NO. II THE RACES OF RUSSIA HRDLICKA 9 



country (Esthonia), and as far west as the region between the Don 

 and the Volga. Since the sixth and seventh centuries, also, we have 

 historical data indicating extensive and in a large measure solid 

 Slavic population reaching from the Balkans to Pomerania, and 

 from Bohemia and the Elbe over Poland, Galicia and western Russia. 

 This population, the vital center of which seems to have been the 

 territory about and north of the Carpathians, is subdivided into 

 numerous " families," tribes, or nations, which form as yet no great 

 units. The term Slavs (probably from slavit, to praise, to glorify) 

 as applied to these people may possibly have originated from their 

 frequent usage in personal names of the terminal " slav," as in Jaro- 

 slav, glorifying the spring, Mstislav, extolling revenge, Boguslav, 

 praising God, etc., which at that time was common to the whole 

 people. Their earlier history and origin were lost in the mists of 

 uncertainty, and their western contingents were not always clearly 

 differentiated from the Germanic tribes. Also, they bore as yet 

 none of those names under which they later became distinguished. 



The political unit of Russia did not come into existence until the 

 ninth century. At that time, according to the " Ancient Chronicle " 

 of Nestor, the first Russian historian, there lived in the regions along 

 and west of the Dnieper and farther northward, the following Slav 

 tribes : On the Ilmen, the Novgorodci ; on the upper Dnieper, Dvina 

 and Volga, the Krivitchi (who may, however, have been partly of 

 Lithuanian origin); between Dvina and Pripet, the Dregovitchi ; 

 southeast of these, the Dierevliane (the woodsmen) ; from Teterev 

 to Kiev, the Poliane (those of the flatlands) ; on the Bug, the Duliebi 

 and Buzhane ; on the Dniester and Bug, the Tivertsi and Ulitchi ; in 

 Volhynia, the Voliniane ; on the Sozha, the Radimitchi ; on the Oka, 

 the Viatitchi ; and on the Desna and Seim, the Severiane (the 

 northerners). 



These tribes or local groups, however, were not yet united, and, 

 according to Nestor, their dissensions finally led an influential elder 

 to propose that they call some prince of foreign blood, of whom 

 none would be jealous, and under whom, in consequence, it might 

 be possible to merge all the subdivisions into one strong Slav state. 

 The wisdom of this advice was acknowledged and the envoys called 

 on certain princes of the Variags or Varangians, of Scandinavian 

 origin. These were three brothers, the oldest of whom was named 

 Rurik. They were offered the privilege of becoming the rulers of 

 the tribes and, accepting, the Slav territories were divided among 

 them ; and the two younger brothers dying, perhaps not by natural 



