(عربي) The first thing that should be known about the Primary Russian Chronicle (Повесть временных лет) is that we’ll be talking about completely different geopolitical regions, totally different political systems, different peoples, probably a climate similar to the current climate in today’s Russia, a somehow different genetic mixture, and with only one constant: the geography, the only thing that unifies that era with our time. In my opinion, the first lesson that we should learn from this precious chronicle is that everything could dramatically change, and as many have changed since it was 1000 years back, then the current understanding of the huge Russia that defeated Napoleon and Hitler with its winter is a very limited understanding. When we try to predict future events, maybe we should always keep in mind the new identities, new geopolitical concepts, and new genetic mixtures.
The author, Nestor the Chronicler (Несторъ Лѣтописецъ) doesn’t mention many things about himself, but clearly, he’s a devoted Orthodox pastor who lived at the end of the 11th century and he the reign of two rulers of the Varangian Rurik dynasty, which became a Slavic dynasty by the mid-ninth century. Nestor’s version of the book never survived, but the latter versions survived and maybe these copies have more additions that are not from Nestor. The book remains a rare book with countless messages about life and politics in that time and place, and it is one of the earliest, maybe even the first book that is written in the eastern Slavic language.
Varangians: Rurik family was a Viking Varangian family and they were the founders of the first Rus emirate, despite that, Varangains are referred to by the author as a different group that manages their own regions in the Baltic and other areas that didn’t belong to the Rus. The origin point and one of the most important cities where Varangians started their military actions toward the south was the city of Novgorod. There are no Varangians anymore in these regions, they became extinct linguistically and culturally at an unknown time.
Slavic Peoples
Polianians: the author mentions the Polianians as a group that lives between Varangians and Greeks, on a trade line that reaches the Dnieper River. The author praised them as respectful people who live peacefully and as having mutual respect inside families. He also mentioned that the Drevlians were stronger than them and they used to oppress them, then the Polianians lost their sovereignty to Khazars and started paying tribute to them. Worthy to mention that the Polianians aren’t the same as Poles, and they’re not related to them. Polianian simply originates to pole/поле which means field, they hence were called the people of the fields. Founding Kiev is associated with the Polianians as the author mentioned, he attributed the three brothers in the traditional story Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv; and their sister Lybid to the Polianians, which indicates that Slavic existence in the region is very old compared to the newly coming Rus.
Early Slavs are mentioned in the book, their point of origin was supposed to be from where the Magyars and Bulgars were residing at the beginning of the events in the book, which is at some point on Danube River.
Moravians are another western Slavic tribe that is named after Morava River where they lived in today’s Moravia, Czech. The group still exists and lives in the same area.
Vlakhs or Lyakhs are mentioned in the beginning as a group that attacked Slavs who live on Danube, they co-existed together after that, then the Slavs with some Lyakhs migrated to Vistula and by that time this group was called Lyakhs. Vistula today is a river that begins from Poland and northern Slovakia which shows that this group or the Slavo-Lyakh mix probably lived in some area between Danube in Austria to southern Poland. But the author includes other groups within Lyachs: “some Lyakhs were called Polianians, Lutichians, Mazovians, Pomorians”. I found no sources on the internet that mention Lutichians while Mazovians are supposed to be residing in some district in Poland that today has the same name, and they speak a Mazovians accent. I found a church called Pomorian church which has been separated from the Russian Orthodox church but I believe that has nothing to do with Pomorians. There’s also a group of investigators who are called Pomors.
Drevlians were an eastern Slavic tribe that lived in forests, their name comes from drevo/древо which means trees or woods, so similar to Polianians who are the people of the fields, Drevlians are the people of the woods. The author seems to hate this group, he mentioned that they live with cows, they kill each other and make huge parties of sex in multiple villages to have group sex. As far as I know and as I tried to find on the internet there doesn’t seem to be any contemporary heir group of Drevlians, and there’s no information about them except what’s mentioned in the book. Probably there are some individuals in eastern Ukraine today who have ancestors from Drevlians.
Severians are also described in the same way as Drevlians in terms of lifestyle. Their ancestors are a group called Krevichians. Both have no heirs today, but I found an accent in Russia called Krevichian. Severians live near the areas where Dregovichians live. Radimichs were also living the same lifestyle and in areas close to Severians.
Vyatichians’ lifestyle is similarly criticized by the author, he mentioned that they live near Oka and Volga River.
All these groups Radimichs, Vyatichians, Severians, and Drevlians are said to be burning their dead, in addition to the other habits mentioned such as violence, and polygamy, and that they kill each other.
Dregovichians aren’t mentioned often in the book, except that they were Slavic tribes that live in a region that should be somewhere in current Belarus. They were supposed to live between the rivers Pripyat, Dvina, and Bug. It doesn’t seem that they exist as a group, language, or accent today. Closer to where Dregovichians live also live Polotians or Polochans, another eastern Slavic group whose name is derived from the river Polota where they lived in today’s Belarus. They also lived near Bug River.
Non-Slavic Peoples
Muroma, Cheremisians and Meryans were Finns living near Oka River, but no other information was mentioned about them. Mordva are also Finno-ugric speaking group that seems to be still exiting today and there’s a republic in west Volga today called Mordovia, Mordvin is an official language in addition to Russian, and they’re today divided into Erzya and Moksha.
Buzhians or Vulhenians is another group living on Bug river, and they are not in any way related to Bosnians.
Other non-Slavs mentioned in the book include Scythians, Bulgars who came from Scythians’ lands towards Danube and oppressed Slavs according to the author. White Ugrians are also mentioned who aren’t related to Finns groups near Oka river, but they could be the Ugrians who represent the other branch of Finno-Ugrian languages. They should be relatives or an older ancestor of the Magyars who are also mentioned as a group of people that passed by the Scythians lands – as if he’s referring to some area between Caspian and Black seas – then they passed by Kyiv during Oleg’s reign.
Even though Avars still live in Russia and Ukraine, the contemporary group may not be related to the extinct Avars mentioned by the authors who are described in a Russian proverb “they got extinct as the Avars did” which may indicate that they existed on a larger land in that time. Avar represent one-third of the Dagestan Oblast people in south Russia, their language doesn’t belong to any common language family but it belongs to its own language family.
The book also mentions Khazar, Muslim Bulgars state, Polovcians or Cumans, Tork, Yatvingians, Pechenges, Chuds, Yasians, Kasogians and Greeks.