Search Results (3)

Background/Objectives: The eastern periphery of the Slavic expansion (the Volga-Oka region) is the most promising region for reconstructing interactions between Slavic and pre-Slavic populations of the East European Plain. Unlike most pre-Slavic tribes, its autochthonous population practiced inhumation instead of cremation, leaving us with some ancient DNA for analysis. Methods: The region’s modern and ancient Y-chromosome gene pools are dominated by the haplogroup R1a: its frequency reaches 56% in Ryazan Russians (n = 302) and 44% in the Finnic peoples of Mordovia (n = 633). This encouraged us to analyze its Y-SNPs and Y-STRs. Results: Using 2 independent methods of phylogeny analysis, we identified 10 informative Y-STR clusters within R1a, dating back 1600–2900 YBP. The clusters included 48% of modern Ryazan Russians, 40% of Mordovia’s Finnic populations, and ancient DNA samples from the Ryazan-Oka culture (6–7th centuries), Suzdal (12–13th centuries) and Vladimir (13th century). Such a unique combination and pre-Slavic TMRCA indicate that the informative clusters represent pre-Slavic Y lineages. The presence of ancient samples from Vladimir and Suzdal in the clusters suggests that the autochthonous tribes contributed to shaping the urban population of the Vladimir-Suzdal Rus. Some of the informative clusters are associated with the ancient population of the Baltics (2000–4000 YBP). Conclusions: About half of Russian R1a carriers in the Volga-Oka region are descended from a pre-Slavic population, suggesting that the Slavs did not fully replace the autochthonous population but rather mostly culturally assimilated the Meshchyora documented in the Russian chronicles and other local tribes. Full article

Serving as a conceptual introduction to the ARTS special issue, the article discusses the importance of archaic imagery and poetics of a major avant-garde actor who often symbolizes the main axis of Slavic radical modernism in its Avant-garde phase. Kazimir Malevich has widely explored religious archaic imagery in his oeuvre, engaging in a dialog with a historical tradition of representation. The article discusses Malevich’s iconic legacy, zooming in on the philosophy of Malevich’s suprematist imagery of peasants, Orthodox icons, and the ways of visualizing of an inner Hesychast prayer. In this context, the paper also analyzes Russian philosophy of language, imiaslavie and Hesychasm as it stemmed out from the creative perception of Byzantine philosophical lore developed by Gregory Palamas and several other thinkers. Full article

The populations of the Arctic Ocean coast in Eastern Siberia (Russia) are represented by a multicultural conglomerate of peoples of different origins: Paleo-Asiatic (Chukchi), Uralic (Yukaghirs), Tungusic (Evenks, Evens), Turkic (Yakuts, Dolgans), and Slavic (Russian explorers), who inhabited this territory during various historical periods. However, among the modern Arctic populations there are still “white spots”, such as people of the small village of “Russkoe Ust’ye”, who still have not been thoroughly studied. The main population consists of so called Russian old-settlers—the Russkoustinians. They traditionally distinguish their lineages into three groups identified by their time of settlement. First are the “Pomors”—who according to their legends are considered as the descendants of the first European colonists of the Age of Discovery, who settled the eastern shores of the Arctic Ocean in the 16th century before the inclusion of this territory in the Russian Empire in the early 17th century. Second are the “Cossacks”—who reached the Arctic during explorations of Siberia. The last are the “Zashiversk”—who arrived after the abolition of their hometown. In order to test these hypotheses, we analyzed modern family name diversity based on information on 62 individuals from 36 questionnaires. The analysis revealed that the “Pomors” lineages were presented in five families (43.5%), the “Cossacks” in one family (6.5%), and the “Zashiversk” in 37.1% of families. This fact indicates a probability that this village was founded by Russian Pomors who arrived there by the Northern Sea Routes before the official East Siberian colonization period. Full article