University Work - The Invisibility of the Slavs

One of my first conference works at SLC. The formatting still needs to be fixed, but here's the text.

The Man with the Hoe by Edwin Markham

"Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans,
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground
The emptiness of ages in his face
And on his back, the burden of the world."

The Slavic people have a history of oppression. From their first appearance as a distinctive
group up to the Communist rule over Eastern Europe, they have continually been subjugated
by other ethnic groups, as well as by powerful dictators. Miraculously throughout all this
repression, they somehow managed to stay a unique entity. While they certainly borrowed
ideas from the people who conquered them, one thing they held onto was their language and
their way of life. They were ruled by dozens of different groups, from the Scythians to the
Goths to the Varangians, but they never completely assimilated into any of these groups. Quite
often, it was the conquering group who would assimilate to the Slavic way of life.

The Slavs’ continually subjugation by others is continually repeated throughout their history. Since they have always been oppressed, it is extremely difficult to find out concrete information about them and about their culture. A good deal of the archaeology that has been done in Russia is from the richly lavish Scythian graves. The Slavs lived under the rule of these people for hundreds of years and their own culture was submerged throughout this time, as well as later periods. The fact that their culture was almost constantly submerged is one of the prime difficulties in researching the Slavs. There is very little mention about Slavic life during Scythian times, since the Slavs lived in the shadows of Scythian domination. This scenario is duplicated during the later Gotho-Gepid and Sarmatian rules.

One of the most fascinating aspects about the Slavs is that, despite the massive influence other cultures had on them, they never disappeared. It is the fact that they never assimilated entirely into other cultures that helps modern historians find the Slavs in ancient times. In this report, I plan to make the Slavs visible by providing evidence of their existence throughout all the times they were submerged. Their language remains one of the most effective ways todiscover where there were Slavs in antiquity, as they always retained their native tongue. They were not a powerful or war-like group in these early times^[1]. However, many of these powerful groups such as the Celts and Scythians were both absorbed into the classical influences (i.e Romanization and Hellenization) of their respective times. This never happened to the Slavs.

Finding mention of the Slavic people in ancient historical sources is a difficult task. While the pre-eminent early historians, Tacitus, Herodotus, Jordanes, et alia have recorded their

existence, the information they provide is often brief and vague. Their
geographical origin is unclear, none of the aforementioned historians agree on
a single distinct place, only on a general area. The times they do talk about
the Slavs are usually while describing another group of people, with the Slavs
mentioned only in passing. They are, in effect, an invisible people, noticed
only when a more prominent group, e.g. the Huns or the Goths, come into contact
with them, often via invasions.
  
The Slavs would have disappeared long
ago as a casualty of ubiquitous foreign influence, had they not clung to their
language, culture, and general modus vivendi. The Slavs did absorb
certain ideas from outside sources, considering the constant wave of foreign
influence that they lived under, it would have been impossible for them to do
otherwise. One example is during the Scythian occupation of the Slavic
homeland, around 700 B.C. At this time,
they were still using bone and stone in their artifacts. The advent of the
Scythians brought them iron, and while they began the new technology of
metalworking, their style of pottery remained distinctively Slavic in nature.
  

  
The problem of the Slavs’
invisibility has caused them to be repeatedly invaded and ruled by foreigners,
as well as by dictators, throughout history. It is not easy to locate the Slavs
in history when they have not made any military contributions to history, as
Caesar or Napoleon did. The ancient people who are most well-known are more
often than not those who undertake gigantic military campaigns, e.g. the Huns
or Romans, as well as scientifically advanced people who often lived in large
cities, like the Babylonians or the Egyptians. The Slavs fit into neither of
these categories. They remained relatively sedentary, living under foreigners’
rule and remaining on their homeland nevertheless. They had very few weapons
and lived in a primitive, agricultural society. Even today it is still
difficult to learn about the Slavs. There is not an abundance of books about
the early Slavs, something I learned while researching this paper. Much of the
information is not entirely substantiated. Ancient accounts of their existence
are so brief and occasionally even contradictory. There has not been an
excavation of a major Slavic site, only isolated finds and barrow tombs. While
they seem to not have been an important force in the ancient world, the thing
that was truly forceful about them was their unique culture and language. While
many other ancient groups eventually gave up their native tongue, instead
deciding to speak Latin or Greek, the Slavs always held on to their Old
Slavonic language. The language did evolve as a result of contacts with foreign
groups, such as the Iranians, Thracians and Germanics, all which had an effect
on the Slavic language. Old Slavonic is also shown to have influenced Finnish.
In fact the language has also been helpful (via linguistic evidence) in showing
modern historians where the Slavs in fact originated.    
  

  
The fact that the Slavs were not a powerful or forceful group in these
early times make it difficult to learn their exact origin. According to the Primary
Chronicle, the Slavic people originated, in 2000 to 1500 B.C. in the region of the Middle Danube,[2]  although they are not mentioned in written
testimony until the first century B.C.
This place of origin seems to be the generally accepted viewpoint of early
modern historians and medieval historians, but evidence from an earlier time is
somewhat contradictory. Earlier sources say that the point of Slavic origin is
actually north of the Carpathian mountains. Pliny the Elder and Claudius
Ptolemy place their origin of the Venedi[3]  near the Vistula River, while Tacitus places
them east of the Seubic confederacy in an unknown nation. Another ancient
historian, Jordanes, wrote that  “From the
source of the Vistula river immense areas are occupied by the populous nation
of the Venethae, who, although their appellations may change in various clans
and districts, are mainly called Sclaveni and Antae...Though
deriving from one stem, they have now adopted three names, Venethi, Antes, and
Sclaveni.”[4]
Linguistic evidence places the Slavs north of the Carpathian mountains because
of the fact that Old Slavonic seemingly had some influence over the old Finnish
language, as well as being analogous to the Lithuanian language. According to
Samuel Cross, the pinpoint location of the original Slavic homeland must have
been “northeast of the Carpathians, extending eastward from the basin of the
middle Vistula to the course of the Dnieper, north and south of Kiev, bounded
on the north by the rivers Narev and Pripet, and along its southern edge
touching the headwaters of the Prut, the Dniester, and the Bug.”[5]
  

  
As with the evidence of their geographical origins, archaeological
information about the Slavs is also vague and inconclusive. There has not yet
been a major excavation of a Slavic site, all
archaeological evidence comes from isolated finds and barrows. What is
known is that they chose to live close to river banks in small villages. These
villages were no larger than 3500 square meters, with the houses (hill-forts)
arranged in a circular or horseshoe style. Other houses were arranged in a
straight line. The houses were semi-subterranean and not much bigger than four
by five feet. The hill-forts consisted of timber walls, earthen ramparts, and
defense ditches, suggesting that they were used for more military purposes.[6]
The other housing was arranged in groups, possibly because of a patriarchal
family structure.[7]
They had a conservative agricultural society, and were not very technologically
advanced.
  
The Slavic language also was of a primitive nature at this time. They
reportedly had no written word, although Arabian author Ahmed Ibn Fodlan’s
account of a burial of a rich Slavic man seems to suggest otherwise. He wrote
that, “They built...something like a round mound and in the middle stuck a
large wooden sign made of white poplar and wrote on it the name of this man and
the name of the Tsar of the Russians and left.”[8]
As unbelievable as this account may sound, since the common thought is that St.
Cyril brought written language to the Slavs in the tenth century, he is not the
only man to claim to have seen pre-Cyrillic Slavic writing. At least three
other men also claim to have seen writing on pagan Slavic temples.[9]  It can be assumed, however that this writing
style was of a primitive nature and that an advanced written word did indeed
come with the arrival of St. Cyril.          
  

  
Slavic paganism was destroyed by the forces of Christianity in the ninth
and tenth centuries. Typical to the Slavic way, they converted to Christianity
but retained many of their pagan rituals. Svetovit, seemingly one of their
principle gods, is a war-god and protector of the fields. The pagan Slavs
celebrated his feast as the harvest festival.
Their reverence of Svetovit may help to explain their feeling of the
sacredness of their land.[10]
One of the major Slavic festivals was the Kupala for Moist Mother Earth.
This reverence for the earth continues to modern times, almost as an extension
of these archaic pagan rituals. Peasants from the regions of Volynia and
Byelorussia see the earth as pregnant and consider it sacrilege to dig into the
ground before March 25. In the nineteenth century, marriages and other oaths
were sanctioned by swallowing soil. The Russians demanded that any person who
spat on the ground had to ask the Earth’s forgiveness. The ancient festival was
a celebration of the summer solstice. They had a straw idol of Kupala
and many huge bonfires. They cut down a tree, usually birch, and stuck it in
the ground near the straw idol. The branches were removed and flowers and
garlands were hung on the tree. This was the place where sacrifices were held,
as a representation of the sacred tree linking Heaven and Earth. 
  
The Earth  was possibly the most
sacred element to the Slavs, but the Sun also was of great importance. The
pagan Slavs worshiped the sun and built temples that allowed them to view the
sunrise from inside. The deceased were buried with their eyes facing to the
east, and it was also considered best to sleep facing east. Prayers to the sun
are also recorded. Even after Christianization, it is a Slavic custom to turn
and “greet” the sun while entering a church.[11]
This also is an example of how the Slavs retained their pagan rituals even
after conversion.  Saxo Grammaticus[12]
described the temple of Svantevit (who was possibly related somehow to their
sun-god, Svarog[13])
which was destroyed in 1168 by King Waldemar. This temple was located in the
castle Arkona on the island of  Rügen. It
was an inner room which  had four columns
supporting a roof and purple rugs serving as walls. The temple contained an
idol, which was also destroyed by the Christians, of Svantevit holding a
drinking horn  in his hand which was used
to predict the success of next year’s crops.[14]  The horn was used to predict the success of
next year’s crops. At the harvest festival, the Slavs would pour wine into the
horn, and the higher level became, the more success they would have. This
connection between the Earth and the Sun was of prime  important to the Slavs. 
  

  
There is also a good deal of evidence showing that the Slavs reverenced
rivers, lightning and their ancestors. The worship of ancestors is another
Slavic trait that is still somewhat manifest in Slavic culture today. In
children’s games, the child will sometimes cry out chur menia! (let my
forefather save me.)[15]  As with many other aspects of their culture,
the Slavs adapted ideas from Iranian religion into their own. One of these is
the worship of a maternal deity, something that was characteristic of the
Scythians. The Great Goddess was an instrumental part of the Irano-Alarodian
cult of the Mother Goddess. Herodotus mentioned in his Histories the
fact that the Scythians revered women divinities. This aspect was seemingly
also representative of the Slavs. 
  
However, as with the rest of the pagan world, the Slavic pagan religion
was obliterated by Christianity. They converted to Christianity in theory,
while, as mentioned above, they did not entirely abandon their old pagan way.
They simply adapted their old rituals to the new way of Christianity. 
  
One major change which came out of the Christianization of the Slavs was
the advent of a complex written language. St. Cyril and his brother Methodius
were sent to Moravia, a powerful, Slavic state of the time, to help regularize
the religious situation there.[16]
They began their work by translating the readings into the local Slavic
language, hoping that the Slavic people would then be able to better understand
the services and the religion. He then translated the Bible and other texts
into the Old Church Slavonic language. The Slavs had no alphabet, so Cyril
invented what was then called the Glagolithic alphabet and later evolved into
the Cyrillic alphabet. One can imagine how difficult it must have been to
create a new, distinctive alphabet and there is some controversy as to how and
why Cyril created the Glagolithic. The Legend states that God came to
Cyril with the alphabet “in order that you too may be counted among the great
nations which praise God in their own language.”[17]
Whatever his inspiration derived from, the Glagolithic alphabet borrowed
letters from the Greek, Oriental, Hebrew, and Sarmatian alphabets. Once again,
this is an example of outside sources having a major influence on Slavic life.
The advent of the Glagolithic, later Cyrillic alphabet had an enormous
influence on their lives and it can be said that it led them into a new era.[18]
  
But once
again, the Slavs held on to old ways. While the alphabet was new to them, it
had been formed using the sounds of their own language. It was Cyril who had
adapted his idea to the native Slavic language, not the Slavs choosing to stop
speaking Old Slavonic.
  

  
Before the Slavs had adopted the Cyrillic alphabet as their own, they
faced more powerful foreign influence as a result of the expansion of Scythians
and Sarmatians The Scythians held power over the Slavs for hundreds of years.
However, because of Scythian dominance during this time, there is hardly any
trace of Slavs in archaeology of this period. It is known that the Slavs still
existed, since many Iranian influences on their language are detectable.
Following Scythian rule, the Sarmatian tribes came into the Slavic homeland in
200 B.C. While they were eventually Hellenized,
they did leave a distinct mark on Slavic culture. Their Iranian language also
gave several loan words to the Slavs, particularly words about religion,
including god (bog_), paradise (raj_), and holy (svet_).[19]  As with the Scythians, the Slavs were
difficult to find because of Sarmatian pre-eminence. 
  
One way in
which the Slavs are traceable, according to Tacitus, is that the Slavs domos
figunt (“build houses”) which Sarmatians did not. There have also been
sites in Kiev, Chernigov, and Poltava that are slightly different from the
normal Sarmatian site.[20]
Some suggest that since the people from these sites were farmers, there is a
possibility they may have been Slavs. The Slavs were almost entirely inundated
by both Scythian and Sarmatian cultures, but while their own culture was hardly
flourishing, it nevertheless was sustained and survived.
  

  
The Slavs were next invaded by virtually all of the migrating Germanics:
the Bastarnae, the Sciri, the Taifals, the Goths, and the Gepids from
approximately 200 B.C. to 400 A.D. When the Germanics entered Slavic
lands, the culture of the Slavs was somewhat buried under the constant arrivals
of new groups of people and their new ideas. The North Pontic at this time had
a homogeneous culture, with elements from Slavs, Sarmatians, Hellenized
remnants of Scythians, Romanized Greeks, Dacians, Getae, and the newly arriving
Germanic tribes. All these mixtures of different people lived under a
Gotho-centric government. Evidence of this complex society comes from the Roman
Tabula Peutingeriana. There is mention of the “Venadi Sarmatae,” who are
believed to be Slavic, living north of the Dacians. The Germanics also had a
profound effect on the Slavonic language. These German loan words deal
primarily with domestic affairs (e.g. house, bread), economics (e.g. loan,
debt), military (e.g. warrior, sword) and Romanized Gothic brought the words
for camel and ass.[21]
Although Slavic culture was weakened at this time, it did not entirely
disappear.  Beneath all the foreign
influences, a distinctly Slavic people managed to survive the ubiquitous
influence and not assimilate entirely into the new groups. While the Slavs
borrowed many Germanic words, the Germanic tribes borrowed a few Slavic words
as well. The linguistic influence was surely heavier on the Germanic side.
However, the Slavs, as always, retained their uniqueness, and were even able to
spread their culture, albeit an insignificant amount.
  
The Slavic situation changed dramatically following the Hunnic invasions.
Finally, they were free of Gothic rule and began migrating to the north, west,
and south. In this period of Slavic migrations, it is one of the first times
that Slavic aggression is encountered. It was during this time that the Slavs
spread to the Balkan peninsula and inhabited an area five times the size of
their original homeland. Their migration was not a blitzkrieg-like invasion,
like that of the Huns, but a “slow expansion in all directions.”[22]
The Slavs were seen as a threat to Byzantium and carried on several battles
with Justinian. The Byzantine Empire, threatened by many other wandering groups
at the time, was also threatened by the Slavs. They refer to the Slavs
(particularly the Sclaveni) as “barbars” and “wild people.”[23]
The Sclaveni were seemingly the most war-like tribe of the Slavs. When asked to
submit to the Avars and pay them tribute, the Sclaveni’s response was, “Can
there be a man in this whole world under the sun who would dare to subdue and
yoke so powerful a people as we are? We are accustomed to conquer other peoples
but not to be overcome by them. We shall not allow ourselves to be touched as
long as there are wars and swords in this world.”[24]
The Sclaveni and Avars eventually became allies, while other Slavic tribes were
subjugated by them.
  

  
While the Slavs made use of their new-found freedom, it did not last
long. The Avars and Khazars soon held control of the Slavs’ homeland, and the
Slavs were subdued once again. The Avars were in control for approximately a
century. They had a legion of troops spread over the area of modern-day
Hungary. They forced the Slavs to supply them with food and extra troops in
times of war. A typical story of the Slavs’ repression was recorded by Russian
chroniclers. “The Avars made war upon the Slavs, and harassed the Dulebians,
who were Slavs. They [the Avars] did violence to the Dulebian women: when an
Avar made a journey he did not cause either a horse or a steer to be harnessed,
but gave command instead that three or four or five [Dulebian] women should be
yoked to his cart and be made to draw him. Even thus they harassed the
Dulebians.”[25]
The Avar yoke was followed by the Khazars. 
  
The Varangians, sea rovers and merchants from Scandinavia, were the next
in a long series of foreign rulers of Slavic lands. It is unclear when
precisely they arrived in the Slavic homeland. Some estimates say their arrival
predated that  of Riurik in 856. The
Varangians set up the state of Kiev Rus as a Varangian principality. In this
state, they lived side by side with the Slavic people. The Varangians, however,
were the elite of this society, with the native Slavs compromising the lower
class. The Varangians were known as “men of Rus” and had trade and diplomacy
contacts with Constantinople and Baghdad. While the Slavs were the first settlers
in this area, like with the Scythians, Sarmatians and Germanic tribes, the
Varangians arrived and ruled over them. Little about the Slavs is known from
this time, since the Varangians made up the elite of Kievan Russian society.
What is known is that, true to their character, the Slavic culture survived
while taking loan words from the Norse. Words dealing with princedom in
Slavonic come from Norse, and today the word meaning pedlar/retail trader is variag.  
  

  
            The
situation of the ancient Slavs has a parallel in more recent history. The
Ukrainian and Polish peasantry of the sixteenth to eighteenth century were
extremely repressed by the government of the time. They were considered
sub-human and were often lacking in the most basic of human necessities. It is
recorded that the cottages of  Polish
peasants didn’t even have a simple chair in them, much less a bed. Because of
these atrocious living conditions, an occasional but extremely violent
rebellion would occur.[26]
The Time of Troubles only worsened the peasants’ miseries. Peasants were
starving. Some began to resort to cannibalism while others moved into the
forests to hunt and fish for food. It was unsafe to travel as other peasants
would murder and rob travelers. The landlords of Poland, Lithuania, and the
Ukraine set out to annex the steppe lands and to enslave the peasants.  Many peasants became fugitives in an attempt
to escape the greedy, tyrannical landowners. These peasants, mostly men, hunted
for food, fought off the Tartars, and hired themselves as guards. They
eventually became known as Cossacks. The Cossacks came from many different
ethnic and social groups. Some were Christianized Tartars, beggars, princes,
Great Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Serbs, and Germans, but the majority were
in fact Ukrainian peasants. The Cossacks would accept almost anyone (except
females) into their group, if they shared the love of freedom and independence
that all Cossacks did. A Russian folk song declares the Cossack’s companions as
“the dark night, a knife of steel, a good steed, and a tough bow.” [27]
  

  
The Cossacks often fought along side the peasants during these uprisings.
As many of them were from the peasant class themselves, this can be understood.
One of the more well-known rebellions was led by hetman Bogdan Chmielnitski.
Neither the Cossacks nor the peasants had any love for the government of their
time, and although they never were able to topple it, the Cossack resistance
helped in embarrassing the government so much so that they sought a deal with
the Cossacks. They saw the Cossacks as a threat to organized society and were
willing to do almost anything to cease their humiliation. They succeeded in
creating a treaty with the Cossacks, yet failed to keep their promises to them.
Many pacts were made, yet none succeeded in creating a peace between the
Cossacks and the Polish-Lithuanian, Russian and Ukrainian governments. The
Cossacks felt that they wanted to reduce them to serfdom.[28]
This was, indeed, what the nobles wanted and they eventually succeeded in suppressing
the Cossacks so much so that they were no longer a threat to the nobles’
tyrannical rule.
  
The peasants who lived under this totalitarian rule are certainly a
parallel for the continual subjugation of the early Slavs. The Ukrainian and
Polish peasants were not only invisible, but also sub-human. King Stanislaus
Leszczynski said that the citizens of Poland were completely deprived of basic
human necessities.[29]  It is certainly understandable how the Slavic
peasants of this time would react so violently and brutally against their
landowners, since they truly had nothing to lose.  The Slavs of the migration period were also
very violent and their presence was referred to as a “menace.”
  

  
The difficulty of locating the Slavs in ancient history stems from the
fact that they were almost constantly suppressed by foreign rule. While they
always managed to survive the ubiquitous influence, their culture was
nevertheless submerged. The groups that modern historians know a great deal
about are always the powerful, militarily-active groups. This makes it
difficult to find the Slavs in ancient sources, since they were overshadowed by
the more dominant Scythian and Sarmatian groups. The early Slavs were peaceful,
with very few weapons, and seemingly never resisted when an invading group
swept into their homeland. Until the sixth and seventh centuries, the Slavs
remained in their original homeland, but with the advent of the Huns, they
began to spread out slowly. The Huns scattered the Germanic groups which had
held supreme power over the Slavs. With the leadership of the Germanic tribes
subjugated by the Huns, the Slavs were free to move out. The Slavic migration
period marks one, if not the first, times the Slavs are seen as an aggressive
people. Unlike the earlier times, where little concrete evidence is known of
the Slavs, when they finally become more war-like and aggressive, more
information is known about them. They joined with other so-called barbaric
groups such as the Avars and others in attacking Byzantium. While they joined
with the Avars in fighting, they were also subjugated by them at the same time.
Some Slavic groups, like the Sclaveni, were apparently more war-like
than others. While many Slavic groups in the Hungary region were suppressed by
the Avars, the Sclaveni were allied with them in military
campaigns.  Following the Avars, the
Khazars arrived and took control of Slavic-occupied lands. Their advent was
followed by the Varangians who were instrumental in the formation of the
proto-Russian state of Kiev Rus. While this state was considered a Slavic land,
the Varangians were the ones who were in control, with the Slavs making up the
lower class of the society.
  
A more recent parallel of the invisibility of the Slavs is the situation
of Polish and Ukrainian peasants of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The
peasants were considered as less than human in the eyes of the law and were
treated as so. The Times of Troubles only added to the unrest and
discontentment of the peasants. An occasional occurrence of this time was the
sporadic, but extremely brutal serf uprisings. With the quality of life well
below normal, the peasants were desperate and acted as desperate people will,
with severe brutality as they know they have nothing to lose. The Cossacks helped
the peasants in these rebellions, often instigating them. The Polish and
Ukrainian governments were deeply embarrassed by the Cossack resistance, and as
they were unable to conquer them, tried instead to deal with them. However most
of these deals were not upheld by the governments and helped only in adding to
the Cossacks’ discontentment. The Cossacks were eventually subjugated, like the
generations of Slavs before them, and scattered.   
  

The invisibility of the Slavs has existed from their appearance in
history to modern times. Whether their culture has been suppressed by another
more pre-eminent culture, like that of the Scythians or Germanic tribes, or the
people being oppressed by powerful men such as Ivan the Terrible, Vladimir
Lenin, or Josef Stalin, they have always managed to miraculously survive. Many
great, powerful ancient groups as the Celts and Scythians were exposed to
foreign influences, and while they managed to create their own unique brand of
art derived from these elements, ultimately, their unique style was lost. The
Slavs have been inundated by foreign elements in their  society since they first appeared in
history.  The aforementioned groups
created brilliant works of art for their individual cultures. However, they
eventually were completely overwhelmed by classical influence, yet the quality
of their art is not diminished by this fact and they are remembered in history.
In contrast, the Slavs borrowed a great deal from the invading cultures, but
retained their enough of their native elements to remain unique simultaneously,
but they are basically forgotten in the ancient world. In the early times of
the Slavs, they are generally mentioned in passing while authors write about
other more powerful groups of the time. The Slavs, too, when they become more
aggressive and war-like are more pre-eminent in history, yet following this
spate of aggressiveness, they are later subjugated and once again, forgotten.
This model repeats itself throughout Slavic history, as with the suppression of
the Cossacks, and centuries later during the reign of Communism in Eastern
Europe.   

    
  
[1].There is no mention of the Slavs being involved in
any wars or military activity until the Slavic migrations of the sixth and
seventh centuries.
[2].modern day Bulgaria and Hungary
[3].Their name for the Slavs, also called Venedae
or Veneti)
[4].Cross, Samuel Hazzard. Slavic Civilization Through
the Ages. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 1948. p.5-6
[5].Ibid. p.7-8
[6].Gimbutas, Marija. The Slavs. Praeger Publishers:
New York, 1971. p.56
[7].Ibid. p.56
[8].Sokolsky, Dr. A.A. A History of the Russian
Language. University of South Florida, 1966. p.38
[9].Ibid. p.38
[10].Gimbutas p.169
[11].Ibid. p.165
[12].Described in his work Gesta Danorum
[13].Cross p.25
[14].Gimbutas p.153
[15].Vernadsky, George. Ancient Russia. Vol. 1.
Yale University Press: New Haven, 1943. p.112
[16].Dvornik. Francis. Byzantine Missions Among the
Slavs. Rutgers University Press, New Jersey, 1970. 
[17].Ibid. 
[18].Ibid. 
[19].Gimbutas p.64 (In modern Russian these words are
still related to these ancient roots.) 
[20].Vernadsky p.109
[21].Ibid. p.77
[22].Cross p.28
[23].Gimbutas p.100
[24].Ibid. p.102
[25].Vernadsky p.190 
[26].Orvis, Julia Swift. A Brief History of Poland.
Houghton Mifflin Comp.: New York, 1916.     p.178
[27].Vowles, Hugh Pembroke. Ukraine and Its People.
W&R Chambers, Ltd.: London and        Edinburgh,
1939. p.96
[28].Orvis p.179
[29].Orvis p.177