

The bits were two-piece or three-piece and ended with rings or ornate cheekpieces. Straight cheekpieces were sometimes decorated with stylized zoomorphic images. Silver plated iron cheekpieces are a common find. There are also bone cheekpieces, usually decorated with geometric motifs. A stylized horse head is depicted at the end of a bone cheekpiece from the Graužiai burial ground.

The blankets were decorated with rhombic plaques and bronze spirals along the edges. There are various iron buckles and saddle stirrups. The bows of the stirrups are ornamented with oblique and transverse cuts and are often covered with silver and decorated with chased triangles, triangles with grain or zoomorphic images.

The armaments of the Lithuanian-Latvian tribes mainly belong to the types widespread in Europe. Its originality is reflected only in ornamentation. Geometric motifs of triangles, crosses, circles, straight and wavy lines prevail.

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