Can anyone tell me when trade between Russia and everybody else began? And what consequences an earlier opening of trade would have had, possibly stronger Novgorod?
Earlier artic trade between Russia and Europe?
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Trade in the area ois probabnly mesolithic if not earlier. The earliest traces of organised goods exchange are in the southern Steppe zone (Bronze Age) and the Baltic (late pre-Roman Iron Age). The modern state of 'Russia' comes into being through a trade network created by Scandinavian, Western Slav, Byzantine and Muslim merchants. If this had been feasible earlier - say, a faster economic and technological development in the Baltic makes it worthwhile to trade with them for the Hellenistic dynasts of the Pontic Shore or the Roman Empire - the consequences could get interesting. Much of modern northern Russia might today be speaking a Baltic or East Germanic language.
Of course, making Viking trade viable 1000 years before the Vikings is a pretty big POD in itself. Just maybe a fauilure of the Gallic Wars followed by Roman decisions not to bother? The northern tribes know they can get all that cool Roman stuff, but to get it they have to go through the Russian river networks and past the Sarmartians rather than just to the Rhine frontier.
Of course, making Viking trade viable 1000 years before the Vikings is a pretty big POD in itself. Just maybe a fauilure of the Gallic Wars followed by Roman decisions not to bother? The northern tribes know they can get all that cool Roman stuff, but to get it they have to go through the Russian river networks and past the Sarmartians rather than just to the Rhine frontier.
Bright day
You know some research into propable linguistic composition of Eastern Europe at the time? I don't meant that in pointy sarcastic way, but as a real question.
Nothing recent or terribly revolutionary. It is a most contentious area into which Germans tread at their (considerable) peril. But Herwig Wolfram's work on the Goths, though dated, contains some interesting material on the East Germanic cultures while there is an exhibition catalogue on the Balts (called 'The Balts') by the Archeological Museum Warsaw (1991) that puts Balts as far south as Bransk and Obrutsk, well past Moscow, and as far west as the Vistula in 300 BC. Of course that is entirely based on material culture - no written records survive. But from what I recall the Slavic migrations didn't reach these parts until well into the 300s AD.
Yeah, it is rather shamefull how much the research and reactions to it are mired in politcs and ideologies there
.But from what I was made to understand at the time of Hunic invasion the East Germanics were themsevels fairly fresh transplants to Eastern Europe.
Yeah, it is rather shamefull how much the research and reactions to it are mired in politcs and ideologies there
But from what I was made to understand at the time of Hunic invasion the East Germanics were themsevels fairly fresh transplants to Eastern Europe.
The Goths probably were. We don't really know who was the 'Podolsk culture', but I have not yet found any source without an agenda to regard them as Slavic. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they'd been more Balts.
There is a recent book (I haven't gotten round to reading yet) that makes the case that the cultures we identify as east Germanic and Western Slavic are to all intents and purposes the same group, a further development of the Podolsk culture. Don't know what to make of it, but it sounds a bit unconvincing you could ave an ethnic entitiy that embraced two distinct linguistic groups and experienced two different ethnogeneseis at the same time.