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Slavs and the East

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    The

    Slavs and the East

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    T h e

    Slavs

    and

    the

    East

    Editors

    Mikhail

    Tikhomirov, Academician

    BabadjaiyGafurov,

    Corresponding

    M e m b e r of the

    U . S . S . R .

    Academy

    ofSciences

    r

    1

    1 Unesco

    2> C *(*{]

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    te bi;,

    t h

    4/D.58/A

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    Contents

    Preface 7

    Introduction

    9

    Ancientneighboursof theSlavs 17

    Early sources 21

    Thefirstourneysto theEast 28

    Tradeand

    trade

    routes

    33

    The

    interaction of cultures 38

    Oriental

    studies 54

    The

    awakeningoftheEast 63

    The

    SovietEast 67

    Culturalrelationstoday 71

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    Articles contributed by: Leonid Vassilyev, Yuri

    Zavadovsky,

    Vladimir Korolyuk, Yuri Nasenko,

    Anatoli Novoseltsev,

    A n n a

    Tveritinova, Naftula Khalfin,

    Nina

    Shastina.

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    Preface

    T h e present work isoneof a

    series

    ofbookletsfor thegeneral

    public,

    which

    deal with various aspects of theMajor Project

    o n Mutual Appreciation ofEastern and

    Western

    Cultural

    Values.

    It was prepared,at therequest ofthe

    Secretariat,

    by

    the National

    Commission

    forUnesco of the

    Union

    ofSoviet

    Socialist

    Republics.

    Thispublication

    is

    thus

    acontribution

    by the U . S . S . R . Natio

    nal Commission

    to the

    implementation

    of theMajor

    Project.

    It so

    happens that one

    of its

    twoprincipal authors, Professor

    Babadjan Gafurov, corresponding

    m e m b e r of the

    U . S . S . R .

    A c a d e m y

    ofSciences,ischairmanof the East-West

    Committee

    set up withintheNationalCommission.

    T h e

    other is

    M r . M i k

    halTikhomirov,

    m e m b e r

    of the U . S . S . R .

    A c a d e m y

    ofSciences.

    These twoscholars requested agroup ofauthors, members

    of

    the Institute of

    Asian

    Peoples, the Institute ofHistory and

    the Institute ofSlavonic Studies,towrite thevarious chapters

    ofthework,whichcovers the followingsubjects:theneighbours

    of the Slavsin

    antiquity;

    earliestrecords;firstourneysto the

    East; trade andtrade routes;

    cultural

    influences; Oriental

    studies; the

    awakening

    of theEast; theSoviet East; today's

    cultural

    links. T he opinions expressed in these pages are

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    Preface

    8

    therefore

    those

    of the

    authors,

    and their

    observations

    do not

    necessarilyreflect

    Unesco's views.

    The Organization

    is,

    however,

    grateful

    to

    them

    for

    having

    described thedevelopment ofmutual understanding between

    Eastern andWestern culturesfrom thestandpoint of theSlav

    peoples,

    andforhavingtaken equalaccountof the phenomena

    of the past andofthe present repercussionsofthesereciprocal

    influences.

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    Introduction

    T h e

    progress

    m a d e

    in the

    U . S . S . R .

    in the study of the

    history

    of

    the

    culture

    of Eastern and Slav

    countries

    is

    a

    matter of

    c o m

    m o n

    knowledge,

    but w e arestillnotin a

    positionfar from

    ittogiveaconcise,

    clear

    account of the relations between

    the Slav peoples and the peoples of the East through the cen

    turies.

    In studying

    ancient

    periods,

    researchers

    are

    hampered,

    above

    all, by thescantinessand fragmentary

    nature

    ofwritten

    sources. Consequently, the historianisconstantly obligedto

    rely

    only on

    mute

    archaeological

    remains

    or

    on

    linguistic

    and

    ethnographical data, which cannot yet be accurately dated.

    O n

    the

    otherhand,

    as

    we c o m e

    closerto

    modern

    times, sources

    become both more

    numerous

    and more

    varied.

    Present-day

    historians

    must

    not only uncover but alsoselecttheirmaterial

    in order not to

    lose

    sightof the

    forest

    for thetrees.

    Since

    this

    paper is being

    written

    at atime w h e n very m a n y

    aspectsof thesubject'the Slavs and the East' arestillcontro

    versial,

    hypothetical

    or

    insufficiently

    studied,

    w h e n

    our

    k n o w

    ledge about contacts

    between

    the countries of the East and

    those of Central and Eastern

    Europe

    throughout the ages and,

    more especially, during ancient and mediaeval times,is still

    fragmentary, and w h e n m u c h of the

    data

    relatingto the

    recent

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    Introduction

    io

    past andmore

    modern

    timesstillawaits specialized investiga

    tion,

    it is

    naturally not the

    purpose

    of

    this

    pamphlet

    to

    cover

    thewholerangeofproblems,eveninavery cursory w a y .

    In

    setting forth the basic

    factsin

    the history of contacts

    betweentheSlav peoplesand theEast,the writers ofthispaper

    realized thattheterms 'Slavs' and 'East' are, historically

    speaking, by nomeans identical concepts. Theterm 'East'

    inthispamphlet

    means

    thenumerouspeoplesofAsia,speaking

    a

    multitudeoflanguages,

    often unrelated

    to

    one

    another.

    These

    peoples

    were

    in the

    pastand

    still areat

    different

    stages of social development andtheir material andcultural

    traditions are highly disparate. Theconcept 'Slavs', onthe

    other hand,

    isan ethnical one,coveringagroupofpeoples

    interconnected

    by

    a

    certain c o m m o n origin and

    similarity

    of

    languages.Itis true

    that

    theSlav peoples too,once theprimi

    tive

    community stage wasover,didnot constituteasingle

    historicalunit. In thecourseoftheirdevelopment, they c a m e

    into contactwith tribesandpeoples ofdifferent cultures and

    different origins, so that the ethnical elements entering into

    the formation of the contemporary Slav peoples were by no

    means uniform.Inthe past, nevertheless, despite differences

    of religion andallowing for certain specific features andirre

    gularitiesof socialdevelopment, theSlav peoples were always

    united

    bytheir c o m m o n derivation

    froma

    single primitive

    Slav

    race and by the

    similarity

    of

    theirhistorical

    past

    andtheir

    spiritual

    andmaterial culture.

    A t the same time,itmust beemphasized, w h e n studying

    the close ethnical,culturalandhistoricaltiesuniting theSlav

    peoples throughout theages, that the contacts

    between

    these

    peoples

    and the

    East, from earliest times, were merely

    part

    ofawhole pattern of contactsbetween the peoples ofAsia

    and thoseofCentral andEastern Europe,inwhich notonly

    the Slav peoples but also Germans andHungarians, R u m a

    nians

    and

    Albanians,

    and the

    peoples

    of the Baltic

    provinces

    and

    Scandinavia

    participated; moreover, these contacts

    never

    took the

    form

    ofmutual relationsbetween two hermetically

    sealed

    ordiametrically opposed worlds. The special nature

    of the historical processinthe

    W e s t

    andtheEast did not

    imply any basic contradiction between them.Fundamentally

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    11

    Introduction

    speaking,

    thehistorical

    progress

    ofh u m a n societyin

    East

    and

    West

    proceeded along

    identical

    Unes,

    with the

    transition

    of

    both Eastern andWestern peoples

    from

    one

    stage

    of

    deve

    lopment

    to the next higher

    stage

    being governed by the same

    socialand economic

    lawsin

    each case. T h esocialandspiri

    tual

    motives

    which

    impelled the peoples of the East and the

    West

    respectively

    to

    embark

    on the hardfight

    against

    oppres

    sion

    and

    toaspire

    to,

    believein

    and fight

    for

    social

    justice

    were,if

    not

    identical,at

    any

    rate

    very

    similar.

    This is

    particu

    larlyapparent

    at

    the

    present

    time,

    w h e n

    the peoples of both

    Europe

    and

    Asia

    have rallied

    togetherin

    the

    community

    of

    nations,united

    in the

    c o m m o n

    struggle

    for

    socialism,

    progress

    andpeace.

    The Slav peoples have played

    alarge

    and important part

    in the

    historical contacts

    that have enriched the cultureof

    the peoples ofEuropeand

    Asia

    through the

    centuries precisely

    becauseof

    the fact that,

    geographically

    speaking,

    the

    Slav

    peoples

    were close

    neighbours of Eastern peoples. Their lands

    were

    traversed,

    ever

    since

    the very

    early Middle Ages,

    by

    the

    most

    important

    transit traderoutes

    of the

    world, linking

    the thenflourishing

    countries

    of the East with

    afeudal Europe

    emergingfrom the

    ruins

    and ashes of the AncientWorld.

    The Slav languages belong

    to the

    very extensive Indo-

    European family,

    which

    includes

    theR o m a n c e , Germanic

    and Slav tongues, the languages of the Greeks, the

    Celts,

    the

    Letts

    and Lithuanians, the

    Iranians

    and

    Armenians,

    the Indians,

    Thracians and

    Illyrians.

    Slavs

    were

    the

    aboriginal

    inhabitants

    of vast areas

    of Central and Eastern

    Europe located

    within

    the

    present

    boundaries of the Soviet

    Union

    and Poland,between

    the Dnieper and the Oder.

    A sa

    result

    of

    extensive transmigration,in the

    course of

    which

    the ne wethnical m a p ofEurope took shape, the Slav

    tribesestablished

    themselves

    in

    the territory of modern C z e

    choslovakia and

    settledin

    Pannonia

    (where

    the Hungarians

    appeared

    later

    and

    founded

    their

    feudal State).

    The Slav

    populations,

    little

    by

    little

    occupied the

    whole

    of the

    area

    lying

    between the

    Oder

    and the

    Elbe,

    advancingevenin

    some

    placesbeyond

    the Elbe

    to

    the

    west. Almostat

    the same time

    the Slav

    tribesbegan

    to

    m o v e

    forward

    into

    the

    Balkans,where,

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    Introduction

    ia

    by the middleof the eighthcentury, they already

    constituted

    the dominant ethnical,militaryandpoliticalforce,occupying

    a

    large

    part

    of the peninsula.

    The

    era ofmass Slav migrations in the

    early Middle Ages

    was

    also

    the time w h e n the three

    main

    branches of the

    great

    Slavpeople tookfinalshape.T h e East Slavs include the pre

    sent-day Russians, Ukrainians and Byelorussians; the

    West

    Slavsthe Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Sorbs or Lusations;

    South

    Slavs (Bulgarians, Serbs, Macedonians, Croats and

    Slovenes)

    occupied theBalkan peninsula.

    Subsequently,

    substantialchangesoccurred along the western

    frontiers of the Slav world. T h eGerman feudal drive to the

    East reduced the sizeof Slav-occupied territoryin the West,

    where the Slav tribes along the Elbe and the Baltic found

    themselvesabsorbed by theGermanicethnicmass.

    At

    the sametime, the territoryoccupied by the Slavs

    expan

    ded

    considerably to the south and

    east.

    T h e East Slavs not

    onlystood up to the

    attacks

    of the n o m a d tribesof the

    Black

    Sea steppes and threw off the Tartar-Mongolianrule which

    had stifled theirspiritualandmaterialculturefor threecentu

    ries;but they evensucceeded in conqueringlargeareasof the

    Black Sea steppes, besides embarkingon

    large-scaleeconomic

    developmentof thelimitlessexpanses of the Urals andSiberia.

    Thisexpansion,begunas

    early

    as thesixteenthand seventeenth

    centuries by peasants and Cossacks pushing south and

    east,

    eventually

    m a d e

    the Russian Slavs

    direct

    neighbours of the

    peoples of Central

    Asia

    and the Far East.

    The

    clearestillustrationof thetremendousprogressive

    impor

    tance ofthisdrive of the Eastern Slavs to the shores of the

    Pacific Ocean is the present-day economic andcultural deve

    lopment

    of

    Siberia,

    which Soviet people are transforming into

    a very advanced industrial and agricultural region with a

    highly developed

    scientific

    and

    culturallife.

    But another inference mayalso be drawn from the fore

    going:

    the

    influence

    exerted

    by

    relations

    and

    links

    with Eastern

    countries

    on their social,political and cultural

    development

    wasby nomeans identicalfor all the Slav peoples. Th eeffect

    of

    such contacts was,quite obviously, m u c h greater in the

    case of the Southern Slavs,

    w h o

    remained for m a n y centuries

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    13

    Introduction

    under

    the feudal yoke of the Turks, and had m a n y

    economic

    linksof all kinds with the countries ofAsia Minor and the

    Middle

    East, than in the case of the

    Western

    Slavs. But

    the Eastern Slavs alsoRussians and Ukrainians, in

    parti

    cularhad, and

    still have, specially close

    contacts with

    a great

    variety

    of

    Asiatic

    countries. This circumstance has,

    of course, influenced our choice ofhistoricalmaterial for the

    present

    pamphlet.

    T h e Slavs,likethe otherpeoples ofEurope,havenot merely

    helped to shape the

    n e w ethnicalstructure

    of

    Europe

    but

    have

    also,

    from

    the very

    outset,

    played an

    active part

    in

    European

    cultural,economic

    and

    politicallife.

    Together with the

    R o m a

    nic and

    Germanic

    peoples, they were theheirsof the Graeco-

    R o m a n Mediterranean civilization of the Ancient

    World,

    based,

    in turn,on the tremendousachievements of the

    ancient

    civilizations of Asia and Africa. T h e Slav peoples m a d e an

    enormous contribution

    to the development of European cul

    tureand science, and so played anactive partincreatingworld

    culturaltradition

    as a

    whole

    and

    contributed

    to the triumphs

    o f h u m a n genius in all spheres ofknowledge,

    from

    elaborating

    the heliocentric theory to penetrating the deepest secretsof

    the structureof matter and the

    heroic

    conquest of the cosmos.

    Y e t , the advance of European civilizationwas never an

    iso

    lated

    phenomenon: it

    drew

    its inspiration, throughout the

    centuries,

    from

    the superior,

    vitalizing civilizations

    createdby

    the peoples of the East,

    just

    as the peoples of the East, in

    their

    turn,particularly

    in

    recent

    and

    modern

    times,

    have

    absorbed

    into

    their

    culturesandassimilated the technical andspiritual

    achievementsofEurope.

    T h e

    fact that

    the Slav peoples played an important part in

    this

    mutually

    enriching exchange

    of

    technical

    and cultural

    values is due mainly to the links

    which

    thesepeoples had, in

    ancient

    times and for

    m a n y centuries,

    maintained with the

    East. T h e Slav peoples, in creating

    their

    indigenous

    civili

    zation, had always maintained extremely close and varied

    culturalcontactswith

    other

    peoples.

    T h e historyof

    relations

    betweenthe Slav peoples and peoples

    of

    the East had, of course, in

    addition

    tothesefruitfulexchanges

    of

    ideas

    and achievements, its

    negative

    aspectstoowhich

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    Introduction

    4

    brings

    us

    b a c k

    to a

    p r o b l e m

    already

    mentioned a b o v e , that

    of

    the choice of material for

    this

    p a m p h l e t .

    T h a t

    we decided, eventually, to confine ourselves to cul

    tural

    and

    historical

    problems was not due to any reluctance

    o n

    our part to

    touch u p o n

    the

    c o m p l e x

    and controversial

    aspects of the past.

    W e

    do not in the least underestimate the

    significance of

    political

    contacts and

    relations

    in history

    w h i c h , incidentally,

    have

    been studied in relatively greater

    detail;

    nor do we take the

    view that

    historyshould ignore

    such

    negative p h e n o m e n a as the three-century-long yoke imposed

    by

    the Tartars on

    Russia,

    the six centuries of

    Turkish

    feudal

    rule in the

    Balkans

    or the predatory nature of

    Tsarist

    foreign

    policy.But at

    this

    juncture,

    w h e n

    our planet is threatened by

    the monstrous scourge of nuclear war and the

    sole

    alternative

    to a disastrous world-wide atomic conflict is peaceful co-exis

    tence

    between

    countries with

    different social systems, first

    priority m u s t , in our opinion, be given to studying andclari

    fying those aspects of past history w h i c h help to bring nations

    closer

    together and increase

    their

    m u t u a l

    understanding

    and

    respect.

    T h e

    t e a m of

    authors,

    representing

    m e m b e r s

    of the Institute

    of Asian

    Peoples, the

    Institute

    of History and the

    Institute

    of

    SlavStudies of the

    U . S . S . R .

    A c a d e m y of Sciences, hasconcen

    trated

    on questions of economic andcultural contacts between

    the Slav countries and the countries of the East, on the tradi

    tions of

    their c o m m o n

    revolutionary struggle, and on

    broad

    co-operation

    between

    t h e m

    in

    m o d e r n

    times; and has

    selected

    a nd arranged

    the material so as to

    illustrateclearly

    and

    vividly

    the following

    m a i n

    th emes:

    Cultural

    or economic

    isolation

    has never proved favourable

    to

    real social,

    economic and cultural progress. Large-scale

    exchanges

    of

    cultural

    values and

    mutually

    advantageous

    economic

    exchanges have always p r o m o t e d

    the general

    progress

    of countries and peoples, without materially afFec-

    tingeither their

    individual

    i m a g e

    or the

    originality

    of

    their

    culture.

    E c o n o m i c andcultural relations between peoples, along with

    greater k n o w l e d g e of one

    another,

    constitute

    powerful

    levers

    that

    help in discarding o u t w o r n national prejudices. B y

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    15

    Introduction

    overcoming the racial,national andreligiousbarriers erec

    ted in thepastby the

    exploiting classes,

    nations

    will

    thereby

    remove

    a

    serious

    hindrance to

    h u m a n

    progress.

    T h e

    abolition

    of

    national

    and

    social

    oppression, as seen

    from

    the example of the development of Eastern peoples in the

    Soviet Union, creates the mostfavourable possibilitiesfor a

    veryextensiveinternationalexchange.

    T h e

    present-day development of extensive co-operation be

    tween

    the peoples of the East, the Slavcountries, and all

    the countries with socialist

    systems yields

    beneficial results

    in all branches of

    their

    domestic and

    international

    develop

    ment.

    Such

    co-operation is equally important to bothparties

    and it serves the interestsofmankind as a whole, since it

    helps to solve the

    most

    burning

    problem

    of the present-

    day worldwaror peacein favour ofpeace.

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    Ancient

    neighbours

    of the Slavs

    A glance at the map ofEurope andAsia immediatelyshows

    that the mountain range of the Urals, separating the Eastern

    European plain from Siberia, breaks off at its southern end

    before reaching the Caspian Sea, and forms a sort of natu

    ral gateway,where the steppes ofAsiameet those of the

    Black

    Sea

    region.

    Long

    before they were ploughed up by Soviet tractors,

    thesesteppes were, in

    Gogol's

    words, 'a green andvirginwil

    derness'.

    Covered

    with tall

    feather-grass

    that would hide a

    horseman, they provided the ancient nomads with rich pas

    tures.

    T h e

    Asiatic

    peoples

    found

    here

    their

    most convenient

    route

    from

    eastto

    west,

    and in the opposite

    direction,

    or

    across

    their

    path,

    m o v e d

    those Slav

    tribes w h o

    sought anoutlet to

    w a r m seas or

    n e w

    andfertilelands toconquer.

    Ties of

    mutual influence

    linked up at the meeting-point of

    these

    two

    ethnic

    and

    cultural

    streams.

    F or a long period during thelastmillenniumB . C . , Scythians

    and

    Sarmatians'the mare-milkers'led a

    nomadic existence

    to the north of the

    Black

    and Caspian Seas. These were

    peoples of

    European racial

    type, whose

    languagesknown

    as Eastern-Iranianwere distantly related to Persian.

    S o m e

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    Ancient

    neighbours

    oftheSlavs

    18

    of t h e m contributed to the development of an

    advanced

    Graeco-Scythian

    culture

    on the shores of the

    Black

    Sea,

    w h e r e G r e e k colonies

    w e r e

    situated.

    G o l d vessels and o r n a m e n t s , unearthed in great

    n u m b e r s

    from

    Scythian burial m o u n d s ,

    form

    a

    collection

    of extreme

    rarity,of w h i c h the

    U . S . S . R .

    is

    justly

    p r o u d .

    TheG r e ekhisto

    rian Herodotus describes h o w the Scythians buried

    their

    kings.

    W h e n the king died, his favourite concubine and faithful

    servants w e r e

    first

    strangled and then buried with h i m a s

    well as his

    finest

    horses and golden vessels, for the Scythians

    believed that the

    dead

    m a n w o u l d

    need

    all these in the other

    world.A high m o u n d w a s raisedover the t o m b .

    T h e descendants of the Scythians and Sarmatians settled

    o n the shores of the Black Sea and intermingled

    partially

    with

    the Eastern Slavs, w h o inherited a n u m b e r of w o r d s from the

    vocabulary

    of the Scythians. The Russian w o r d for dog,

    sobaka for e x a m p l e , is considered to be one such ancient

    borrowing.

    It is

    certain that

    the present

    n a m e s

    of

    s o m e

    of

    the rivers of the

    Ukraine

    are also East-Iranian in structure.

    M o r e o v e r , it m u s t be a s s u m e d that m a n y Slavonic-Iranian

    linguisticsimilarities

    can be explained by the c o m m o n origin

    of

    these

    I n d o - E u r o p e a n peoples; whilstsimilaritiesin thefields

    of mythology,

    religion and

    ethnics clearlyreflect

    the ancient

    c o m m u n i t y of religion, mythology and culture, and conse

    quent closeculturalcontacts that

    existed

    between the Iranians,

    in the

    wider

    sense of the

    term,

    and the Slavs.

    B e y o n d the Scythians, further to the east,livedthe ancestors

    of the Turkic-Altaic peoples. T h e y

    w e r e

    also horse-breeders,

    a n d their culture, to judge from archaeological data, in m a n y

    w a y s resembled that of the Scythians. This is particularly

    proved by a burial m o u n d discovered by

    Soviet

    archaeologists

    in the perpetual

    frost

    zone of the Altai M o u n t a i n s : here, the

    deceased shorses

    w e r e

    buried along with h i m .

    T h e

    H u n s ,

    who belonged to the

    s a m e

    racial

    and

    linguistic

    g r o u p ,

    m o v e d into

    E u r o p e

    in thefifthcentury A . D . andleft

    similar burial

    grounds

    in w h a t is now Czechoslovakia. After

    the H u n s

    w e r e

    defeated at the battleof Chalons on the

    Cata-

    launian plains in 451 and driven out of W e ste rn E u r o p e , they

    w e r e rapidly absorbedby other n o m a d i c peoples.

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    Ancient neighbours of the

    Slavs

    S o m e

    time later, in the sixth and seventh centuries, the

    Bulgars, wh o are believed to have belonged to the Turkic

    peoples, appeared in the

    steppes

    of South Russia.

    S o m e

    of

    them moved towards the Balkans;crossingthe Danube, they

    found themselves among Slavs and

    rapidly

    adopted and

    m a s

    teredthe Slavonic language and

    culture. S o m e

    ofthem moved

    to the upperVolga,

    where

    theyfounded the

    State

    of the 'Volga

    or

    K a m a

    Bulgars',

    which

    for a long time played an important

    role

    as an

    intermediary

    in

    trade between

    the Slavs and the

    peoples of the East.

    Another

    intermediary

    in

    trading

    relations

    between

    the

    Slavs and the East was the

    Khazar Khaganate, which

    existed

    o n the lower

    Volga

    untilthe end of the

    first

    millennium A . D .

    and which

    consisted

    ofTurkic peopleswhoseleadershad adopted

    Judaism.

    A m o n g the north-eastern neighbours of the Slavs

    were

    the

    Finno-Ugrians, wh o

    traded

    between the third and seventh

    centuries A . D . with Sassanid Iran and the Caucasus. A m o n g

    these

    peoples ancientRussian

    chronicles

    mention the Chudes,

    Mordvins, M u r o m s and Cheremissi. S o m e of

    these

    have gone

    o n

    living in almost the same places up to the presentday.

    Others moved far to the west,likethe Magyars, wh o settled

    inCentralEurope.

    In regionswhere the Eastern Slavs came intocontactwith

    the Chudes, the Russian population, into which the

    Chudes

    were subsequently absorbed, haspreserved a peculiar type of

    ornament:a pendant in the

    form

    of a smallduck with a lump

    ofearth

    in its beak.Thislittle

    duck

    figuresn the cosmogonical

    talesof the Finno-Ugrians and theVolgaBulgars.

    In north-eastern Europe, sheltered by the Urals and by

    dense forests,

    lived

    the Ugrians, Permians and

    K o m i .

    For

    more

    than

    fifteen

    hundred years they accumulated unique

    treasure

    hoards,

    buried

    under the ground. Embossed

    dishes

    and

    cups of

    silvergilt,

    unearthed in

    this

    regionin thenineteenth

    and early

    twentieth centuries, are exhibited in the 'Sassanid

    R o o m

    of the HermitageM u s e u m in Leningrad.

    Russian popular art,

    likethat

    ofseveralotherSlav peoples,

    has preserved a number ofmotifsin c o m m o n with the art of

    the Scythians, the

    Altai

    peoples, the Bulgars, the Finno-Ugrians

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    Ancient

    neighbours

    ofthe

    Slavs

    20

    an d the Sassanid Iranians. T h e portrayal ofanimals,inparti

    cular,

    becameverywidespread

    a m o n g all these

    peoples.

    K n o w n

    customarily to specialistsas the 'animal

    style ,

    this

    style

    was

    formed

    whilethe Scythians

    were

    stillin Hither

    Asia,

    and spread

    from

    there to Iran, the Caucasus and CentralAsia,as far as

    the Altai andnorth-westIndia.

    Animals

    were

    represented both singly, in

    pairs

    and 'face

    to face', and also in

    rows. Hunting scenes,

    or those represen

    tingthe attacksof predatory beasts ondeer and other hoofed

    animalsareparticularly

    c o m m o n .

    Fantasticfigures, half-beast,

    half-human, sometimes with appendages in the form of birds'

    wingsor a snake-liketail,are also c o m m o n . All these griffons,

    sirens

    and centaurs

    sometimes

    underwentByzantineprocessing

    before appearing as decorations on north Russian embroidery,

    o n

    spinningwheels,and on other

    householdarticles.

    These

    different

    phenomena, considered as a whole, are

    eloquenttestimony to the

    fact that

    at notimein h u m a n history

    were East and West separated from each other by a blank

    wall,

    but

    that

    the cultures of Eastern and

    Western

    peoples

    developed

    under

    conditions of prolonged and

    rather

    varied

    contacts.

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    Early sources

    Whereas our knowledge of the earliest contacts between the

    Slavs and Eastern peoples derives from

    folklore, linguistics,

    toponymy and archaeology, andfrom fragmentary information

    supplied by R o m a n writers (Pliny and others), wehave at

    our disposal, from the sixth century A . D . onwards,

    written

    evidence of contacts between the Slav world and the East

    which, though

    still

    verydisjointed and fragmentary, is never

    thelessimportant. This was the period w h e n the Slavs

    became

    well

    k n o w n

    inByzantium.The Byzantinegovernment

    enrolled

    detachments of Slavs in its

    service

    and used

    them

    in wars

    with Sassanid

    Iran.

    It was through the

    Greeks

    that the very

    n a m e , 'Slavs',became k n o w nin the East.

    B ut was it only through the Greeks

    that

    sixth-century Iran

    learned

    of the existence,somewhere in the far north, of a

    tall,

    fair-haired

    race, renowned for its courage andvirility?Th e

    sixthcentury

    w a s ,

    afterall, thegreatestage of Sassanid expan

    sion; its garrisons then held the impregnable Derbentcitadel

    an d the DarielPass, so preventing the

    nomads from

    invading

    Transcaucasia. It is a

    pity

    thatthe

    Iranian

    sources of the period

    havenot reached us. Butm u c h

    laterchroniclers

    of the Caspian

    regions, historians in particular, were not only

    familiar

    with

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    Earlysources

    22

    the legends handed

    d o w n

    from former times but alsowith the

    chroniclers

    of the

    pre-Muslim

    period.

    It ispreciselyin

    their

    work

    that

    we

    find

    severalrathervague references to the Slavs,

    w h o became k n o w n

    in

    Iran

    in the second

    half

    of the sixthand

    the

    first

    hirdof the seventhcenturies.

    It

    may

    be

    assumed

    that as

    early

    as the seventh and

    eighth

    centuries,

    Slavsettlements

    existed

    somewherenear the middle

    D o n , which Arab

    authors

    of the eighth and ninth

    centuries

    called

    'theriverof the Slavs'.

    F r o m

    the

    eighth

    century

    onwards

    there

    was

    increasingly

    important commerce

    between

    the

    countries

    of the

    Arab

    Cali

    phate and

    those

    of Eastern Europe and the Baltic seaboard.

    F r o mits

    very beginnings,

    a

    particularlyimportant rolein

    this

    trade

    was played by the route along the River Volga.The

    Volga itselfiscalled the 'Russian River' byArabgeographers

    of the

    tenth

    century. The boats of Eastern merchants m o v e d

    northwards alongitscourse, passing through the rich

    trading

    centres

    of

    Itil

    (near

    present-day Astrakhan) and Bulgar

    (south

    ofthe mouthof the

    K a m a ) .

    They were attracted

    there

    by the

    legendary richesof the northern lands, and

    primarily

    by

    their

    furs: silver

    fox, sable, marten, ermine, beaver and the pelts

    of other animals. Their value was well k n o w ninK h o r e z m ,

    as well as inBokhara,Rai,Baghdadand Cairo. Poets sang

    their

    praises,and kings, emirs andfamouspotentates stroveto outdo

    eachother

    with magnificentgiftsfrom the denseforestsand the

    rivers

    of the

    distant

    northlands.

    Finest

    of

    all

    were

    the

    furs

    from

    the land of the

    Volga

    Bulgars and the Russian north.

    In

    additionto

    furs,

    Eastern Europe exported wax,honey and

    slaves.Thecountriesof the Slavs

    received

    inreturnthe products

    of sophisticated Eastern artisans, and,inparticularly

    large

    quantities,

    silvercoins.Itis nomerecoincidence

    that,

    through

    out the whole vast

    area

    inwhich the Eastern and Western

    Slavsweresettled,numeroushoards of

    silver

    coins of theeighth

    to

    tenth centuries

    are

    still

    being discovered, bearing

    silent

    wit

    ness to thelively

    trading

    relations that

    existed

    with the East in

    those

    distanttimes.

    But

    Eastern merchantswere not the only activeparties

    in

    this

    trade.'Trading guests' from the Slavswerefamiliar figures

    in

    various towns

    of the Caliphate. Ibn

    Khurdadbih,

    an

    Arab

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    Early

    sources

    geographer

    of the

    ninth

    century, provides us with evidence of

    their regularvisitsto Eastern lands. He wrote: 'Concerning

    the Russian merchants, they are a kind of Slavs, and

    bring

    beaver fur, the fur of the

    silver

    fox and

    swords

    from the most

    remote

    partsof the Slav land to the R o m a n (Black)

    Sea

    and

    the Emperorof the R o m a n s (Byzantium)

    levies

    atitheon

    them

    (the

    merchants)

    ; and, if they so

    desire,

    they set off along the

    Tanais (Don), the

    river

    of the Slavs, and pass through the

    narrows of the

    capital

    of the Khazars, and the

    ruler

    of the

    Khazars

    leviesa

    tithe

    on

    them.

    Thenthey set off for the

    Dzhurd-

    zhan

    (Caspian) Sea and land on whatever shore they

    please...

    and sometimes they

    carrytheir

    goodson

    camels

    from Dzhurd-

    zhan to

    Baghdad, where

    Slav slaves

    serve

    them

    as inter

    preters.

    The lively

    traderelations

    between the countriesof the Cali

    phate and the lands of the Slavs

    strengthened

    the interest

    taken in the Slavs by

    Arab

    science. In

    workswritten

    as

    early

    as the eighth to

    tenth centuries, scholarsfind quite

    a lot of

    important

    data

    about the Slavs. Geographical and

    historical

    works

    of that period

    contain material

    concerning the

    origin

    of

    the Slavs,

    theircontacts

    withother peoples,

    their

    churches

    and

    religion,

    the lifeand customs of the different tribes, the

    firstSlavStatesetc.

    At

    the beginning of the

    tenth

    century, the

    vizier

    of thecentral

    Asian

    State

    of the Samanids

    was

    al-Dzhaykhani. This

    enlight

    ened minister combined his activitiesas a statesman with an

    interest

    in

    science;

    he

    patronizedscholars,

    and was himself a

    student of geography. In compiling his great geographical

    work, he not only m a d e

    wide

    use of the

    works

    of his predeces

    sors,

    the

    Greek

    and

    Arab

    geographers, but

    also

    in seeking to

    fillin the gaps

    which existed

    in

    theseworks,

    and, if

    possible,

    to add new and contemporary

    material,

    he gathered around

    him merchants w h o had travelled to distant lands and ques

    tioned

    them

    about the lands and peoples they had seen.These

    merchants included people w h o had

    been

    to the

    Volga,

    and

    also

    to thedistanttown

    of'Kuyab'

    (Kiev),the Russiancapital.

    The inquisitive minister-geographer heard from

    them

    about

    the

    greatriches

    ofthatcountry, about its warlike and

    doughty

    inhabitants,

    about the

    relations

    between the Russians and

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    Early sources

    24

    neighbouring peoples and, in

    particular,

    about their trade.

    Eastern merchants and travellers c a m e to the lands of the

    Slavs

    from

    the W e s t ,

    from

    M o s l e m Spain. Ibrahim ibn

    Y a k u b

    m a d e

    such a journey to the landsof the Western Slavs in the

    sixtiesof the

    tenth

    century,and hasleftus an extremelyinte

    restingaccount. A m o n g the SlavStates,he

    described

    Bohemia,

    Poland, the

    principality

    of the

    Obodriti

    and Bulgaria. He did

    notvisitthe

    latter

    country but saw ambassadorsfrom Bulgaria

    during an audience given by the G e r m a n Emperor Otto I.

    These

    ambassadors 'wore narrow cloaks fastened with long

    belts

    which

    had gold and

    silver

    buttons'.

    Ibrahim ibn

    Y a k u b

    wrote of the Bulgarians that they had translated the Gospels

    intothe Slav language.

    This traveller

    goes

    into

    m u c h

    greaterdetail

    concerning the

    Western

    Slavs, w h o m he,

    more

    often than not, calls 'Slavs'.

    Speaking of the activities of the population, he noted that

    'they (the Slavs) are diligentin tillingthe soilandearning a

    livelihood

    and

    surpass

    all northern peoples in this respect .

    Himself

    an

    inhabitant

    of the

    torrid

    south,

    where

    the farmer

    often

    ran theriskoflosinghisentireharvestas aresultofdrought,

    Ibrahim ibn Y a k u b remarkedthatin the country of the Slavs

    nosuch a danger

    existed.

    T h e

    Slavs were,

    from

    ancient times,

    k n o w n

    in the East as

    a northernpeople. Eastern scholarsof the timeeven explained

    such superficial characteristics of the Slavs as

    their

    fair hair

    and their fresh complexion by the peculiarities of the cold

    northern climate.

    Nor did Ibrahim ibn

    Y a k u b

    failto mention

    this,

    although he was, of course, clearly exaggerating w h e n

    he wrotethat the Slavs, accustomed to the cold climate, were

    afraid to

    travel even

    to

    Lombardy

    or to Italy, because the

    greatheat would, as they alleged,havefatalconsequences for

    them. At the same time, he noted, evidentlywith s o m e sur

    prise, that the inhabitants of

    Bohemia

    were

    generally

    dark-

    haired.

    N o r

    did he omit to mention the

    towns

    of the Slavs, paying

    particular attention to a

    description

    of Prague. This town,

    which

    was celebrated for making

    saddles

    and

    shields,

    was

    visited by Russian, Polish,

    Pomeranian,

    Varangian, Jewish

    and

    M o s l e m merchants.

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    25

    Early

    sources

    B y the end of the

    tenth century,

    paganism in Russia was

    in

    decline.

    W h e n the Russian prince, Vladimir Svyatoslavich

    ('the

    Saint'),

    head ofo ne of thelargestEuropeanStates,decided

    to 'abandon the old gods',in the wordsof the Russian Primary

    Chronicle, he organized an unusual competition between

    representatives of the three

    biggest monotheistic

    religions

    Christianity, Islam and Judaismthe so-called

    testing

    of

    faiths .

    At the

    prince s request,

    representatives of each reli

    gion told him about the significance and special

    features

    of

    their faith. The

    chronicler relates that

    Vladimir was at

    first

    attracted

    to the

    M o s l e m

    religion,

    but

    some

    of its

    dogmas,

    such

    as the ban on

    wine

    and pork,

    were

    not to his

    taste.Finally,

    Russia acceptedChristianity

    from

    Byzantium.

    This was not, of course, because Vladimirstubbornly refused

    toabstain

    from

    wineand pork, but becausepoliticalconditions

    in the tenth

    century,

    the presence of

    Christian

    neighbours to

    the south and west, and, bythattime, ofquitestrongChristian

    elements in Russia,

    obliged

    the

    prince

    to declare for Christ

    rather than M o h a m m e d . But it is curious that this

    testing

    of

    faiths ,

    although it is

    basically

    cloaked in legend, found expres

    sionin theliteratureof the East. In thefirsthalfof thethirteenth

    century,

    M o h a m m e d Awfi, a

    Persian

    poet from

    Central

    Asia

    living in India, compiled a unique anthology, Jawami ul-

    Hikayatin which herecounts,

    inter

    alia, h ow the prince of the

    Russians, Buldmir (Vladimir), sent ambassadors to Khorezm,

    as he wished to adopt Islam.

    T h e contacts between the Eastern Slavs and the peoples

    of the Northern Caucasus and Transcaucasia

    wereparticularly

    close. Georgia

    became

    a strong and united kingdom in the

    twelfth century. Georgia was k n o w n in Russia as the

    land

    of

    the Abkhazians (Abkhazia). T h e Russian Chronicle has pre

    served for us considerable information about the diplomatic

    and

    dynastic

    relationsof Russian

    princes

    with the rulinghouse

    of Georgia.Thus,in 1 152 , Prince Mstislavmarried the daughter

    of

    the king of the Abkhazians (his wife was the aunt of the

    famous Georgian

    queen,

    Tamara, w h o herself took a Russian

    princeling

    as herfirsthusband).

    There is also evidence ofcultural contacts between Russia

    and Transcaucasia. Georgian craftsmen are

    believed

    to have

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    Earlysources

    26

    participatedin theconstructionof thecelebratedchurches of the

    capital

    city

    of

    Vladimir

    on the

    Klyazma.

    Eastern, Western and Southern Slavs derived their k n o w

    ledge

    of

    the East both

    from contemporaryword-of-mouthreports

    and from historical literature, principally Greek. Russian,

    Polish and

    Czech

    annals and

    chronicles

    (for

    example,

    the

    Polishchronicleof Gallus A n o n y m u s , and the Czech chronicle

    of Cosmas

    ofPrague,

    compiled

    in the eleventh to

    twelfth

    cen

    turies,

    contained a

    certain amount

    of information about the

    civilizations

    of the ancient EastEgypt, Assyria, Media and

    Iran.

    The compiler of the

    twelfth-century

    Russian Primary

    Chronicle was obviously

    familiar

    with the geography and

    historyof Eastern

    countries.Thus,

    he speaks of the

    traderoute

    alongtheVolgato the'Khvalynskoe' (Caspian) Sea andfurther

    to 'Khvalisi' (Khorezm). T he

    work

    of the

    fifteenth-century

    Polish

    chronicler,

    Jan Dlugosz, contains numerous references

    to the ancientand mediaeval peoples of the East.

    The

    last

    of the

    great

    Arab

    travellers

    of the

    Middle

    Ages

    k n o w n

    to us to

    havevisited

    the Slavs was the Andalusian

    A b u

    H a m i d

    of

    Granada,

    w h o spent fifty-six of the ninetyyears of

    his

    life

    in long journeys through

    different countries

    in

    Asia

    and

    Europe.

    Helivedfor a long time in Saksin, a townof the

    eleventh to

    thirteenthcenturies,

    situated at the mouth of the

    Volga, on the siteof the ancientItil and he had a house in

    Hungary.

    Abu

    H a m i d

    also

    visited

    Bulgar on the Volga, and

    on

    his

    return

    journey

    from there

    (in the

    third

    decade

    of the

    twelfth

    century) he travelled through

    part

    of the

    territory

    of

    the Eastern Slavs,

    leaving

    behind him a

    sort

    of

    diary

    of his

    journey. A n outstanding

    characteristic

    of this man was his

    love for all

    forms

    of the odd or unusual.

    Thus,

    the

    section

    of

    his notes about the country of the Slavs (the Russians) begins

    with a

    description

    offorms ofexchange

    which

    had impressed

    him. In the

    part

    of Russia which this traveller

    visited,

    the

    means

    of exchange was not metal coins,

    which

    the

    Arab

    merchant wasaccustomed to in other countries,butsquirrel-

    skins.

    A b u H a m i d also

    recorded

    other

    impressions. He

    spoke

    of

    the 'bravery' of the Slavs, and said that their country

    was vast, rich

    in

    honey,

    wheat,

    barley

    and

    large

    apples of

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    27

    Early sources

    unsurpassed

    quality, which were

    abundant

    there andinexpen

    sive .

    In

    one

    Slav

    town

    inRussia,

    whose exact

    location ishard

    to determine, he had an

    interesting

    meeting with a native of

    Baghdad, A b d al-Karim, w h o

    lived there.

    Twenty

    yearsafter A b u Hamid's visitto Russia, the Arab

    scholar, al-Idrisi, a m e m b e r of a distinguished but declining

    family,

    w h o w a s

    attached to the court ofRoger, the

    N o r m a n

    King

    of Sicily, far

    away

    in theWest,

    completed

    a

    geographical

    work,

    Nuzhat

    al-Mushtak

    Fihtirakal-Afak (TheJourney of

    O n e w h o Loves Horizons).

    While

    working

    on

    this

    project,

    al-Idrisi,

    like

    his

    distant

    predecessor,

    al-Dzhaykhani,

    not

    only

    m a d e

    use of scholarlyworksbut also obtained the assistance

    of hispatron, Roger, in collecting a mass of oral information

    about

    different

    countries

    and

    about trade in the

    contemporary

    world. T h e

    countries of the

    Slavs

    also are

    given

    quite a lot of

    prominencein his

    work.

    Al-Idrisilisted m a n y Slavtowns,and

    mentioned

    the trade routeswhichhek n e w

    about.

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    T h e

    first

    ourneys

    to theEast

    After

    Christianity was adopted

    in

    Russia, pilgrimages

    (khoz-

    heniya) were a m o n g

    the

    firstkinds of journeys

    m a d e by

    Russians

    to

    theEast. Pilgrims' talesofConstantinople, Byzantium

    and

    Palestine

    appearinRussian

    chronicles

    from

    the twelfthcentury

    onwards.

    As

    early as the eleventh and twelfth centuries,

    the

    Russianshad

    a

    special quarter (obol)

    in

    Constantinople, where

    merchants

    w h o

    had arrived

    from Russia usedto

    live.

    Colonies

    of

    Russian

    m o n k ssprang up

    in the

    monasteries of Constantinople.

    S o m e

    ofthem transcribed

    or

    even

    translated books

    byGreek

    authorsintotheirnative

    tongue, and

    also transcribedworksby

    South Slav

    authors,

    andsentthem

    toM o s c o w . It

    was through

    these

    that

    Russia

    became

    aware, long

    before the

    fall

    of

    Cons

    tantinople,

    of

    the

    Turks having appeared inAsia

    Minor.

    A

    detailed

    account of

    the siege and capture

    of Constantinople

    b y theTurksin1453 wasleft

    by one of the

    Russian eye-wit

    nessesofthiseventNestor Iskander.

    After

    the

    Turks

    captured Kaffa in the

    Crimea,

    in

    1475,

    the Ottoman

    State became

    a

    close

    neighbour of Muscovite

    Russia. Desirous of

    direct contacts

    with the

    Turks,

    M o s c o w

    sent

    its

    first

    ambassador to

    Istanbul

    in1497, with

    instructions

    to

    get an

    agreementpermittingRussian merchants

    to

    engage

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    29

    T h e

    firstourneysto the East

    inunhampered tradein the Turkish

    possessions.

    Subsequently,

    ambassadors were exchangedmore or less regularly between

    Ottoman

    Turkey

    and Russia. T hearticlesproduced by

    Tur

    kish

    craftsmen in the sixteenth to

    eighteenth

    centuries

    weapons, armour, plates

    and

    dishes

    in chased metal, harness

    decorations, preciousfabrics and enamelswhich are conser

    v ed

    in the 'Oruzhejnaya

    Palata Armoury

    of the

    M o s c o w

    Kremlin, were all at one time or anotherbrought intoRussia

    asgiftsfrom the Turkish Sultansto the Russian Tsars.

    Sixteenth-century

    Russia

    learned

    about

    Turkey

    and thelife

    ofthe Turks through the worksof Ivan Peresvetov and M a x i m

    the Greek,

    which

    are

    written

    in a lively

    manner,

    and

    were

    extremely popular at that time. In the

    seventeenth century,

    a verywell-known work in Russia and in Europewas a book,

    The Court

    of

    the Turkish Czar,by the Polishwriter,Starovolsky,

    writtenafterhislengthystayinTurkey;soonafterpublication,

    it wastranslated intoRussian andother

    European

    languages.

    In the eighteenth century, Vassilyi Grigorovich-Barsky tra

    velled

    in

    Turkey

    and the countriesof the

    Near

    East, as did

    Konstantin

    Bazili,

    MikhailVronchenko and

    Piotr

    Chikhachev

    in the

    nineteenth

    century.

    From the

    fifteenth

    century onwards, there is evidence con

    cerning

    the exchange of ambassadors

    between

    Muscovite

    Russia and Iran. For example, the

    Iranian

    historian,Abd

    ar-Razzak, refers to the arrival of Russian ambassadors in

    Herat in 1464. A n

    embassy

    from

    Sultan

    Hussein of Herat

    arrived in M o s c o w in 1490 with an offer of friendship and

    affection .

    Exchanges of embassies became more

    frequent

    in the

    six

    teenth

    century,

    w h e n the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates

    were united with Russia and Iran became her immediate

    neighbour.

    From

    the

    seventeenth century

    wehave the travel notesof

    the Russian merchant,

    Kotov,

    concerning

    Iran

    and the

    lands

    situated on the

    route

    to

    that

    country.

    Kotov

    supplied very

    interestinggeographical,ethnographicalandeconomicmaterial

    about the

    lands

    and peoples he had seen.

    From ancient times India engrossed the imagination of the

    Slavs. The fantasy-embroidered

    story

    of Alexander the Great's

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    Thefirst

    ourneys

    to the East

    3

    journey to the East, to India, wasfamiliar to Russians and

    Western Slavs, under thetitleof Aleksandrija.

    M o r e reliable

    information about

    this

    country was provided by the transla

    tions

    of the Christian Topographyof C o s m a s of Indikopol.

    Mostof the informationabout

    this

    'land ofwonders', however,

    reached the Slavs indirectly, mainly through Central Asia,

    Transcaucasia and

    Iran.

    The

    first

    Russian to see India with

    his o w n eyes wasAphanasiNikitin,a merchant of

    Tver,

    wh o

    w a s

    there

    in 1466-72. He

    described

    his journey in a

    book

    en

    titled Travels Beyond Three Seas.In

    contrast

    with m a n y Euro

    pean travellers,Nikitin managed to mingle with the Indians

    and

    gain a good knowledge of the country and its customs.

    In the seventeenth century, Russia tried to establish regular

    commercial and

    diplomatic relations

    with

    India,

    but of

    three embassies sent out, only the last one reached Kabul,

    in 1676.

    Shortly

    after

    the creationof the Afghan State

    (1747),

    Bog-

    dan

    Aslanov was

    sent there

    by Russia as an ambassador to

    establish

    diplomatic relations and also to ascertain the

    possi

    bilities

    oftradewith

    India

    through Astrabad.

    Aslanov's

    journey

    began

    in January 1764,andlastedmore than a year. Aslanov's

    notes

    were

    thefirstalmost

    entirely

    reliable information in

    Russia about Afghanistan. F r o m the thirddecade of the nine

    teenth

    century onwards, Russian scholars

    were

    the first in

    Europe to

    m a k e

    a thorough study of the historyof the

    Afghan

    people and of its language, Pushtu. In

    1858-59

    a

    scientific

    expedition led by Nicolai Khanykov investigated a number

    of

    architectural

    monuments in Afghanistan. In 1878, the

    first

    Russian

    mission

    visited

    thecapitalof Afghanistan, Kabul.

    The Russians were the

    first

    of the Slav peoples to establish

    permanent relationsalsowith the peoples ofCentralAsia and

    Siberia. In the seventeenth century, Ivan Fedotov and the

    Pazukhin brothers

    collected

    information about Bokhara and

    Khiva

    and by the beginning of the

    eighteenth

    century,

    a

    m a p

    of

    Central Asia had

    been

    compiled in Russia, and Russians

    were already quite familiar with

    those

    regions. There is, in

    Paris,

    a m a p of

    Central

    Asia and the Caspian Sea,

    corrected

    by

    Peter I in his ownhand w h e n he wasshown an extremely

    inaccurate

    m a p prepared in Europe.

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    3

    The

    first

    ourneys to the East

    The Yermak

    expedition, which

    inaugurated the conquest

    of

    Siberia,

    was organized in 1581,from the lands owned by

    the Stroganov merchants

    beyond

    the Urals. The Cossacks and

    the 'pioneers' opened up ne wterritories and built towns:

    Tobolsk, T o m s k , Yeniseisk and Yakutsk. As

    early

    as 1640,

    the Russians had

    theirfirstm a p

    of

    Siberia.

    At the end of the

    seventeenth century, parties led by

    Poyarkov

    and

    Khabarov

    reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean. A Russian

    Cossack,

    Dezhnev,discovered the

    strait

    whichseparatesAsiafromNorth

    America. In thefirsthalfof the eighteenthcentury,two

    expe

    ditions

    were

    led to

    Kamchatka

    by Vitus Bering. Russians

    also

    penetrated

    into

    Alaska (which belonged to Russia

    until

    1867,

    w h e n it was

    sold

    to the UnitedStates).

    In the seventeenth century, detachments of

    Cossacks,

    in

    their conquest of Siberia, came into

    contact

    with n o m a d

    Mongols. In a

    desire

    toestablishgood relationswith the M o n

    gols

    and,

    acrosstheirterritory,

    withChina,the Russian govern

    ment exchanged

    ambassadors with theMongolianruler,Altan-

    K h a n .

    It was only in theseventeenth centurythatregular contacts

    betweenRussia andChina were established, w h e n the Cossack

    Ivan

    Petlin

    accomplished a journey of incomparable

    daring

    to Peking. A n

    official embassy, headed

    by

    Feodor

    Baikov,was

    later

    sent to China with a retinue of one hundred. Feodor

    Baikov's

    credentialsproclaimed 'and W e , the Great Sovereign,

    seekfirmfriendshipand

    affection

    with Y o u , the Chinese E m p e

    ror . . . '. This

    embassy

    did not, however,gain audience with

    the Chinese

    Emperor.

    In 1675, Nikolaj Spafary arrived in

    Pekingat the

    head

    of alargeRussianembassy.

    H e

    wasreceived

    in audience by the Chinese Emperor, and credentials were

    exchanged. The Russian people learned m u c h about China

    from thisambassador.

    The Treaty of Nerchinsk in

    1689opened

    upwideprospects

    for

    Russo-Chineserelations.

    Other

    Slav peoples also

    became

    acquainted with China in

    the seventeenth century.

    Polish

    missionaries, for example,

    were a m o n g those whocarried Catholicism from Western

    Europe

    to

    China.

    O n e of

    them,

    Mikhail

    B o i m ,

    rendered

    great

    services to the authorities of the Ming

    Dynasty

    in the mid-

    seventeenth century during

    their

    struggle with the Manchus

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    T h efirst

    ourneysto the East

    32

    in theKwang-siprovince, and his

    n a m e

    has passed

    into

    Chinese

    history.

    Emerging

    on the shores of thePacificOcean andestablishing

    themselves there, the Russians

    became

    acquainted also with

    the Japanese. In a Cosmographywhich appeared in Russia

    in 1670, it is stated that: 'Japanese people are very clever.

    Japanese fishermen, shipwrecked on the shores of Kamchatka

    in 1695 and 1719, captured the

    interest

    of the Russians with

    tales

    oftheir o w n country.

    In 1803Japanesevesselswereagain shipwrecked on Russian

    shores. The Russians helped the Japanese sailors, and sent

    a n

    embassy,headedbyNicolai

    Rezanov,

    backwiththem

    w h e n

    theyreturnedto

    theirhomeland.

    Later,the Japanese published

    a diary which

    they had kept during

    their stay

    in Russia. It

    contained detaileddescriptionsof thenaturalresourcesof Sibe

    ria and the customs of its inhabitants. A m o n g its

    illustrations

    is aninterestingIndian inkportraitof

    Rezanov,

    with explana

    torydetailsof hiscostume.

    Despite the mutual

    interestbetween

    Russians and Japanese,

    regular

    commercial

    relationsbetween them were

    slow

    to deve

    lop. A nexpedition by the merchant Grigory Shelekhov, at

    the end of the eighteenth

    century,

    provedfruitless,as did even

    thelaterexpeditionsof

    Nicolai

    Kruzenshtern (1805)and

    Vassili

    Mikhailovitch Golovnine(1811-13).Trade

    between

    Japan and

    Russiabeganonly in the middle of thenineteenth

    century.

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    Trade and

    trade

    routes

    The

    trading linksbetween Slavcountries andtheEast, which

    had been

    so

    animated during

    theearly

    Middle

    Ages,

    were

    notdiscontinued subsequently. Even during thehard timesof

    Tartar-Mongol

    domination,

    theancient trade route

    along

    the

    Volga

    didnot loseits

    importance,

    andin thefourteenth cen

    tury,

    Russian

    vessels

    m o v e d

    d o w n the greatrivertothe trading

    centresofthe

    Volga

    right to themouth ofthe

    river.

    In the

    fourteenth and

    fifteenth

    centuries, Iranian,

    Central

    Asian

    and

    Armenian

    merchants

    travelled

    upstream with

    the

    traditional

    productsofEastern crafts.

    Gradually,

    as theyoung

    Russian

    State,

    having

    managedto

    throwoff the

    Tartar-Mongol

    yoke,spread overthewideplains

    of

    Eastern

    Europe, andas itspower and

    international

    prestige

    grew, n e w andevermore favourable conditionsfortradewith

    the Eastwere

    established.

    Absorbing

    successively

    within

    its

    frontiers

    the

    realms

    of

    Kazan, Astrakhan

    and Siberia,

    Russia carved

    herself

    a

    route

    towards thecountries of the

    East. Astrakhan

    became acentre

    ofEastern trade,fromwhichRussian merchantstravelledalong

    the Caspian

    Sea coast,

    through Derbent

    and

    B a k u ,

    to

    Trans

    caucasia, Iran andeven India.

    F r o m

    thesecondhalfof the

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    Trade

    and trade routes

    34

    fifteenth

    century onwards, and particularly in the sixteenth

    century,

    their

    business

    journeys took

    them more

    and

    more

    frequently

    to the

    Caucasus,

    Transcaucasia,

    Iran,

    the Turkish

    Empire and its possessions.

    Merchants

    from Poland and

    B o h e

    mia

    reached the

    countries

    of the East

    either

    through the Tur

    kish possessionsin theBalkanpeninsulaor through the Ukraine

    and the Crimea. Even in the seventeenth

    century,

    the trade

    routefrom Trebizond to the Crimea, the Danube regionsand

    eastwards to

    Iran

    was very important. The

    South

    Slavs, wh o

    were

    subjects

    of the

    Ottoman Empire,

    maintained

    constant

    trading contacts both with Turkey itselfand with the

    Arab

    peoples of the Mediterranean.

    The riches of

    India

    were particularly attractive to Slav

    merchants,

    as well as to

    traders

    from

    otherEuropeancountries.

    Trading relationsbetween Russia and

    India

    were established

    as

    early

    as the

    late

    sixteenth

    century.

    Their

    growth

    istestified

    to by the

    fact that, whereas

    a

    considerable

    proportion of the

    Indian

    goods

    which

    reached Russia up to the mid-seventeenth

    centurycamethrough Archangel,wherethey arrivedinBritish

    and Dutch ships,subsequently, it was onlyfrom the south

    that

    they all enteredRussia.

    It

    must

    be

    emphasizedthat

    it waspreciselyfromthesixteenth

    century

    onwards,

    w h e n the

    great

    age of geographical discover

    ies began, andEurope wasfascinated by news of the

    incalcu

    lable

    richesof

    India

    and China,

    that

    the Slavs proved again

    to be almost the

    principallink

    in expanding

    commercial

    and

    cultural

    relations between Western Europe and the East.

    Although

    Europe was by then already

    familiar

    with the sea

    routeto

    India

    and although the

    capture

    ofByzantium by the

    Turks

    in 1453 had not yet led to the declineof the old

    trade

    route to the East through the Balkans and Asia Minor, the

    possibility

    offindingnew

    routes

    through Polish and Russian

    lands tempted the merchant houses of Europe. Asearly as

    1520,

    Paolo Centurione, a

    Genoese,

    came

    to M o s c o w with

    orders tofindout a land

    route

    to China. A

    special

    company

    was set up in England in the mid-sixteenth

    century,

    with the

    aim ofestablishingtrade

    routes

    through Russia to China and

    India.

    In 1558,AnthonyJenkinson, an agent ofthiscompany,

    secured the

    protection

    of the Russian Tsar and

    travelled

    along

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    35

    Tradeandtraderoutes

    the

    Volga-Caspian

    route,firstoKhivaand

    Bokhara,

    andfinally

    even to

    Iran.

    In

    1 5 8 7 ,

    permission wasalsogranted to Polish

    and

    Lithuanian

    merchants

    to

    trade

    with the

    countries

    of the

    East

    acrossRussianlands and toseekroutestoChina.

    Besidessearching for a land route to China, the Europeans

    did not

    abandon

    their attempts to discover a northern sea

    route toChina.

    O n e

    of thefirstof theseprojects

    w a s

    launched

    as

    early

    as the beginning of thesixteenthcentury by the M u s

    coviteambassador

    in R o m e ,Dimitri Gerasimov. In

    1 5 5 3 ,

    the

    Englishman,

    Chancellor,

    tried

    to

    carry

    out

    thisproject

    but got

    only as far asArchangel, with the result that thefirsttrade

    contacts

    were

    established

    between

    Russia and

    England.

    Tsar

    Ivan the Terrible, w h o wasinterested in the East, is k n o w n

    to

    havepromised

    alargerewardtoanyone

    w h o

    reachedChina

    b y the northern sea route. It was only in the second half of

    the seventeenth century that these efforts were discontinued,

    w h e n

    it was

    found

    that China could not be reached by sea,

    'because

    ofgreatice,frostand fogs'.

    A

    considerable part of the Slav

    trade

    with the East

    w a s

    in

    the

    hands

    of merchants of Eastern origin. A m o n g these, a

    prominent

    rolew a s

    played by

    Armenian

    traders.

    They founded

    numerouscoloniesbothin the East (in India,

    Egypt

    and Iran)

    and

    alsoin Europe, particularly in Poland, the

    Ukraine,

    the

    Crimea and Moldavia. M a n y Armenian merchants lived in

    M o s c o w andAstrakhan.In the seventeenth century, the A r m e

    nians, w h o

    had

    established

    a

    number

    of close

    trading

    contacts,

    held

    for a time what wasvirtuallya monopoly in supplying

    Eastern

    goodsto the

    countries

    ofEuropeviaRussiaandPoland.

    BesidestheArmenians,an importantrole in seventeenth- and

    eighteenth-centurytradeviaAstrakhan

    w a s

    played

    b y

    merchants

    from India. S o m e of

    them, natives

    for the

    most part

    of the

    Punjab andSind,settledinAstrakhan,whereaspecial'Indian

    market'

    was

    built

    in 1625.

    F r o m

    here, the 'Indian guests'

    travelled

    to

    fairs

    in

    M o s c o w

    and

    Nizhny

    Novgorod,

    and in

    1723

    they

    even

    approached Peter I with a request to allow

    them totrade alsoin Petersburg,Archangel'and thence to the

    G e r m a n

    Statesand throughSiberiatoChina'.

    Merchants from Central Asia ('men of Bokhara'), played

    an

    importantpart in

    trade

    with that region.

    They

    regularly

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    Tradeand

    trade

    routes

    36

    brought

    their caravans

    across

    the

    Kazakh

    steppes and the

    lower

    Urals to the

    Volga

    region, with

    bales

    ofgoods from dif

    ferent Eastern

    countries,

    including China, to which they had

    discovered a road long before the Russian merchants. W h e n

    Siberiawasunitedwith Russia,Tobolsk became an important

    commercial centre,

    where at the

    outset

    trade

    across

    theterri

    toriesof the

    Kazakh

    nomads was

    also

    conducted mainly by

    the m e n ofBokhara'. Later, from the end of the seventeenth

    century, Russian merchants

    also

    began

    totaketheir o w n cara

    vans

    to

    China

    viaTobolsk,Kyakhtaand Nerchinsk.

    F r o m the

    sixteenth

    to the eighteenth centuries,the Crimea

    played an important role in trading

    relations

    between the

    Slavs and the East.

    Polish,

    Russian and Ukrainian merchants

    traded with the Ottoman Empire and the Caucasus through

    the

    Crimean

    Khanate and its trading

    towns

    and ports (for

    example,Kaffa, the present-day Theodosia).Goodswereexpor

    ted to the Eastfrom the

    South

    Slav

    countries.

    F r o m

    ancient

    times, the

    main

    items

    which

    the Slavs exported

    to the Eastwere leather,fur andarticles

    m a d e

    of

    these mate

    rials. The

    skilful

    Slav craftsmen carefully fashioned various

    sortsofleather, which were very highly esteemed all over the

    Near and

    Middle

    East as far asIndia.Russian and Bulgarian

    leathers,

    particularly morocco

    and

    yuft ,

    were

    k n o w n

    there

    astelatin (from the Russian

    telyatina)

    and bulgar. Furs, abov

    all

    sable,

    as well as

    ermine,

    beaver,

    silver

    fox, etc., were in

    huge

    demand.

    The Slavs

    also

    brought

    flax,

    w a x ,

    honey,

    wool

    lenfabrics,wooden

    articles,

    grain, h e m p and

    amber. According

    to written sources, linen clothes

    from

    Russia'

    were

    in great

    demand

    in the Indian

    town

    of Delhi asearlyas the fourteenth

    century. Russian leathers, furs and fabrics were sold in the

    markets ofSamarkand and Bokhara; Bulgarian leather

    goods

    and

    attarofroseswerepopularcommoditiesin the Near East;

    and

    Polish

    cloth

    in the Crimea and the

    Caucasus.

    Firearms

    were

    exported to Eastern

    countries

    in the

    sixteenth

    and seven

    teenth

    centuries, whilst

    hunting birdsfalcons and ger

    falconswere

    also

    highly prized at the courts of Eastern

    rulers.

    The

    nature

    of Slav exports to the East changed noticeably

    from

    the beginning of the eighteenthcentury, andparticularly

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    37

    Trade

    and trade routes

    in the

    nineteenth

    century. With the development of

    manufac

    tured products, industrial goods

    began

    to play a dominant

    role.

    Russian,

    Polish

    and

    Czech

    manufacturers

    furnished

    the

    markets

    of the East with cheap factory-madetextiles(mainly

    brightlycoloured cottons), metalarticles(instruments,utensils

    and weapons), dyes, glass, candles, ropes, paraffin oil, paper,

    etc. Paper wassent from Russia to the East in

    particularly

    large quantities: m a n y Iranian, Transcaucasian and Central

    Asian manuscripts of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries

    arewrittenon paper m a d e in Russia.

    The East supplied Europeand

    particularly

    the Slavcountries

    with luxury articles,precious goods and

    ornaments:

    valuable

    weapons

    (damascene blades, Turkishsabresandpistols),rich,

    fine fabrics

    (Indian

    'cashmere'

    shawls, Persian, Central Asian

    and

    Chinesesilks),and precious stones.

    H a n d - m a d e

    rugs

    occu

    pied an important place in

    this trade,

    and

    were

    particularly

    sought

    after

    in Poland. Spices and rare medicines

    were also

    imported

    from

    the countries of the East, mainly

    from India.

    Turkey,

    Iranand Central Asia

    traded

    in thoroughbred horses,

    harness, rice,coffee, fruits, nuts and tobacco,

    China

    in cheap

    cottonfabrics

    k n o w n

    as kitaika , tea, paper,

    porcelain,

    articles

    m a d e

    of metal andbone, etc.

    It is interesting thatas a

    result

    of m a n y

    centuries

    of

    trade

    relationsbetween the Slav peoples and the East,

    quite

    a few

    words

    of Eastern

    origin

    havefilteredintothe

    trade

    terminology

    of the Slavs. For

    example,

    such expressions as altyn,coin

    (Tartar),

    pai,

    share,

    chek,

    cheque (Persian),

    mogarych,

    tip

    (Arabic), barysh,profit,

    tamozhnya,

    customs (Turkish), etc.,

    were

    widely

    employed

    by the Russians. Th eabacus,

    which

    is used tothisday aspartofshoporofficeequipmentin Russia

    and Poland, was introduced by the Mongols. F r o m the

    m e r

    chants of the East the Russians also

    borrowed

    the caravan,

    indispensable as a

    means

    of trading along the difficult and

    lengthyhighwaysof Central

    Asia

    andChina.

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    T h e

    interaction of

    cultures

    Throughout history

    cultural relations

    betweenpeoples and the

    interaction of cultures

    have

    taken

    diffrent forms.

    M o s t fre

    quently, they have been the

    result

    of

    direct

    and immediate

    contact. Not

    infrequently,

    however,

    cultural

    influences have

    penetrated

    also

    from

    neighbouring peoples,undergoingin passage

    a lengthy processof stratificationo f

    elementsfrom

    a multitude of

    cultures.

    Cultural influences have by no m e a n s

    necessarily

    involveddirectborrowings

    from alien

    cultures;

    creative

    recep-

    tivenessand modification

    have

    m u c h m o r e

    oftenbeen

    customary.

    T h e influence exertedon one another by the culturesof the

    East and the Slavs can betraced

    literally

    in all spheres of the

    materialand

    spiritualexistence

    ofthesepeoples.

    Agriculture

    F r o m time immemorial the Slavs were tillers of the soil,

    sowing millet, wheat, rye and other

    cereals,

    s o m e of which

    wereintroduced to the Slav

    ploughman

    by the East.

    Through the intermediary of

    Byzantium

    and the

    Arabs,

    rice

    c a m e to Europe from the distant

    countries

    of the East;

    it wask n o w n in Russia as 'Saracen

    millet .

    Russian

    market-

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    39

    T h e interaction of cultures

    gardens also

    contain m a n y products of Eastern

    origin;

    water

    melons, melons, pumpkinsandapricots.

    Russians

    have

    always

    been

    very

    interested

    in 'overseas'

    plants. As early as the seventeenth century, Tsar Aleksei

    Mikhailovich had a special gardenlaid out in the villageof

    Izmailov, nearM o s c o w ,whereplantsbrought

    from

    the East, e.g.

    the mulberry,were grown on an experimental basis.Russian

    ambassadors

    always tried

    to

    bring

    back new types of

    plants

    from the lands of the East. Thus, A d a m

    Laksman

    brought

    seeds of

    local

    types ofriceandbarley

    back

    out

    ofJapan

    in

    1793.

    M o r e

    than

    once,

    Russian

    ambassadors

    to

    China

    were

    instructed

    to procure 'tea-bushes'.

    Rare animalslions, tigers, camels and elephantswere

    also brought back to Slav countries from the East. It is

    k n o w n

    that,asearlyas the

    tenth

    century, camelswerebrought

    intoPoland; Prince Meczko Isentone as agiftto the

    G e r m a n

    Emperor. Elephants

    which

    the

    Shah

    ofIran

    sent

    as a

    gift

    to

    Ivan

    theTerriblewerekept not farfromtheKremlinin M o s c o w .

    At

    the beginning of the

    eighteenth

    century

    several

    elephants

    were sentas agift to PeterI, and in 1741fourteen

    elephants

    arrived all at once in Petersburg. A special 'elephant house'

    was

    built

    for them, andtheirIndian keeperslivednearby.

    Crafts

    Articles

    m a d e by Slav craftsmen were highly esteemed in

    the East. It was no coincidence

    that

    experienced master

    craftsmen of Slav

    origin

    could be met with at the courtsof

    m a n y Eastern potentates. In the thirteenthcentury therewas

    a

    whole

    colony of Russian master craftsmen in

    Karakorum,

    the Mongol capital. One ofthem, a skilled goldsmith named

    K o s m a , built

    a throne for

    K h a n K u y u k ,

    and fashioned the

    great

    seal

    of

    state

    whose imprint is preserved on aletter

    from

    the K h a n to the R o m a n Pope. Slav craftsmen had a consider

    able

    influence

    on the

    development

    of craftsmanship

    a m o n g

    Eastern peoples.

    In

    their

    turn,Eastern articles

    also

    had an

    influence

    on the

    work produced by the Slavs. In the early

    Middle

    Ages, the

    great

    demand

    for Arab

    jewellery a m o n g

    the Slavs

    wasalready

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    T h e interactionofcultures

    40

    leading to

    imitations.

    Eastern designs

    were

    reproduced inearly

    Russian

    jewellery. Armourers

    also

    worked in the 'Eastern

    style :

    an

    example

    of

    this

    may be seen, for

    instance,

    in the

    Russian-made bakhterets

    (a sort of chain mail) preserved in

    the

    city

    m u s e u m at Ryazan;it is decorated withsigns

    imitative

    ofArablettering.

    The Turkshad agreatinfluenceon the

    crafts

    of the Southern

    Slavs in thefifteenthcentury. Illuminators of manuscripts,

    w h o were

    given the

    Arab-Turkish n a m e

    of

    Mudzhellid,were,

    in particular, influenced by Eastern master craftsmen and by

    Eastern

    taste.

    Ornamental

    designs on the

    pages

    and bindings

    of manuscripts

    were

    predominantly Eastern in motivation.

    Book-binders m a d e

    wide

    use of the technique of leather

    fili-

    gree' (stamped

    leather

    binding),which

    hadbeen

    borrowed from

    the East. T hesixteenth-centurySerbian gospels are

    examples

    ofthistype ofillumination.

    T o

    a certain extent the craftsmen of other Slav lands

    also

    imitatedEastern

    articles.

    Forexample,

    fabrics, girdles,

    brocades

    and rugsimitatingPersian and Turkishmodels

    were

    produced

    in the

    sixteenth

    and seventeenth

    centuries

    in Poland, the

    Ukraine

    and Byelorussia

    (particularly

    in the

    towns

    of

    Brody,

    Zamoste

    and Slutsk).

    Interest

    in Eastern

    goods

    increased

    particularly

    from

    the seventeenth century

    onwards, w h e n

    m a n y hand-made productsfabrics, weapons, rugs and orna

    mentsbeganto bebroughtintotheSlavcountriesfromthe East.

    Eastern craftsmen

    also began

    to

    arrive. Armenians living

    in

    Poland

    taught the Poles

    h o w

    to

    m a k erugs.

    In

    Poland,

    as

    w e

    have

    already

    said, there

    hadalwaysbeena

    greatdemand

    for

    rugs.

    In

    the

    sixteenth

    century so m a n y

    were

    imported by Polish mer

    chants

    that

    exported rugs

    were

    k n o w n in Iranas 'Polish rugs'.

    In Russia the influence of Eastern craftsmen was

    felt

    most

    strongly

    in the

    development

    of

    weaving.

    T h e

    finest

    Indian

    fabrics

    were

    particularlyhighly

    esteemed.

    It is aninteresting

    fact that

    Russian

    missions leaving for India

    were

    instructed

    to bring Indian

    weavers

    to Russia. A velvethouse'was estab

    lishedin the seventeenth century in M o s c o w for the production

    ofsatin,velvet, damask

    and other

    fabrics.

    T he art of

    making

    carpets

    with a

    flat

    surface in the

    Ukraine

    was

    also

    brought in

    from

    the East.

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    4i

    T h e interactionof

    cultures

    Trade with

    China

    introduced the Slavs to Chinesehandi

    crafts,and toporcelaininparticular.

    After the establishment of

    trade

    relations

    between

    Russia

    a n d

    China,

    porcelain became an important item in Russian

    imports.

    S o m e porcelainarticles

    were

    m a d e in

    Chinaspecially

    for the Russianmarket. For example, a

    collection

    of apothe

    cary's

    jars

    ofstartlingwhiteness and decorated with the royal

    e m b l e m w a smanufactured forPeterI, andporcelain

    tiles

    were

    ordered for a stove at Peterhof Palace.

    Certain Eastern handicraft articles

    were

    introduced to the

    Slav countries through the intermediary of the

    West.

    For

    example, the art ofpaper-making, invented at the beginning

    of

    our era in China,

    penetrated

    firstinto Central

    Asia. F r o m

    there

    it w astaken over by the

    Arabs

    and introduced

    into

    Spain.

    T h e manufacture of paper then

    began

    inother

    Western

    Euro

    pean

    countries also. T h efirstreference to a 'paper mill in

    Russia

    dates

    from

    1565 .

    In

    s o m e instances,

    Slav master craftsmen

    w h o

    had become

    familiar

    with

    certain

    Eastern

    goods

    but did not k n o w the

    techniques of

    their

    production, independently found out h o w

    to produce them, andsometimes

    even

    improvedon theorigi

    nals. For example, 'cashmere' shawls, which c o m m a n d e d

    exceptionally

    highpricesthroughout theworld,wereproduced

    b y a technique k n o w n only in India.At the beginning of the

    nineteenth century, Russian craftsmen succeeded in building

    a loom

    which

    m a d e it possibletoproduce shawls of a

    quality

    not surpassed by importedcashmeres.Forexample,theJourn