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Authors: Eric Christiansen
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destroyed the idols in 1168–9 do the Rugians appear to have accepted the sole leadership of a secular ruler and his family.
Thus, by 1100 the West Slavs living along the Baltic were a vigorous and thriving people with a peculiar form of political organization which represented a compromise between the interests of town communities and the interests of territorial princes. The compromise appears to have been successful, in that both powers continued to grow, and were able until the 1140s to defeat foreign aggression. The princes needed the long ships of the cities to wage war, and the cities needed the protection of the princely land forces; when they combined, the other Northern peoples had reason to fear. A Slav war-fleet looked very similar to a fleet of Vikings, and might, as in 1135, range as far north as the southern Norwegian town of Konghelle, and be mistaken for an armada of Danes. 17 But, when the ships got near, the onlookers would recognize the cropped heads of the crews, and hear the characteristic shrieking and jeering of the Wends preparing to fight; it was time to run, or be brave. On land, they were experienced cavalrymen, wheeling and charging unexpectedlyon small horses which would be called ponies nowadays; the magnates appear to have owned studs and stables of these animals – as they owned the ships – and to have mounted their dependants on them in time of war. These horsemen were not as heavily armoured as Saxon or Danish cavalry, and relied on speed and surprise rather than on sword- or spear-play in close combat. The lack of heavy horse was to prove a disadvantage, but, for the purposes of raiding, ambushing, and pillaging, the Wendish ‘rough-rider’ was good enough.
Four hundred miles east of Danzig, another branch of the Slav people had settled in the Northern world and become an important political and economic force. The ‘East Slavs’ of Polotsk and Novgorod had entered the region before the ninth century, cleared themselves a space for settlement in the forest and along the great rivers, and accepted ruling dynasties and Christian missions from Kiev in the course of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The name of ‘Rus’, whatever its origin, was applied to them in this period (Adam of Bremen calls them Ruzzi), but they themselves saw Russia as the country to the south, where the great prince lived and the bishops came from. For what distinguished them both from the Baltic Slavs, and from the surrounding peoples, was their Christianity, symbolized by the cathedrals of the Holy Wisdom at Novgorod (built 1045–52) and at Polotsk ( c. 1100), and the Holy Trinity at Pskov ( c. 1137). As Christians, as city-dwellers and as subjects of a prince ( kynaz ), the Russians of the North were representative of Byzantine civilization; as traders and farmers they depended on what they could extract and sell from the forest peoples that surrounded them: slaves, fur, wax and honey. Novgorodian society at this period was already more complex than that of the Balt and Fennic peoples in the same region, involving the organization of peasant labour on large estates, and dominant cadres of nobles, landless warriors, merchants, monks and priests. It was an expensive complexity, which could not have been sustained solely on the proceeds of the arable land, which the Slav peasant was tilling and slowly enlarging, along the rivers and lakes. Regular imports of foodstuffs and forest products from the entire North-East region were a necessity, and the Russians had established themselves as the economic masters of this region by peopling the vital points where all trade-routes met and crossed. The Novgorodians round Lake Ilmen commanded the porterage to the upper Volga, with a hold on lakes Ladoga and Chud through the towns of Ladoga and Pskov; the Polochianson the upper Dvina commanded the porterage to the Dnieper. By holding these corridors they ensured that the whole volume of Baltic-Black Sea-Caspian trade
Thus, by 1100 the West Slavs living along the Baltic were a vigorous and thriving people with a peculiar form of political organization which represented a compromise between the interests of town communities and the interests of territorial princes. The compromise appears to have been successful, in that both powers continued to grow, and were able until the 1140s to defeat foreign aggression. The princes needed the long ships of the cities to wage war, and the cities needed the protection of the princely land forces; when they combined, the other Northern peoples had reason to fear. A Slav war-fleet looked very similar to a fleet of Vikings, and might, as in 1135, range as far north as the southern Norwegian town of Konghelle, and be mistaken for an armada of Danes. 17 But, when the ships got near, the onlookers would recognize the cropped heads of the crews, and hear the characteristic shrieking and jeering of the Wends preparing to fight; it was time to run, or be brave. On land, they were experienced cavalrymen, wheeling and charging unexpectedlyon small horses which would be called ponies nowadays; the magnates appear to have owned studs and stables of these animals – as they owned the ships – and to have mounted their dependants on them in time of war. These horsemen were not as heavily armoured as Saxon or Danish cavalry, and relied on speed and surprise rather than on sword- or spear-play in close combat. The lack of heavy horse was to prove a disadvantage, but, for the purposes of raiding, ambushing, and pillaging, the Wendish ‘rough-rider’ was good enough.
Four hundred miles east of Danzig, another branch of the Slav people had settled in the Northern world and become an important political and economic force. The ‘East Slavs’ of Polotsk and Novgorod had entered the region before the ninth century, cleared themselves a space for settlement in the forest and along the great rivers, and accepted ruling dynasties and Christian missions from Kiev in the course of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The name of ‘Rus’, whatever its origin, was applied to them in this period (Adam of Bremen calls them Ruzzi), but they themselves saw Russia as the country to the south, where the great prince lived and the bishops came from. For what distinguished them both from the Baltic Slavs, and from the surrounding peoples, was their Christianity, symbolized by the cathedrals of the Holy Wisdom at Novgorod (built 1045–52) and at Polotsk ( c. 1100), and the Holy Trinity at Pskov ( c. 1137). As Christians, as city-dwellers and as subjects of a prince ( kynaz ), the Russians of the North were representative of Byzantine civilization; as traders and farmers they depended on what they could extract and sell from the forest peoples that surrounded them: slaves, fur, wax and honey. Novgorodian society at this period was already more complex than that of the Balt and Fennic peoples in the same region, involving the organization of peasant labour on large estates, and dominant cadres of nobles, landless warriors, merchants, monks and priests. It was an expensive complexity, which could not have been sustained solely on the proceeds of the arable land, which the Slav peasant was tilling and slowly enlarging, along the rivers and lakes. Regular imports of foodstuffs and forest products from the entire North-East region were a necessity, and the Russians had established themselves as the economic masters of this region by peopling the vital points where all trade-routes met and crossed. The Novgorodians round Lake Ilmen commanded the porterage to the upper Volga, with a hold on lakes Ladoga and Chud through the towns of Ladoga and Pskov; the Polochianson the upper Dvina commanded the porterage to the Dnieper. By holding these corridors they ensured that the whole volume of Baltic-Black Sea-Caspian trade
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