Lesson plan for the world around us (3rd grade) on the topic: How our distant ancestors lived. The economy of the Eastern Slavs and what our distant ancestors did

Historians believe that from ancient times the Eastern Slavs settled in the 6th century in the middle reaches of the Dnieper, approximately where the city of Kyiv is now located. The settlement of Slavic tribes went up the Dnieper and its tributaries.
Dense forests began here - first deciduous, and to the north - mixed and coniferous (we talked about this natural area). The settlers found themselves in unusual conditions.

In a new place, the Slavs usually settled along the banks of rivers and lakes in several large family groups. True, families then consisted of 15-20 people: the head of the family with his wife, their adult sons and wives, their children, and sometimes grandchildren. Three or four households settled together.
In the houses of the Slavs, the floor was a meter deep into the ground, the walls were made of thin tree trunks - poles, cleared of branches and bark. The poles are connected to each other with wooden spikes and bound with flexible bark for strength. The roof is also made of poles, and there is a thick layer of straw on it.
In the corner there was a stove made of stone - it heated the house and cooked food on it. The stove was fired black - this means that there was no chimney, and all the smoke came out through windows, doors, holes in the roof. Inside such a house it was always cool, dark and damp. The windows cut into the walls were covered with boards or straw at night and in cold weather - after all, there was no glass then.
In the house, all the free space was occupied by a table and 2-3 benches. In the corner lay several armfuls of hay covered with animal skins - these were beds.
Life for the settlers was not easy. Like all primitive peoples, the Slavs were engaged in gathering and hunting. They collected honey, berries, mushrooms, nuts, hunted wild boars, moose, bears, and fished in rivers. Now we also go to the forest to pick mushrooms and berries and fish. But for us it’s a rest, but for our ancestors it was a lot of work, and not easy. After all, food had to be prepared for the whole family.
Since ancient times, the Slavs have been engaged agriculture. They plowed with wooden plows on bulls. They sowed rye and wheat.

However, in the dense forest, clearings suitable for farming are rare, and the land is infertile. it was necessary to burn down forests to clear space for arable land and fertilize the ground with ash. In addition, forest predators and “dashing people” - robbers - were constantly threatening.
In addition, the ancient Slavs had developed beekeeping (beekeeping). Where did this word come from? Since ancient times, honey has been a commodity, medicine and one of the main delicacies. But it was very difficult to get it. The Slavs lured bees with honey, and then traced their path to a hollow. Finally came up with an idea board- a tree stump with a hollow or a hollowed out block.

Bort

The path "from the Varangians to the Greeks"

The caravan was accompanied by strong security. There were river rapids in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, and the boats had to be pulled ashore again and dragged again. Here the steppe nomads waited for the caravans, robbed merchants and captured travelers.
Having passed the rapids, the caravan went out into the Black Sea and sailed to the city of Constantinople (Istanbul).
New cities and various industries arose along the trade route, and surrounding residents were drawn to them. And travelers introduce the population to new goods, the culture of other peoples, and news in the world.
When settling new lands, people gave names to new rivers, cities, towns, and mountains.
The settlement of the Eastern Slavs throughout Eastern Europe was peaceful, but they were often attacked by nomadic tribes. Therefore, the Slavs were forced to master the science of war. The tall, strong Slavs were known as brave warriors. Fighting with enemies, they lured them into impenetrable forest wilds and swamps.
The constant struggle with nomads claimed thousands of lives and distracted them from peaceful work. And yet the Slavs slowly but persistently moved towards the formation of a state.

And now I propose to test the acquired knowledge by answering the quiz questions.

Before this, the life of a simple Russian peasant was completely different.
Usually a person lived to be 40-45 years old and died as an old man. He was considered a grown man with a family and children at the age of 14-15, and she even earlier. They did not marry for love; it was the father who went to marry his son.
People had no time for idle rest at all. In the summer, absolutely all the time was occupied by work in the field, in the winter, collecting firewood and homework making tools and household utensils, and hunting.
Let's look at a Russian village of the 10th century, which, however, is not much different from the village of both the 5th century and the 17th century...

We came to the Lyubytino historical and cultural complex as part of a motor rally dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Avtomir group of companies. It is not for nothing that it is called “One-Storey Russia” - it was very interesting and educational to see how our ancestors lived.
In Lyubytino, at the place where the ancient Slavs lived, among the mounds and burials, a real village of the 10th century was recreated, with all the outbuildings and necessary utensils.

We will start with an ordinary Slavic hut. The hut is made of logs and covered with birch bark and turf. In some regions, the roofs of the same huts were covered with straw, and in some places with wood chips. Surprisingly, the service life of such a roof is only slightly less than the service life of the entire house, 25-30 years, and the house itself lasted about 40 years. Considering the time of life at that time, the house was just enough for a person’s life.

By the way, in front of the entrance to the house there is a covered area - this is the same canopy from the song about the “new, maple canopy.”

The hut is heated black, that is, the stove does not have a chimney; the smoke comes out through a small window under the roof and through the door. There are no normal windows either, and the door is only about a meter high. This is done in order not to release heat from the hut.

When the stove is fired, soot settles on the walls and roof. There is one big plus in a “black” firebox - there are no rodents or insects in such a house.

Of course, the house stands on the ground without any foundation; the lower crowns are simply supported by several large stones.

This is how the roof is made

And here is the oven. A stone hearth mounted on a pedestal made of clay-coated logs. The stove was heated early in the morning. When the stove is on fire, it is impossible to be in the hut, only the housewife remained there to prepare the food, everyone else went outside to do business, in any weather. After the stove was heated, the stones gave off heat until the next morning. The food was cooked in the oven.

This is what the hut looks like from the inside. They slept on benches placed along the walls, and sat on them while eating. The children slept on the beds, they are not visible in this photograph, they are on top, above their heads. In winter, young livestock were taken into the hut so that they would not die from frost. They also washed in the hut. You can imagine what kind of air there was, how warm and comfortable it was there. It immediately becomes clear why life expectancy was so short.

In order not to heat the hut in the summer, when it was not necessary, the village had a separate small building - a bread oven. They baked bread and cooked there.

Grain was stored in a barn - a building raised on poles from the surface of the ground to protect the products from rodents.

There were bottom pits built in the barn, remember - “I scraped the bottom pipes...”? These are special wooden boxes into which grain was poured from above and taken from below. So the grain did not sit stale.

Also in the village there was a triple glacier - a cellar in which ice was placed in the spring, filled with hay and lay there almost until the next winter.

Clothes, skins, utensils and weapons not needed at the moment were stored in a cage. The cage was also used when the husband and wife needed privacy.

Barn - this building served for drying sheaves and threshing grain. The heated stones were piled into a fireplace, sheaves were placed on poles, and the peasant dried them, constantly turning them over. Then the grains were threshed and winnowed.

Cooking food in an oven requires a special temperature regime - simmering. This is how, for example, gray cabbage soup is prepared. They are called gray because of their gray color. How to cook them?

On July 16, 2017, the Moscow historical park Kolomenskoye will host the Battle of a Thousand Swords festival, where Russian reenactors and guests from Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland and other countries will present the life of medieval Rus' and its neighbors. This will be a military holiday, the main decoration of which will, of course, be the Battle. The holiday will take place on the site of the Dyakovsky settlement, an ancient settlement of the 5th century. On the eve of the festival, the Agency for Historical Projects "Ratobortsy" specially for "Morning" prepared several materials about the life of our ancestors.

Photo: agency of historical projects "Ratobortsy"

We now live in a time when, after several decades of wandering around the world, many have begun to return to the question “who are we?” Some people think that the question is rhetorical, and everything is clear - look, read Karamzin. But some people have never cared about this issue, and never will. But if you ask where and when Rus' came from, who the Russians are, then many will immediately begin to get confused. We decided to clarify this issue. As Vovchik Maloy said in the book “Generation P”, so that one could “simply explain to anyone from Harvard: poke-dagger-eight-holes, and there’s no point in looking like that.”

So, let's begin our story about Ancient Rus'. As pundits say, our civilization on Earth is not the first, not the second, and not the last. And peoples settled across the planet in different centuries and from different starting points. Ethnic groups mixed, various tribes formed and disappeared. Natural disasters occurred, the climate, flora and fauna changed, even the poles, they say, moved. The ice melted, the ocean level rose, the planet's center of gravity changed, and a giant wave rolled across the continents. The survivors gathered in groups, forming new tribes, and everything began again. All this happened so slowly that it is difficult to imagine. It would probably be more difficult to observe only how coal is formed.

So here it is. There was a time in the history of our civilization that historians call the Age of Migration. In the 4th century AD there was an invasion of the Huns into Europe and from there it went on and on. Everything began to seethe and move. The ancestors of the Slavs, the Wends, described by Herodotus back in the 5th century BC, lived between the Oder and Dnieper rivers. Their settlement occurred in three directions - to the Balkan Peninsula, in the area between the Elbe and Oder rivers, and to the East European Plain. This is how three branches of the Slavs were formed, which exist to this day: the Eastern, Western and Southern Slavs. We know the names of the tribes preserved in the chronicles - these are the Polyans, Drevlyans, Northerners, Radimichi, Vyatichi, Krivichi, Dregovichi, Dulebs, Volynians, Croats, Ulichs, Tivertsy, Polotsk, Ilmen Slovenes.

Photo: agency of historical projects "Ratobortsy"

By the 6th century AD. The Slavs were at the stage of decomposition of the primitive communal system; its place was gradually taken by the so-called military democracy. Tribes expanded their possessions, and the military strength of each tribe or alliance of tribes became increasingly important. The squad began to play a key position in society, and at its head was the prince. Accordingly, as many squads as there are princes, and if the tribe settled widely and established several cities, there will be several princes there. In the 9th century, we can already talk about the established borders of the principalities, calling this formation Ancient Russia with its center in the city of Kyiv.

It is very easy to find maps of Rus' of the 9th-10th centuries in Internet search engines. On them we will see that the territory of Ancient Rus' was not localized around the capital. It stretched from south to north from the Black Sea to the Baltic and Lake Onega, and from west to east - from the modern Belarusian city of Brest to Murom. That is, to the border of the Finno-Ugric tribes, partially including them in its composition (remember that Ilya Muromets came to the Kyiv prince from the village of Karacharova).

Photo: agency of historical projects "Ratobortsy"

The territory is huge not only in those times, but also in modern times. Now there is not a single European country of this size, nor did there exist one at that time. One problem - all the princes were equal to each other, recognizing the supremacy of the prince who sits in Kyiv. Why in Kyiv? Because since ancient times, the Slavs preferred to settle on the banks of rivers, and when active trade was established, those settlements that stood on trade routes grew rich and attracted the most active and creative people. The Slavs actively traded with the south and east, and the “path from the Varangians to the Greeks” passed right along the Dnieper.

A few words about the squad and the peasantry. The peasant at that time was free and could change his place of residence, fortunately there were plenty of free remote places. Methods of enslaving him had not yet been invented; the social conditions were not the same. The prince's warriors were also free people and were in no way dependent on the prince. Their interest was in joint military spoils. The prince, who was more likely just a military leader for the squad, could immediately lose its favor if military success did not accompany him all the time. But over the course of a couple of centuries, this system of relations has changed. The warriors began to receive land plots from the prince, acquired a farm and their own small squads. There was a need to secure the peasants on their land. The squad turned into a local noble army.

Photo: agency of historical projects "Ratobortsy"

Of course, life in the principalities was not idyllic. The princes envied each other, quarreled, went to war against each other, indulging their ambitions. This happened primarily because inheritance rights were not transferred from father to son, but vertically - through brothers. The princes multiplied, placing their sons on thrones in different cities and towns. Thus, large principalities were divided into so-called appanage principalities. Each brother was given his own inheritance, which he ruled, defended, collected tribute from the people and gave part of it to the Grand Duke. So the princes began to compete.

This all continued for a long time, until in the 13th century the reverse process of gathering small principalities into large ones began. This happened due to external factors - firstly, the need to repel an external enemy, which the Horde Mongols became for both Europe and Rus'. Secondly, trade and political centers shifted. Trade along the Dnieper faded, new trade routes opened, for example, along the Volga. Ancient Rus' gave birth to such political entities as Kiev, Vladimir-Suzdal and Novgorod Rus'. As a result, everything came down to a confrontation between two large state associations - the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. But that's a completely different story.

E If you think that our ancestors lived in spacious houses that smelled pleasantly of hay, slept on a warm Russian stove and lived happily ever after, then you are mistaken. The way you thought the peasants began to live a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty, or at most two hundred years ago.

Before this, the life of a simple Russian peasant was completely different.
Usually a person lived to be 40-45 years old and died as an old man. He was considered a grown man with a family and children at the age of 14-15, and she even earlier. They did not marry for love; it was the father who went to marry his son.

People had no time for idle rest at all. In the summer, absolutely all the time was occupied by work in the field, in the winter, collecting firewood and homework making tools and household utensils, and hunting.

Let's look at a Russian village of the 10th century, which, however, is not much different from the village of both the 5th century and the 17th century...

We came to the Lyubytino historical and cultural complex as part of a motor rally dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Avtomir group of companies. It is not for nothing that it is called “One-Storey Russia” - it was very interesting and educational to see how our ancestors lived.
In Lyubytino, at the place where the ancient Slavs lived, among the mounds and burials, a real village of the 10th century was recreated, with all the outbuildings and necessary utensils.
02


We will start with an ordinary Slavic hut. The hut is made of logs and covered with birch bark and turf. In some regions, the roofs of the same huts were covered with straw, and in some places with wood chips. Surprisingly, the service life of such a roof is only slightly less than the service life of the entire house, 25-30 years, and the house itself lasted about 40 years. Considering the time of life at that time, the house was just enough for a person’s life.

By the way, in front of the entrance to the house there is a covered area - this is the same canopy from the song about the “new, maple canopy.”
03


The hut is heated black, that is, the stove does not have a chimney; the smoke comes out through a small window under the roof and through the door. There are no normal windows either, and the door is only about a meter high. This is done in order not to release heat from the hut.
When the stove is fired, soot settles on the walls and roof. There is one big plus in a “black” firebox - there are no rodents or insects in such a house.
04


Of course, the house stands on the ground without any foundation; the lower crowns are simply supported by several large stones.
05


This is how the roof is made
06


And here is the oven. A stone hearth mounted on a pedestal made of clay-coated logs. The stove was heated early in the morning. When the stove is on fire, it is impossible to be in the hut, only the housewife remained there to prepare the food, everyone else went outside to do business, in any weather. After the stove was heated, the stones gave off heat until the next morning. The food was cooked in the oven.
07


This is what the hut looks like from the inside. They slept on benches placed along the walls, and sat on them while eating. The children slept on the beds, they are not visible in this photograph, they are on top, above their heads. In winter, young livestock were taken into the hut so that they would not die from frost. They also washed in the hut. You can imagine what kind of air there was, how warm and comfortable it was there. It immediately becomes clear why life expectancy was so short.
08


In order not to heat the hut in the summer, when it was not necessary, the village had a separate small building - a bread oven. They baked bread and cooked there.
09


Grain was stored in a barn - a building raised on poles from the surface of the ground to protect the products from rodents.
10


There were bottom pits built in the barn, remember - “I scraped the bottom pipes...”? These are special wooden boxes into which grain was poured from above and taken from below. So the grain did not sit stale.
11


Also in the village there was a triple glacier - a cellar in which ice was placed in the spring, filled with hay and lay there almost until the next winter.

Clothes, skins, utensils and weapons not needed at the moment were stored in a cage. The cage was also used when the husband and wife needed privacy.

12


13


Barn - this building served for drying sheaves and threshing grain. The heated stones were piled into a fireplace, sheaves were placed on poles, and the peasant dried them, constantly turning them over. Then the grains were threshed and winnowed.
14


Cooking food in an oven requires a special temperature regime - simmering. This is how, for example, gray cabbage soup is prepared. They are called gray because of their gray color. How to cook them?

To begin with, take green cabbage leaves, those that are not included in the head of cabbage are finely split, salted and placed under pressure for a week for fermentation.
For cabbage soup you also need pearl barley, meat, onions, and carrots. The ingredients are placed in a pot, and it is placed in the oven, where it will spend several hours. By evening, a very satisfying and thick dish will be ready.
15

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If you think that people in the past were less eccentric than the current generation, then remember their fashion and traditions - there are many surprising things there.

website I compiled a small list of what our ancestors considered normal, and found out that you and I are not so strange.

First and second dream

Europeans living during the Middle Ages practiced what is now called biphasic sleep. The first sleep began at sunset and lasted until about midnight, then people woke up and stayed awake for 2–3 hours. Some were praying or reading at this time, while others were communicating with household members or neighbors. Then came the time of the second sleep, which lasted until sunrise.

Live alarms

Knocker-up, or alarm clock man, is a profession that existed from the late 18th century until 1920. The duties of such people included waking up those who had to go to work. The "alarm clocks" would bang on their clients' windows with sticks or shoot peas at them from a blowpipe. It is not entirely clear who woke up the knocker-ups themselves, but there is a version that they did not go to bed at all before work.

Boys' dresses

Starting from the 16th century and until about 1920, it was customary for boys up to a certain age (4–8 years) to be dressed in dresses, and this did not bother anyone. Probably the main reason for this was the high cost of clothing, and dresses were easier to sew for growth. The tradition did not escape even the family of Nicholas II - in the photo his son Tsarevich Alexei is wearing a dress similar to those worn by his sisters.

Chopins

Chopins, also known as zoccoli and pianelli, are a type of platform shoe whose height could reach 50 cm. It is not surprising that those who wore these shoes required the help of servants so as not to literally fall victim to fashion. However, they wore chopins not only out of a desire for beauty, but also in order not to get their clothes dirty in the street dirt.

Bleeding for all diseases

Fear of water procedures

In the Middle Ages, in some countries it was believed that water only brought illness to humans, and lice were called “God’s pearls.” These beliefs were shared by the monarchs. Isabella of Castile was proud that she washed only twice in her life: at birth and before her wedding. Once the gentleman drew attention to her dirty hands and nails, to which the queen replied: “Oh, you should have seen my feet!”

Postmortem photographs

Another custom that in our time looks, if not creepy, then at least very strange. But in the 19th century, it was a way to preserve the memory of departed loved ones. As a rule, the deceased were given a “living” appearance before being photographed: they were seated in natural poses and their eyes were drawn on closed eyelids - just like in this photograph.

Radioactive products and cosmetics

At the beginning of the 20th century, radiation was perceived by people as an exclusively positive phenomenon, which scammers did not fail to take advantage of: cosmetics, foods and drinks enriched with radium and thorium, radioactive souvenirs, and even devices for saturating water with radioactive elements appeared on sale.

Alas, there were victims: the athlete Eben Byers drank huge doses of the Radithor drink, as a result of which he died. The Wall Street Journal responded to this sad event with a sarcastic note: “The radium water worked great for him. Until his jaw dropped."

Heroin as a cough medicine

Surprisingly, 100 years ago, heroin was considered a harmless alternative to morphine and was sold in pharmacies as a cough medicine. Moreover, it was recommended even for children. It was subsequently discovered that heroin was converted to morphine in the liver, and its use was banned in 1924, but