Summary
Valentin Vasiljevič Sedov: Slavs in the Early Middle Ages
The early Middle Ages represents a turning point in the history of the Slavs. At the dawn of the Middle Ages, Europe was divided into two completely different worlds. The ancient, at that time already Christian world with a highly developed culture, advanced craftsmanship and well-organized cities, inhabited primarily by Greeks and Romans, and the other, the larger one, which was made up of barbarians with their pagan customs and views on the world that knew neither city life nor statehood. The differences between these two worlds were enormous.
The early Middle Ages radically changed this situation. The great migration of peoples or the great migration of the Slavs from the beginning of this period erased the borders and demolished the wall between the ancient and barbarian world. As a result, the "barbarians" were given the opportunity to learn about the achievements of the Roman-Byzantine civilization and to lay the foundations for a new European culture. New forces are entering the historical scene. In the early Middle Ages, a new ethnic map of Europe was created. Ethnolinguistic communities began to form, which lasted throughout the developed and late Middle Ages, and which still exist today.
Along with the formation of separate peoples in most of Europe, states were also formed. It was also the time of the appearance and development of the first early medieval cities, which, as a strong impulse for strengthening statehood, the growth of the economy, the development of culture, architecture, art and spiritual life, had a multiple impact on the further course of European history.
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