Radimichi

According to the chronicles, the name comes from the name of the leader Radim , led by whom the Radimichi, allegedly came from the pro-Polish (Lyashsky) lands ^[3] . Radimichi settlement is Sozh basin . In the "Tale of Bygone Years" it is said "... and when Rimim came to Syzhu, and was called Radimichi" ^[1] .

In the chronicle list of reignings no Radicic. However, from other places of the chronicles it is clear that the Radichi were ruled by tribal leaders, had their own army and remained independent until the last decades of the 10th century.

In 885, Prince Oleg of Kiev established his power over the Radimichi and obliged them to pay him a tribute paid earlier to the Khazars :

In 907, Oleg Radimichi’s troops took part in the legendary campaign against Constantinople :

After some time, the Radimichi were freed from the power of the Kiev princes, but in 984 a new march on Radimichi took place. Voivode of Kiev Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich Wolf Tail met with the army Radimichi on the tributary of the Sozh River Pishchan at Proposk (present Slavgorod ). Radimichi were broken. Their lands were part of Kievan Rus . The last time Radiches are mentioned in annals under 1169 .

The 12th century includes written information about the cities of Radimichi - Krichev ( Krechut , 1136), Propoisk ( Praposhask , 1136), Gomel ( Gomiy , 1142), Rogachev (1142) and Chechersk (1159).

Due to the obvious lack of written sources, the study of radiches is impossible without the involvement of a wide range of material sources . The most productive in this regard are the archaeological studies of ancient burial mounds . In the 19th century, N. M. Turbin, A. S. Uvarov , M. M. Filonov, E. R. Romanov , D. Ya. Samokvasov , P. M. Eremenko, V. B. Antonovich , M.V. Fursov, S.Yu. Cholovskiy ^[6] and V.I. Sizov .

The predecessors of the Radiches in Sozh were carriers of the Kolochin archaeological culture ^[7] .

In the first half of the 20th century, such researchers as S. M. Sokolovsky, I. Kh. Yushchenko, I. A. Serbov , K. M. Polikarpovich , S. A. Dubinsky , S. Kh. Bobrykin, S. S. Deev and P. S. Tkachevsky. In the second half - F. M. Zavernyaev, V. A. Padin, I. I. Artemenko, G. F. Solovyova, Ya. G. Rier and V. V. Bogomolnikov. So, for example, V.A. Padin investigated the Radimich- Seversky Quetunsky burial ground .

In the 19th century, it was discovered that the Semigray temporal rings , which are considered the main ethno-determining feature of Radimichi, are very densely concentrated in the Posozhie.

In 1932 a monograph by B. A. Rybakov was published, in which Radimich kurgans and their clothing inventories received a scientific systematization ^[8] . In addition, Rybakov outlined the area of ​​resettlement of Radimichi and showed the chronological evolution of Radimich barrows.

Judging by the spread of seven-ray temporal rings, in the 10th - 12th centuries Radimich territory was occupied mainly by the basin of the lower and upper Sozh and between the Sozh and the Dnieper rivers. Porech'e Dnieper was the borderland of the Radiches with the Dregovichi . At the same time, the Dregovichi penetration into the territory of their neighbors is noticeable. In the southeast, the radio stations were neighbors with the northerners. The boundary between them passed between the Sozh and Desna rivers, only in certain places the range of the Radimichi reached the Desna, and on its left tributaries the Radimichi came into contact with the Vyatichi or Northerners .

On the territory of the Radimichi, kurgans with burials according to the rite of burnout are few in number. Most of them are located along the banks of large rivers - Sozh, Iputi and Besedi . The peculiarity of the Radimich area is the sharp predominance of the mounds with burnt-in-place mounds. In this case, the burning was carried out in most cases not on the horizon , but on the so-called bedding. GV Solovieva suggested that mounds with burned burns in the embankment can be considered specifically radiometric ^[9] . However, such mounds were also encountered outside the Radichesky area ^[10] . There are also Radium mounds with cremations on the horizon.

The size of the funeral fires usually have oval-round outlines. Calcined bones were often left intact. In such mounds, one can see that the dead were laid on a fire in the direction of west-east. However, it is not possible to determine in which direction the head of the deceased was directed. Only in one mound, researchers were able to determine the eastern orientation of the corpse. The structure of the funeral fireplaces resembles the tower-houses. Real dominoes are open in the Radimich mounds.

There were several cases of incomplete burnout in Radimich land. In such mounds, both the western and eastern orientations of the dead are known. It is impossible to date them due to the lack of things in the burials.

Most of the mounds with burning are devoid of things. Apparently, jewelry items usually burned on funeral pyres. It is very difficult to determine the exact date of Radium mounds with cremations. Similar mounds in other places usually date back to the 9th — 10th centuries. There are no materials for dating them at an earlier time available to researchers. The mounds excavated by G. F. Solov'eva in Demyanki are barrel-shaped gilded and silvered beads from the 10th century.

In the last third of the 10th century, the first burials according to the rite of destruction appear in the land of the Radimachus . Such mounds are more or less common throughout the Radiches. On the site chosen for the construction of the mound, a fire was kindled. Apparently, this is a relic of the cremation of the dead. From such fires in the grounds of the mounds remained a layer of ash and small embers. Such a ring, called the "circle of fire" by researchers, is a specific feature of the Radimich kurgans. GF Solovyov believes that “rings of fire” refer to the 10th — 12th centuries and are characteristic of mounds with corpses ^[11] .

The custom of arranging ritual bonfires at the burial site was common in the XI-XII centuries. But already at the turn of the XI and XII centuries, mounds appear without remnants of fireplaces. There are few burials in soil pits.

Boris Rybakov based on finds of coins dated burial mounds with corpses on the horizon of the XI-XII centuries, and burial mounds with burials in the pits - mainly the XII century ^[12] . I agree with this dating and Valentin Sedov ^[13] .

The position of the dead in the Radium burial mounds is mainly oriented with the head to the west, although burial with the orientation of the dead head for the east is also not uncommon. In double burials, the dead, as a rule, are oriented in opposite directions: men with their heads to the east, women to the west. Women who are buried with their heads to the east are very rare. Corruption sites with a northern orientation in the mounds of Radimichi were encountered only twice. This rite is associated with the Finno-Ugrians .

Radimich kurgan inventory is quite diverse, but most of the items have many analogies in the mounds of other communities. The Radium proper, as already mentioned, are seven-ray temporal rings. Their flaps are smooth or ornamented with arcuate strips. Researchers noted that the early temporal rings have a richer ornamentation , later - more often devoid of patterns. Seven-rayed jewelry was worn one at a time or several at each temple. P. M. Eremenko also noticed that during excavations they were found “pierced through a strip of leather, at the same distance, one below the other” ^[14] .

There are burials with exceptionally ring-shaped temporal rings in the Radium kurgans, and a fragment of a wire knotted ring was found in the mound near the village of Shapchitsy together with five seven-rayed ornaments.

Cervical hryvnias are usually not found in Volhynians , glades , Drevlyans and Dregovichs , but they are rather common in the lands of Radimichi. The closest and numerous analogies of these ornaments are found in the antiquities of Latvia and Lithuania . The Baltic prototype also has a cervical hryvnia with setting polyhedral ends from a barrow near the village of Lugovets . Star-shaped (radiant) buckles, bone appendages in the form of ducks, bronze coils, snake-headed bracelets and other items found in radio mounds also have a Balt origin.

In the XII-XII centuries, in the Radimich kurgans, the Baltic elements (eastern orientation, decorations) are found in greater numbers than in the areas of other chronicle communities. This fact may indicate a lesser influence of the Slavs or their later arrival on these lands ^[15] .

“The Tale of Bygone Years” reports about the Lyashsky origin of the Radichiches: “... Radimichi bo ... from Lyakhov” ^[1] and “Bysha from Radich, from the Lyakhiv family; Before all that is present, and to pay, a tribute to Russia ” ^[16] . These words of the chronicler had a great influence on many researchers. Medieval Polish chroniclers - Jan Dlugosh , Maciej Stryjkovsky and others, as well as historians of the 18th and 19th centuries, unconditionally recognized the Polish origins of the Radimachs.

Alexey Shakhmatov tried to reinforce the chronicle report about Lyashsky's origin of radio language with linguistic data, referring to the fact that the area of radio Radiches now belongs to the territory of the Belarusian language , in which there are many coincidences with the Polish Error in footnotes ^? : Missing closing tag </ref> . According to Karsky, the chronicle message about the Lyashsky origin of the Radiches testifies not to the fact that they were the Lyash tribe, but to the fact that they migrated to the Sozh from more western regions, where they were neighbors with the Lyash tribes. This opinion was also supported by Lubor Niederle , who considered the Bug and Narew basins to be the original area of ​​the Radimicha ^[17] .

Attempts were repeatedly made to determine the area from which the radiches came to Sozh using the mapping of toponyms with the base rad- . However, such toponyms apparently originate from the anthroponym Radim , which is spread over a much larger territory than the designated regions.

Based on the data, hydronimics succeeded in establishing some similarity between the Posozhya hydronyms and the hydronyms of a small part of the Upper Dniester. It is the region of the Upper Dniester and is, according to some historians, the area from which Radimichi migrated to the Sozh basin ^[18] .

The connection between the Radiches and the pre-Radic population of Posozhiya, observed both in material culture and rituals , suggests that the newcomer Slavs felt the influence of the Baltic population here. It is also possible to make an assumption about the small number of alien Slavs.

Most researchers believe that the ethnonym " Radimichi " is of Baltic origin. So, the closest to this term are the Lithuanian terms radimas - location, radimviete - location ^[19] . George Khaburgaev believed that the term “ Radimichi ” was derived from the historically earlier name of the Balt ethnic community, which was Slavicized by the 9th-10th centuries ^[20] .

The chronicle reports on the origin of the Radiches from the mythical person Radim: “... Radimichi bo and Vyatichi from the Poles. Bjasta bo has 2 brothers in their allotment, - Radim, and the other Vyatko, - and having come to Radzhi's gray-haired Radjic, and nicknamed Radimichi ... ” ^[21] . Some modern authors believe that this legend reflects the author’s biblical worldview rather than a real historical fact ^[22] .

• Zhikh M.I. Radimichi (localization, origin, socio-political history) // Historical format. - 2017. - Vol. 1-2. - pp. 12-63.
• Radimichi // Virtual Heritage Museum.