Lietuvos.net - 'Eight evidences confirming - Balts and Sarmatians are same nation.'

SUMMARY

ON THE BOOK "THE TRIBAL LITHUANIAN NATION IN THE EAST"

According to the opinion of linguists, in the 6th c. in the territory between the Lower Nemunas and (the Upper Dnepr the middle linguistic massif of the Baltic tribes stretched in the Kaunas-Smolensk area. In the 7th c. the Latgalian language, predecessor of the Latvian language, separated from them. The separation was caused by assimilation of the Ugro- Finns with the Baltic tribes of their northern border.

Because of the influence of inhabitants of the Semba Peninsula and the Lower Nemunas, in the 4th - 6th c.c. from the Kaunas-Smolensk area of the Balts a Lithuanian tribe of the major confederal type separated and occupied the greater part of the Neris basin area. The remaining Kaunas-Smolensk complex of Baltic tribes was to a lesser degree infiltrated by the Balts that lived in the West, therefore between the Nemunas and the Dnepr sources and in the South Pripet in the 6th c. the Baltic culture of Bancerov-Tusheml'a tribes arose. The antique sources had been for a long time mentioning the Neruvies in the upper reaches of the Dnieper basin, therefore the assumption of these Balts having had the Neruvies ethnonym seems to be most justifiable.

In the antiquity, inhabitants of the Semba Peninsula and of the whole coastal part between the mouth of the Vistula and Liepaja gained a very special, outstanding position in the world of the Balts thanks to trade in then very popular amber. Inhabitants of these lands transformed the whole way of life of the Baltic world. Statements of the Goths and the Sembs themselves allow maintaining that at the end of antiquity between the Vistula and Moscow there is existed a union of Aestian tribes. Its influence on the development of all Baltic tribes was most beneficial. When in the 6th-7th c.c. the union of the Aestian tribes disintegrated, there already existed rather numerous Baltic tribes of the major type with the confederal structure of their lands. The major Baltic tribes formed the core of the Baltic world. Their society can be characterized as the one possessing the rudiments of an ethno social organism. The borders of these tribes in the 7th c. reached the eastern border of the Latgalian, Yotvingian and Lithuanian tribes. The Balts that lived farther to the East formed complexes of minor tribes of ethnocultural type. In the 8th c. structures of the major confederal type could be found there only in the embryonic state. From the viewpoint of social development, these tribes comprised the peripheral part of the Baltic world.

Although the Lower Neris suffered a greater influence of the Western Balts than did the territories between the mouths of the Nemunas and the Dnepr, the language of Prussian type did not convert the Lithuanian language into a constituent part of the world of the Western Balts. Thus we have no data enough to maintain that at the beginning of the Middle Ages the conditions were favourable for the language of the Lithuanian and Neruvian (?) tribes to separate, as was the case with the Latgalian language. Analysis of (the Dnepr basin hydronyms reveals the linguistic identity of Kaunas and Smolensk. Between the Lithuanian and Neruvian (?) tribes dialectal differences might have arisen.

In the 7th-9th c.c. the major part of the peripheral Baltic world (the Pripet basin as early as in the 5th-6th c.c.) was attacked by Slavonic tribes. The lands of the Neruvies (?) suffered invasions of the Dregoviches, Kriviches and Radimiches.

In the 8th c. the Dregoviches, with their well developed structure of military democracy, attacked the banks of the Pripet and Dnepr. On their way to the Dnepr they burnt most of the Neruvian (?) fortifications up to the very Dnepr; they might have even reached the Daugava. The Dregoviches were eager to rule over the new lands and their inhabitants. Such trend in the development of a tribe is designated as hypertrophied development of the tribal ethnos. A similar situation could be found in the Hungarians, Franks, and Goths, Avars. The Dregoviches settled down mostly in the western part of the modern Gomel district, and inhabitants of Mogilev, Vitebsk, and Smolensk outskirts were forced to pay regular contributions.

In the middle of the 6th c. the lands of Pliskuva were occupied by a rather not numerous tribe of Kriviehes. The Kriviches took advantage of the fall of the Dregoviches and of the crisis which occurred to the tribes of the Neruvies (?) and began to attack people that inhabited the territories of the modern Vitebsk and Smolensk Districts. Their raids lasted as long as more than 100 years and expanded their rule in those territories. The positions of the Dregoviches in the outskirts of Vitebsk, Orsha, and Smolensk were annihilated.

It seems likely that in the 9th c. the Neruvies (?) that inhabited the Sozh basin were attacked from the Upper Dnestr and occupied by a diaspora of an unknown tribe lead by Duke Radim. This diaspora also abolished the rule of the Dregoviches on the eastern bank of the Dnepr.

These migrants took the patronym of their leader and called themselves the Radimiches.

The annals tell us about the Dregoviches that "druzyas" (friends) arrived to occupy new areas and called themselves the Dregoviches. The Dregoviches and the Kriviches might be nomadic by their origin. Their ancestors might be migrant Baltic warriors that found themselves in the Gothic world in the antiquity. Mixed with the Slavonic tribes, maybe also with other cultures, having lived among the Slavs for a long time, they gradually amalgamated with their culture. The Kriviches who had retreated to the North 200 years before the Dregoviches had much better preserved the features of cultural amalgamation peculiar to nomadic tribes.

 

****

In the 8th-9th c.c. the core area of the Baltic tribes formed by tribal confederations was a too hard nut for the Slavs to crack. At that period strong Baltic tribes could even withstand the attacks of state-type structures from Poland, Kiev Rus or Scandinavia.

Judging from the Roman data, the Balts could be possibly most laborious, among the Barbars and exceptionally good farmers. Also, the level of handicraft was high there. Despite their notable economic achievements, the Balts like the Vikings put the highest accent on fighting prestige and the wealth gained in the battle. Every autumn, the soil being hard from frost, all tribes, from the Vistula up to the Finnish Gulf, would start their honour wars, attack the coasts of Scandinavia. The goal of the wars was to make the enemy "to bow his head", i. e. to turn him a vassal and to have him to pay voluntary contributions to their neighbours.

The Lithuanian tribe that formed in the lower and upper reaches of the Neris basin, between the Nemunas and the Daugava, managed to stand out by their specific ethnosocial structure in the central world of the Balts. In the Lithuanian ethnos, within the structure 'free land-owners - noblemen - duke', the tradition of especially strong power of the duke was formed. Here the duke became also one of the main persons in religious cult. Such features of the ethnosocial model stimulated the leader's initiative, made the actions of Lithuanian warriors very successful during regional honour battles. Gradually the Lithuanians became the strongest tribe; they were called by the Germans 'hard-necked, skilful warriors'. The Lithuanian noblemen became owners of ever-increasing material wealth, thus the ethnos took an accelerated development towards feudal society.

The leading position of the Lithuanians became evident in the 9th-12th c.c. The ethnosocial structural models of the other Baltic tribes in spite of the common origin and cultural background, turned to be stagnant. Their development towards feudal society was much slower.

The outstanding political and social position of the Lithuanians became soon revealed also in the field of ethnoculture. During antiquity, the Baltic culture of Sembic origin and Prussian type managed to transform and control the whole Baltic world. By the end of the early Middle Ages the leadership of the Balts changed its positions and moved" to the Neris basin.

In the regions of various tribes there usually exist one or more languages that have attained the level of intertribal communication. In the 9th-12th c.c., due to the mentioned circumstances, these functions became allotted to the Lithuanian language. The ever-increasing number of tribes, from the Vistula to the Finnish Gulf, not only began to feel the bitterness of subsidence to the Lithuanians, but also voluntarily agreed to pay contributions. Since the Lithuanians were actively developing towards the state system and feudal society, there began an accelerating process of consolidation of all tribes of the region into the Lithuanian ethnos which gradually became common. This tendency was most pronounced during the whole 12th c. The primary Lithuanian confederation in the Neris basin gained a series of satellite complexes that acquired Lithuanian ethnopsychology. Some of such formations, e. g. Samogitians (Zemaiciai), by their strength even excelled the strongest Baltic tribes. A pre-state union of Lithuanian tribes headed by the primary centre in the Neris basin arose. Apart from the widest known Aukstaiciai and Zemaiciai peripheral links, also the northern, western, southern Lithuanian structures can be traced.

However, integration of each regional tribe into the common Lithuanian ethnos bore its own character, depending on the position of a tribe in the region and the level of its development. Thus, the Latgalians whose position was rather weak were just forced by Lithuanian dukes to pay regular tributes, had castles freely erected on their lands by the Lithuanians; the process of the Latgalians becoming northern Lithuanians took place. In strong Kursh or Prussia, co-operation between the groups of noblemen had to be more active and marriages with the Lithuanians more frequent, although these had to be inevitably confirmed by the elements of military prestige and demand of contributions. The process of the consolidation of the region into a uniform feudal ethnos and state was interrupted by the horrible epoch of crusaders' wars which involved the whole region. About 63% of the territory and most tribes which had been treated by Lithuanian dukes as their ancestral lands fell under the occupation power of the German Order.

*****

Map of Baltic Tribes in 7 - 9 A.D.

Relations between the primary Lithuanian confederation and the eastern and southern neighbouring Balts could not differ in the least from relations with the northern and western tribes. The only exception was linguistic ties between the Lithuanians and the Neruvies (?). Since the Western tribes were the richest, strongest and had very deep cultural traditions, in the first stage the expansion of the Lithuanian ethnos was more explicit in other directions. In the 10th c. the process of the formation of the southern Lithuanian tribes took its run in the East of the Yotvingian world between the Nemunas and the Western Bug. Here in 1009 the name of the Lithuanians was mentioned in writing for the first time. In the 11th c. the southern Lithuanian periphery was attacked by Kiev politicians who after a ferocious war began to colonize these lands and called them Black Rus. It took 200 years for these lands to turn back to Lithuania; however, the elhnocultural situation was rather significantly changed there. No less than 50% of the population that inhabited the territory between the Nemunas, Western Bug and Pripet were Russian-speaking Orthodoxies.

The development of the Lithuanians in the Neruvian (?) world took a peculiar way. The Dregoviches, Kriviches and Radimiches failed to conquer all Neruvian (?) lands which might have occupied about 1 50,000 sq. km. The modern Minsk District managed to remain free for at least 150 years. Strengthening and expansion of the Lithuanian tribe, the crisis which shook the Neruvian (?) world, the common language had been the factors that had to form the ethnopsychology of Lithuanian type in the land of Nemige (this was the name used for modern Minsk as long as until 1067) no later than by the beginning of the 9th c. Expansion of the Lithuanian ethnos in the East could not he limited by the borders of the Nemige land. Transformation of ethnic consciousness took place in all Neruvians (?) that had preserved the Baltic mode of life and inhabited patches of lands controlled by the Kriviches and the Dregoviches. During the Renaissance the situation was rather similar in Prussia occupied by the Germans. The ethnocultural and ethnopsychological impact of the Lithuanians on the Neruvian (?) tribes, along with that of the Dregoviches, Kriviches and Radimiches, causes no doubt.

King (Vald'o) of Langobards (Baltic Tribe, later Kriviches or Radimiches)

The ethnic processes in the Neruvian (?) world occupied by the Slavs varied. In the Sozh basin whose lands were governed by the Radimiches the life of their inhabitants was most complicated. In Belarus there is the saying: "May a Radimich catch you!" The Radimiches in their domains might have applied the methods used by the Spartans to rule over the Helots. In the end of the 10th c. the Radimiches fell under the expansion of Kiev. Their culture which had been imposed by means of force and terror also began to fade out. In the 11th c. in the Sozh basin a lot of Baltic cultural traditions revived, dements of the Lithuanian mode of life began to spread. From Kiev, the Russian language was imposed on these lands through administration and Orthodox Church. The territory could be saved only by the direct influence of Lithuanian dukes. Unfortunately, in the 11th c. the power of the Kiev Empire was very strong. It even ruined the southern periphery of independent Lithuanian tribes. Therefore at the juncture of the 12th and 13th c. c. the Russian language began to spread massively in the Sozh basin. Isolated Lithuanian settlements might have survived there even in the period of the formation of the Lithuanian state.

Map 800 A.D. - Baltic tribes represented as Sarmatians.

In the land of Smolensk slavofication was early. There, relicts of Baltic culture and specifically Lithuanisms flourished in the 9th-10th c. c. and then suddenly began to vanish. The early transition to the Russian language was stimulated by the transit position of this area between Novgorod and Kiev and a rather remote position from the lands of the primary Lithuanian confederation. In letters of Smolensk merchants to Riga written in the beginning of the 13th c. rudiments of the future Belarussian language can be traced. In the land of Smolensk isolated Lithuanian settlements could exist in the period of the Lithuanian stale. Although not mentioned in written sources, it should be noted that no less than 100 km westward from Smolensk even during the: Renaissance there existed the largest Hast Lithuanian Catholic parish between Vitebsk and Orsha.

The Dregoviches in their domains also forced their mode of life upon the local people. In their area, cultural relicts of the Lithuanians and other Balts can be traced, too. In the whole area inhabited by the Neruvian (?) tribes and governed by the Dregoviches, the amount of Baltic relicts that have survived up to date is the least. Such situation was predetermined not by the possibly larger number of the Dregovich migrants, but by the transit position of these lands and the fact that this territory had been since early controlled by Kiev politicians. Anthropological analysis has revealed no differences between the inhabitants of the Dregoviches' lands and of other historical Neruvian (?) areas.

Ethnocultural and ethnopsychological processes were most complicated in the lands of the Middle Daugava (now Vitebsk district). A special role here was allotted to the town of Paluote (Polotsk). There is a version which seems most convincing concerning the origin of Paluote: the Kriviches conquered a Lithuanian settlement, amalgamated with local people and founded an administrative center of their own in the Daugava basin. The successful policy of Paluote dukes, great independence regarding Kiev enhanced the sense of citizenship in these political domains. Kriviches and some of the Balts that settled down in the Middle Daugava began feeling themselves belonging to Paluote, inhabitants of these feudal domains. To draw a historical parallel, let us take Corinth and inhabitants of Corinthian District, Rome and the Romans in the political sense, Algeria and the Algerians... Most inhabitants of this land only very slowly and with great reluctance abandoned their original language and traditions. The middle reaches of the Daugava might have been especially strongly influenced by the cultural neighbourhood of the primary Lithuanian confederation. Here, at least for 200-300 years, existed bilinguism and a slang of creolic type. The crucial role when turning to the Russian language had to be played by the Orthodox Church and secondary administration of these lands.

Sarmatian (Lithuanian) Warrior (King Artorius (Arthur) was Sarmatian knight (Vytis)) 200 A.D.

In the 9th c. in the lands of Nemige Lithuanian ethnopsychology became massively predominant: however, no later than by the middle of the 10th c. these lands became colonial and later on a direct domain of the dukes of Paluote. The administrative power was symbolized by the Nemige complex as well as by the neighbouring townships of Zaslavl and Ments-Mainiskes. These lands suffered from the conflicting interests of Kiev and Paluote in this area, and its inhabitants were exhausted by devastating wars. After a severe destruction in 1067, Nemige becomes known under its new name of Minsk. Although wars, administration and Orthodox Church changed the ethnocultural situation of the area, in the 13th c., in the period of the formation of the Lithuanian state, the approaches to Nemige-Minsk still had been very Lithuanian. The Russian language might have become predominant here in the end of the 14th-16th c.c.

*****

The specific position of the Neris basin the region between the Vistula and Finnish Gulf predetermined the formation of the feudal Lithuanian state. Along with this major factor, its formation was accompanied by two phenomena of particular importance. The Crusaders' wars interrupted the natural course of ethnic development in the region. Positions of Lithuanian culture were destroyed in Livonia and weakened in the artificially formed Prussian Principality to which the synonymous name of Lithuania Minor stuck very soon. Another circumstance was the problems of East Lithuanian ethnic culture. The colony of Black Rus with the Nemige area formed the Inland Lithuania of the Kiev Empire (cf. the modem Inland Mongolia in China). Relicts of Lithuanian culture and ethnopsychology had been undoubtedly present in the whole historic territory of the Neruvies (?), up to the Pripet in the South and the Dnieper sources in the East. Thus, in the 9th-12lh c.c. Lithuanian culture was familiar in the land of Smolensk and in the whole territory of modern Belarus, although defiled by the administration and Church as a kind of paganism, but in the true sense of the word being not antagonistic, not strange, but indigenous and intimate. With the rise of the political significance of the Neris basin, its people were connected with the East by the relicts of the Baltic-Lithuanian mode of life, pagan faith and language in the historical world of the Neruvies (?). These factors fading away, the importance of personal and political relations stood out. This complicated mosaic of relations and the political situation of the 13th c. predetermined the fact that the Lithuanian state from the very first days of its existence did not limit itself by the massif of independent Lithuanian tribes, but tried to encompass the lands between Smolensk and Brasta (Brest). The inherence of the Lithuanian factor in these lands predetermined a harmonious functioning of the state in the mentioned areas for more than 500 years up to the very beginning of the 19th c.

Thus, the Lithuanian state was inhabited by ethnic and politonymic societies, and the state became politonymic. The factor of Crusaders' wars not only prevented the Balts from accomplishing the process of consolidation into a unified feudal ethnos and common state, but also did not allow the Lithuanian state to develop into a European-type monarchy and to form one more branch of the Catholic Church, as was the case in Polish or Vikings' lands. That is why the Lithuanian language did not become the promulgator of the modem civilized whiff in its historically traditional eastern areas. The Crusaders' wars strengthened the Orthodox society of the state; the process of intensive consolidation of its politonymic society took place, naturally resulting in the formation of Byelorussia nation within the state in the 15th-16th c.c. during the Renaissance. All these factors contributed to the decay of the Lithuanian language not only in the regions administered by the Germans, but also in the state itself. Here it began to acquire the status of the Geltacht (the name for the ancient Celtic language on the British Islands). Gradually the relict islands of the Lithuanian language became extinct first in the lands of the Neruvies (?) and then in Pelasa Yotvings. The complete massive of Lithuanian retreated from the approaches to Minsk to the outskirts of Vilnius, the modem capital of the country. The long process of the Lithuanian language falling into decay was only stopped at the beginning of the 20th c., when the typically European Lithuanian nation of capitalist type had been formed.

A. Norkunas. Summary on the book 'The tribal Lithuanian nation in the east'

Lietuvos.net - 'Eight evidences confirming - Balts and Sarmatians are same nation.'