Current Issues of the Eastern Slavs Ethnic History Research During Middle Ages

Abstract

The statements of a part of modern historians and politicians about the existence of a single Eastern Slavic people in the form of the so-called Old Rus nationality makes it necessary to once again turn to the consideration of this rather difficult problem. First of all, to study at the present scientific level the fundamental principles of such a process in medieval times.The information available today makes it possible to speak of initial impulses in the process of settling in different regions of Eastern Europe and even beyond its borders (in the Balkans and in Central Europe) precisely from the south of East Slavic ecumene. Here, a new ethnic community was formed with the participation of the descendants of the old Scythian-Sarmatian systems, which had a significant impact on the local Slavic world. Later, representatives of the Germanic and Turkic language groups (Goths and Huns) joined the situation, which, in turn, to some extent provoked such a phenomenon as the Great Migration of Nations and the final formation of the three branches of the Slavic world. Speaking of the East Slavic ecumene, in the second half of the І thousand AD on its territory about 15 tribal unions were formed, which later transformed into tribal reigns. In the more northern areas, in the territories of modern Belarus and Russia, the ancient Balts and Finno-Ugrians, elements of the old substrate structures assimilated by new settlers, took part in the ethnic development of the Slavs. All of them together at the turn of the І—ІІ thousand AD took part in the emergence of a new formation known to contemporaries under the name “Rus” or “Russian land”. However, it was also quite unstable, and therefore was perceived mainly only by representatives of the new social elite of the feudal society. The prevailing quantitatively rural population in the expanses of Eastern Europe was generally poorly aware of such unity. Such a “world” broke up in the 13 century as a result of a global catastrophe associated with the invasion of the hordes of Batu Khan. Further historical processes that often had already had regional specifics (in particular, the emergence of the Sevriuk society on the Ukrainian—Russian—Belorussian borderland) led to the gradual formation of three modern East Slavic peoples. Although in this seemingly fully resolved issue, certain nuances can be traced that deserve further research.