Everything about Drevlyans totally explained
The Drevlians (
Древляне,
Drevlyane in
Russian;
Деревляни,
Derevliany in
Ukrainian) were a
tribe of
Early East Slavs between the
6th and the
10th century, which inhabited the territories of
Polesia,
Right-bank Ukraine west of
Polans, down the stream of the rivers
Teteriv,
Uzh,
Ubort, and
Stviga. On the West, Drevlians’ territories reached the
Sluch River, where the
Volynians (related to the territory of
Volynia) and
Buzhans (related to the name of
Bug river) lived. On the North, Drevlians’ neighbors were the
Dregovichs.
The name of the tribe derives from the Slavic word
древо or
дерево (drevo, or derevo), which means "tree", because the Drevlians used to live in thick woods.
The Drevlians left many archaeological traces, such as agricultural settlements with semi-
dugouts (or earth-houses), moundless burial grounds and
barrows, fortified towns like Vruchiy (today's
Ovruch), Gorodsk, site of an ancient settlement near
Malyn (supposedly, a residence of the Drevlian
prince Mal) and others. The principal city of the Drevlians was Iskorosten (today’s
Korosten), where one can still see a group of compact ancient settlements. By the end of the
first millennium, the Drevlians already had well-developed
farming and
handicrafts.
The Drevlians were fervently opposed to any attempts from the outside to include them in the
Kievan Rus. According to a number of
chronicles, in the times of
Kyi, Schek and Khoriv (supposedly, founders of
Kiev) the Drevlians had their own princely rule and were frequently at war with the Polans. In
883, Prince
Oleg of Novgorod made the Drevlians pay tribute to Kiev. In
907, the Drevlians took part in the
Kievan military campaign against the
Byzantine Empire.
After Oleg’s death in
912, the Drevlians stopped paying tribute. The
Varangian warlord
Sveneld made them pay tribute to himself. Oleg's successor
Igor attempted to levy the tribute after Sveneld, but the Drevlians revolted and killed him in 945. Igor’s widow
Olga avenged her husband’s death in an extremely harsh manner, killing Drevlianian
ambassadors and
nobility, burning their capital of Iskorosten to the ground and leveling other towns. After having subjugated the Drevlians, Olga transformed their territories into a Kievan
appanage with the center in Vruchiy.
The last mentioning of the Drevlians was in a chronicle of
1136, when their lands were given as a gift to the
Church of the Tithes by
Yaropolk Vladimirovich.
Further Information
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