Old Russian gods: the personification of the Slavic picture of the world

The outlook of the medieval Slavs was closely connected with the surrounding natural forces. Old Russian gods personified the forces of nature. In addition to deities, many other fantastic creatures were present in folk beliefs, such as geese, mavocs, demons, bereguins, banners and others. Some of them have come down with Russian folk beliefs to this day.

The Universe of the Ancient Slavs

Today we know very little about the worldview of the Eastern Slavs. It is incomparably less than about similar beliefs of many western and eastern peoples. This happened because our ancestors did not have their own written language for quite a long period. Narrative sources that give ideas about the views of the ancient Russian tribes are simply not there. To some extent, other sources tell about this: stone idols, religious temples, textual references to later time, and so on. A general idea of the universe, as seen by the Eastern Slavs, can give the famous Zbruchsky idol, found in the same river in Ukraine. This two-meter statue has four sides and three levels, each of which embodies the universe: the underground (the world of dark beings), the earthly (the world of people) and the heavenly (the world of the gods). As already mentioned, the object of worship for the Russians was the very element of nature, in which they saw divine providence.

The etymology of divine names

Already the names of the gods of the Eastern Slavs indicate their functions and the natural forces for which they are responsible: The genus was the progenitor of all the gods and, in general, all living things on earth; Dazhbog - a god who gives sunlight and abundant fertility; Mara is the goddess of evil and night, personifying the death of all life in the late fall. Her antagonist was the spring goddess Lada. Often the Old Russian names of the deities were a local version of very similar gods from other European mythologies. Thus, Perun was one of the hypostases of the god of the thunderer, very popular among the Indo-European peoples. Mara was associated by various authors with the Roman deities Cecera and Mars. The name Veles some historians derive from the Baltic god of the realm of the dead Vialnas.

Baptism of Russia

A turning point for paganism was the reign in the second half of the 10th century, the Kiev prince Vladimir. Old Russian gods simply ceased to correspond to the conditions of the developing world. Mighty neighbors of Russia (Byzantium, Catholic Coalition, the Arab Caliphate) by this time were monotheistic states. Old Russian gods did not contribute to the internal consolidation of the country, and, consequently, hampered its strengthening and development. A few years before the adoption of Christianity, Vladimir made an attempt to spiritual unification of the n lands. The most popular ancient Russian gods in the form of six idols (Khors, Perun, Dazhbog, Stribog, Mokosha, Semargla) were collected at the Kiev temple. However, it soon became clear that the reform would not give proper results. And close contacts with powerful neighbors, primarily with Byzantium, pushed the prince to accept the Greek version of Christianity in 988. It should also be noted that not only mythological beings managed to exist in the new system. Many of the ancient Russian gods eventually turned into Orthodox saints in local Christianity.